Where the franchise is not a harbinger, the Knicks began the second half of the season in Milwaukee in disastrous form.
After all the hope of the first half of their season, the Knicks looked unrecognizable when they fell 35 points behind Fiserv Forum in the fourth quarter.
The Bucks, blown away by the Knicks in an early-season game, took good revenge with a 134-101 shooter behind All-Star MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo’s triple double (24 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists in 29 minutes). The 134 points were the most allowed by the Knicks this season.
“It’s clear he’s disappointed with the result,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “We were all out of action. I don’t think anyone played particularly well. ‘
As Julius Randle goes, so do the Knicks. And he did not go well. Randle then admitted that he has a history of slow start after the All Star outage.
Randle, who watched live ‘the Greek Freak’ go 16-for-16 in Sunday’s All-Star game, had a poor outing after the break. Bustled by the Bucks defense, Randle finished with seven points, shooting 3 of 12 and making five turnovers. He did place six assistants, but the league leader within minutes seemed sluggish.
“I’m fine,” Randle said of his physical condition. “They collapsed. I tried to spray the ball around and make reading. I missed some shots, layups, things I make forever, but I’m not too worried, man. From what I remember, the last few years, the first game out of the break, I do not know why, I’m always sh – y. I will be back right away. ‘
Thibodeau felt Randle had not read the right reading – something he had been doing at All-Star level all season.
“I think it reads the game,” Thiboeau said. ‘The game is going to tell you which shots to take. You can not determine in advance what you are going to do. You need to understand when you are the first option and connect someone and send a second defender, as a primary scorer you are responsible for playing the right game. ‘
Late in the third quarter, Antetokounmpo swept Randle’s dribble into the front yard and jumped after a stroke and a 20-point lead. It was the kind of throwback night for 2019-20 for Randle, who looked like he needed another week off.
Randle does not think the Antetokounmpo match is too much of a burden, but the fact that Derrick Rose (COVID-19 editions) was not for a third consecutive match may have taken its toll.
“I just did not play offensively well and they hit shots,” Randle said. “I’m not going to make excuses for that. It is what it is. I’m not really trying to balance it. ”
The Knicks fell 19-19 to .500. They entered the break with a winning record after an 8-3 turn, but seven of those wins came against clubs well below 0.500.
The Knicks begin the second half of the season with four road games – and continue Saturday in Oklahoma City, which beat the Knicks in January in the yard. Then the Knicks play against the two best teams in the East and visit Brooklyn and Philadelphia.
Their defense will have to be much more vigilant. The Knicks halted Antetokounmpo early on by building a wall in the paint and holding him to just two points in the first quarter. But the Bucks came out on the quick breakdown of Knicks to open things up.
“Every time you connect to one specific area, you will be vulnerable in other areas,” Thibodeau said. “But we must not give up everything, and that is what we have finally done. So we did not make the transition. We did not take care of the paint. We did not take care of the coverage of the line, and then we did not close our defense well. They got just about everything they wanted. ‘
The Bucks led 68-51 at halftime as they lifted their power halfway through the second quarter while the Knicks became sloppy.
The crash started with some bad plays by rookie Obi Toppin. The Knicks’ lottery pick in 2020 enabled Antetokounmpo to make a score within him. On the other hand, Toppin throws a short pass to the right to Milwaukee’s Donte DiVincenzo, who drives a quick dunk and increases the momentum.
Randle, 1 of 8 in the first half for three points, then lost the handle on a runner, leading to another quick break for DiVincenzo.
It was the first of 35 games in 67 days as the Knicks tried to duplicate their successful first half of the season. Of these matches, 23 are against clubs with winning records. The Bucks (23-14) were just the first.
“We need to get back to you right away,” Randle said. ‘OKC next. We will not worry about this. ‘