Outscored by 48 from 3 —- not sure I’ve ever seen that disparity before —- OUCH
What a gem of a game by Randle. His first half was the best one of his career. Perfect from the field and great 'defense' against Giannis by drawing fouls and forcing him to the bench. The Bucks have averaged 137 points a game over their recent win streak so kudos to Jon Horst for seeing a hamburger of defense and turning into a steak of offense. I thought the Knicks game plan was also really solid. Attack the paint, take high percentage shots, and count on Milwaukee going cold from 3 point land. Unfortunately, the last part didn't play out but the Knicks at least should get some confidence from otherworldly offensive output.
It's becoming difficult to justify Grimes's continued place in the starting lineup. I didn't see him having any impact on the game and it seemed like it allowed Dame to coast through a lot of defensive possessions by just hiding with Grimes in the corner.
I thought the game really turned early in the 4th when IQ missed an open 3 and two floaters he usually bags. He said last season with a shorter rotation he was able to get into more of a groove. Something has to change because if Brunson continues to play 35 minutes, 63 minutes isn't enough for Grimes DDV and IQ to split.
Tough loss for New York. It seemed much closer than the final score indicated. Knicks got killed by Milwaukee's non Lillard guards going 13-19 from 3. Live by the 3, die by the 3 cuts both ways.
Knicks are just getting bad 3point defense out of the way for the rest of the season, right? All in one game.
martin wrote:
Sounding like a broken record but this shows we need a dog at SG.
You look at Beasley, who by no means is a superstar, you have a guy who puts pressure on D and does not allow teams to just focus on Lillard and Freak.
The pressure Grimes is feeling is a test of his ability to play in NY.
We need guys whose knees won't shake with pressure.
Devo and IQ at least welcome the opportunity. IMHO
Great game by Randle. Let's trade him for a second rounder.
JB was off. These are the games where he has to do something else besides scoring. Could have added several more assists last night. The elite players find a way to help when shot is not falling.
MR was clueless. IHart looked like the starter last night.
RJ was aggressive but also had his blinders back in second half.
With that said, we looked like an elite team in the first half. Sure , we could have defended the three better but with Middleton, Lillard and The Freak all on the floor, defenses will correctly focuse on them. We went punch to punch with a team that has two potential MVPs, one of the most underrated superstars in Middleton, and a Center that gets no attention but is one of the best in the NBA. Think Beasley also was a great addition. Many teams will have trouble staying close to the Bucks let alone win if all these guys have it going like they did last night.
Let's take some confidence from first half and keep improving. Does show what elite teams look like. And as everyone already knew, it looks like a team with at least 4 elite players.
Is this the type of game Randle should focus on? Without the TO's?
This game felt like shades of the Bubble season to me for Randle
How on earth did Milwaukee add Lillard to the Greek freak? That's a duo for the ages. Think Kobe/Shaq or Stockton/Malone
martin wrote:Jesus
You know Thibs loves this. And it'll be a good thing too. Guys need a good beat down and learn.
martin wrote:Is this the type of game Randle should focus on? Without the TO's?This game felt like shades of the Bubble season to me for Randle
I dont think so bc I don’t think it something he can do on the regular. This is where I disagree with people that insist it all mental for Randle. He was great last night. The team wasted a great Randle game. He also scored on a ton of mid range fades going right. If Randle could do that every night he would be TOTALLY unstoppable every night. I think when he gets forced into mid range pull up and fades going right they don’t always go down like they did last night. To Randle’s credit he’s gotten better at doing things like drawing fouls going right and passing (or just deferring) when they don’t on in. I still think he gets himself in trouble
Sometimes
when they aren’t falling and he continues to go to that well
martin wrote:martin wrote:Jesus
You know Thibs loves this. And it'll be a good thing too. Guys need a good beat down and learn.
You can’t hide from teams like this if we are going to be a deep playoff team. We need to learn how to beat Milwaukee and Boston. I like this for us
Disappointing outcome but maybe it's a good thing we didn't win this thing because we'd be the ONLY team made fun of if we won it.
Give the Bucks credit. They shot the lights out. Part of if was poor late defense but a lot of them were over good enough defense imo. Bucks would go 82-0 if they shot 23/38 from three.
Randle was unbelievable and those early season struggled are a thing of the past. He's been an animal the last few games. Great sign he played like that against a player like the Greek Freak in an important game considering his playoff struggles. Good signs from RJ too. Seemed to be a better groove. Grimes is still a huge concern. Part of it falls on Thibs and Brunson for not getting him the ball but Grimes himself needs to look for his shot. He has shot just 3 FT's the entire season! Take it to the hoop! You have that ability!
Not sure what to think of that game. If we play that way offensively, we win against most teams. We did great going to the basket and getting fouled, but because we weren't keeping up on the 3s and they never cooled off, they wore us out.
But never in my lifetime have we had that many points scored on us in regulation. Milwaukee's was shooting 65% from the field and 3 all game till they put in Rolo to throw up some bricks. We did not give the right effort defensively, but how much of it was that vs. the hottest shooting I've ever seen? Tough to tell.
But no team in the NBA was gonna beat Milwaukee shooting that hot. That was some unreal offense.
martin wrote:Rookie wrote:martin wrote:martin wrote:Jesus
You know Thibs loves this. And it'll be a good thing too. Guys need a good beat down and learn.
You can’t hide from teams like this if we are going to be a deep playoff team. We need to learn how to beat Milwaukee and Boston. I like this for us
Same
I like it in theory but what if the Knicks fall out of the top 6 by one game? What happens if they lose the play-in game?
In theory I like steel sharpening steel but it seems unfair to play the top two Eastern teams an extra game apiece. I don't want to worry about this in the future, so I personally think the NBA has to do something like giving the team that plays better competition more a tie-breaker advantage or something like that
Its a little bit of an unfair situation for doing well to qualify to be in the tournament. But if we didn't qualify we'd also have one less win right now as well - so what can you really do here.
I don't think they can solve for the opponents, but the fact that we end up with one more road game than home game is the thing that shouldn't occur. Why not make all of these knockout rounds a neutral site game? Last night's game should have been in Las Vegas.
SupremeCommander wrote:martin wrote:Rookie wrote:martin wrote:martin wrote:Jesus
You know Thibs loves this. And it'll be a good thing too. Guys need a good beat down and learn.
You can’t hide from teams like this if we are going to be a deep playoff team. We need to learn how to beat Milwaukee and Boston. I like this for us
Same
I like it in theory but what if the Knicks fall out of the top 6 by one game? What happens if they lose the play-in game?
In theory I like steel sharpening steel but it seems unfair to play the top two Eastern teams an extra game apiece. I don't want to worry about this in the future, so I personally think the NBA has to do something like giving the team that plays better competition more a tie-breaker advantage or something like that
At least our draft pick will be a little better.
Maybe we get another opportunity and pick Haliburton over Obi this time. Or Bridges over Knox.
martin wrote:Is this the type of game Randle should focus on? Without the TO's?This game felt like shades of the Bubble season to me for Randle
Had a great first half. Quick decisions and let the game come to him while staying aggressive.
4th quarter they went back to ISO with him. Not as good a look.
If he continues to play close to how he played the first half and Thibs stays away from ISO, he will be back to All Start form.
ToddTT wrote:Outplayed, out-coached, out-mathed.
When you let a team hit 23 3-pointers and you cannot defend the 3, you are going to lose. Plain and simple! Stop The Help Defense and play your man, giving up too many open 3s.
