The lead by no means felt protected.
The Knicks constructed a 17-point lead that got here crashing down of their 111-107 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday. They had received 4 in a row and 11 of their final 16 earlier than the Bucks stopped at Madison Square Garden.
The comeback was inevitable — as a result of whereas the Knicks have been in a position to make use of their measurement to maintain Giannis Antetokounmpo from operating rampant, they steadily surrendered open nook three makes an attempt from succesful Milwaukee shooters.
In the primary half, and thru a lot of the third quarter, these open pictures didn’t fall. But when it was successful time, the Bucks couldn’t miss.
“Tonight, their game plan was kind of being there on the nail trying to help [on Giannis], and it’s an easy pass and easy shot, sometimes it’s almost too open, but we have to keep shooting them,” mentioned Bucks shooter Joe Ingles, who got here off the bench for a game-high 5 threes on the night time. “In the long run we’re gonna make a lot of those shots, when you have Giannis attacking the way he does and he makes the right read a lot of the time, we’ve gotta keep shooting them — and more than not, I think we’re gonna make a lot of them.”
Antetokounmpo completed with 22 factors and 10 rebounds however shot simply 6-of-15 from the sector. The mixed size and physicality of Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson posed points for the Bucks star, who shot 9-of-12 from the road and would have completed with greater than 5 assists if his teammates hit pictures within the first half.
Instead, they waited till the second half to catch hearth, pouncing as soon as the Knicks dropped their guard. Jrue Holiday, Pat Connaughton and Brook Lopez every hit three treys, and Grayson Allen hit two.
Most of them have been wide-open uncontested appears to be like.
“Some of it was some game plan stuff that we have to square away, and we’ll take a look at the ones where we did what we were supposed to do,” Tom Thibodeau mentioned postgame. “But there were a few that were created because over-help that shouldn’t have happened.”
The Bucks shot 19-of-49 from downtown on largely open appears to be like that have been created as a byproduct of the Knicks protection. The recreation plan was very clearly to remove the paint and dwell with the Bucks hitting three-point pictures.
And it backfired, as a result of the Knicks continued to surrender nook threes all recreation. It didn’t assist issues a lot that Randle couldn’t purchase a bucket.
Randle scored 25 factors however took 29 subject targets and solely made 9. He missed his first eight three level makes an attempt and completed 1-of-12 from downtown.
“[They were good shots that weren’t falling], but I still shot ‘em. It’s a miss or make league, man,” Randle mentioned postgame. “It’s the same shots I’ve practiced and put thousands and thousands of hours in. I’m not really worried about it. It’ll go in next game.”
Randle’s chilly begin ushered in a career-high for Jalen Brunson, who scored 15 within the opening interval and completed with 44 factors on 15-of-30 taking pictures from the sector. The Knicks additionally bought assist from Immanuel Quickley, who began instead of the injured RJ Barrett and completed with 23 factors on 9-of-14 taking pictures from the sector.
The Bucks have been in a position to climb again into the sport as a result of some complicated rotations from Thibodeau, who left a lineup of Quickley, Obi Toppin, Robinson, Miles McBride and Evan Fournier on the ground for prolonged crunch time minutes. The Knicks led, 70-53, on the five-minute mark of the third quarter and led by simply 5 coming into the fourth quarter earlier than the Bucks seized management halfway by way of the ultimate interval.
Now the Knicks return to the drafting board after blowing a lead that will have despatched them on one other five-game successful streak. They host the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com