The New York Knicks cooled down a hot Milwaukee Bucks team on Friday night. Below are my key takeaways from the game.
The New York Knicks cruised past the Milwaukee Bucks in a 127-98 win on Friday night to close out the month of February. Below are my takeaways.
Everybody Eats
For the Knicks, it was a group effort to score as many points as they did in Friday’s win. Jalen Brunson led the way with 27, OG Anunoby added 24, Karl-Anthony Towns added 17 and Landry Shamet had 15 off the bench. The Knicks also had three other double figure scorers in Josh Hart (12 points), Mikal Bridges (10 points) and Mohamed Diawara (10 points).
Such a complete effort stopped a Bucks team that had otherwise surged through the month of February with an 8-3 record heading into Friday’s game. Five of those wins came at home, and Milwaukee hosted New York and got embarrassed in front of its fans.
Winning the Metrics
Most blowout wins occur when a team dominates multiple facets of a game, and Friday was no exception for New York. Brunson and Co. dismantled the Bucks in paint points (32-18), second chance points (11-0) and fast break points (23-5).
New York also forced Milwaukee into 16 turnovers while only committing six. The Knicks also had more rebounds (44-34), assists (33-24), a better field goal percentage (52.3%-42.9%), a better 3-point percentage (50%-38.1%) and a better free throw percentage (87.5%-72.7%). By the end of the night, there was not a single area in the team comparison in which the Bucks performed better than their visitors.
Limiting Their Backcourt
When the Knicks arrived at the Fiserv Forum, Bucks guards Kevin Porter Jr. and Ryan Rollins had been playing very high-level basketball. Over his last 10 games heading into Friday, Porter had been averaging 21.9 points, 7.9 assists, 5.4 rebounds, and 2.7 steals while shooting 53.5% from the field. Over his own 10-game stretch, Rollins was averaging 21.4 points, 5.3 assists, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.1 steals while hitting 49.1% of his 3-point attempts.
The Knicks made sure to extinguish their flame.
Both Porter and Rollins combined for just 24 points, 14 assists and eight turnovers thanks to New York’s staunch defense. Porter finished with a minus-16 rating, while Rollins was a whopping minus-30. With Giannis Antetokounmpo still absent due to a calf strain, the Knicks removed two of the Bucks’ remaining threats, which diminished Milwaukee’s offense even further.
A Good Bounce Back Win
After a tough loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first game of Peacock’s Coast 2 Coast coverage on Tuesday, the Knicks had a couple of days to lick their wounds and return to form, and they did just that.
It was a good reset for New York, which has another big nationally televised test coming up next, as they will kick off the month of March by hosting the San Antonio Spurs, the NBA’s third-winningest team this season, on ABC at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.