Knicks Drop Shootout With Bucks

By | 2016-10-28T19:45:50-08:00 October 21st, 2014|News|Comments Off on Knicks Drop Shootout With Bucks

Derek Fisher’s New York Knicks were playing some of their best basketball of the preseason going into their Monday night tilt with the Milwaukee Bucks.

But it was the visiting squad that brought its best performance off the preseason at Madison Square Garden.

After holding their previous three opponents to 81 points or less, New York struggled to contain the young Bucks, who shot the lights out at Manhattan’s historic arena, knocking down 59.7 percent of their shots to top N.Y. 120-107.

Milwaukee Bucks v New York Knicks

Afterward Coach Fisher said that Milwaukee gave the Knicks some big matchup problems and the team defense suffered as a result.

“Yeah it was a tough night from a matchup standpoint,” Fish told the media after the game. “As coaches going through this preseason, we don’t spend a lot of time figuring out how to match up against each team. We’re giving these guys defensive concepts and fundamentals and things that will help us against every team. We didn’t do those things very well tonight.”

Milwaukee came out featuring an up-tempo attack that the Knicks simply couldn’t keep up with.  The Bucks averaged 30 points per quarter and boasted seven players in double figures scoring.

Led by OJ Mayo and his team-high 24 points on the night, the Bucks continually pressured the Knickerbockers small lineup, which featured Iman Shumpert and Quincy Acy in the starting five once again.

Milwaukee Bucks v New York Knicks

Big man Jason Smith only played 11 minutes throughout the game, making it easy for the Bucks to work inside, where they put up 80 of their points.

“(It was) tough with the small lineup to find the right way to protect the paint, stop penetration and our normal pick-and-roll coverages that our big guys are normally asked to do. All of the sudden our small guys were asked to do those things,” D-Fish said.

Although the defense struggled Monday night, the offense played one of its best games of the season as Knicks players dished out 26 assists against only 11 turnovers.

Carmelo Anthony matched Mayo’s 24 points by routinely knocking down tough shots and making momentum-swinging plays to keep New York alive despite losing Jose Calderon to an ankle injury five minutes into the game.

Milwaukee Bucks v New York Knicks

“I feel great from a physical standpoint,” Anthony said. “You know tonight was one of them nights where you start buckling down to the season opener and get the real thing going.”

Melo continues to show progress in Fish’s triangle scheme by spreading the ball around and making quick decisions with his shots. He added nine rebounds, six assists and two steals to his team-high 24 points.

With the score tied at 12-12 early, Melo was surrounded by three defenders, but found Acy wide open on the perimeter. Acy’s shot bounced off the rim, but Anthony quickly scooped up the ball and drained a three to give the Knicks the lead.

Milwaukee Bucks v New York Knicks

Later in the second, Milwaukee’s Kendall Marshall tried to push the ball inside to Jabari Parker, but Melo knocked the ball away, which led to a fast-break layup by Tim Hardaway Jr. Hardaway was another bright spot for the Knicks, contributing 20 points off the bench on 5-of-9 from the floor and 4-of-6 from deep.

Thanks to the play of their shooters, New York was able to secure a halftime lead, as with just 28 seconds left before the break, Anthony hit from 20 feet out to give NY a 61-56 lead.

The third quarter was a wild one, as the teams combined for 70 points. New York knocked down three 3-pointers in the frame, but the Bucks countered with five of their own, including a Jared Dudley triple with 10 seconds left in the third that gave Milwaukee a 94-93 lead.

The Bucks stayed sharp in the beginning of the fourth quarter and quickly built a seven-point lead. Before long, that lead inflated to double digits, and the Knicks weren’t able to recover, as the visitors continued to hit shots. New York went scoreless in the final 2:30, and the Bucks cruised to the win down the stretch.

While Fish called on 15 different Knicks to check into the game, he largely distributed the minutes between nine players. Anthony led the team with 37 minutes on the night, and only six players had over 20 minutes of playtime throughout the game.

Fish said afterward that as the preseason winds down, he’s attempting to find ways to shorten his rotation for the regular season, while also giving opportunities to players on the fringe of making the roster so that they can prove themselves.

“In the first four games of the preseason, guys were more around 20 (minutes) and below,” Fish said. “You can’t expect those guys to go out there next Wednesday and play 31 (to) 34 minutes, and not having done that at all in the preseason. So regardless of what the score was tonight, some of it was just starting to build that ability endurance wise and stamina wise to be able to play that many minutes.”

COACH TO COACH

As Derek enters his first season as NBA coach, he’s been getting plenty advice from his peers. But the coach with perhaps the most useful insight into Derek’s situation was his coaching adversary on Monday night at the Garden.

Not only did Kidd spend the 2012-13 season, his last in the NBA, as a member of the Knicks and teammate to many of Derek’s charges this season. The Bucks coach also began his coaching career days after ending his playing career when he took over as Brooklyn Nets coach last season. Kidd has since moved on to Milwaukee, but had plenty of advice for D-Fish before Monday’s game on the learning curve.

“You find out quickly you don’t have the ball so you can’t take a charge, you can’t come up with a steal,” Kidd said. “You might see someone who is open on an extra pass. You can’t make the pass. You can only communicate it to them, show it to them, and hopefully at some point the trust and respect kicks in and they find it.”

Milwaukee Bucks v New York Knicks

Additionally, Kidd said, there are plenty of things as a coach that you have to learn are completely out of your control and the process is something that will certainly take time. Just how much time will vary from place to place.

“A new group, players and coaches, it takes time. Chemistry isn’t just something that comes overnight,” Kidd said. “When you look at trying to put in a system, it takes a little time to put down the foundation. Then players get comfortable with it, then it clicks and then it goes.”

But Kidd noted that Fisher has a great foundation already in place in New York with Phil Jackson to help him along and a star player like Carmelo Anthony to lead the team.

“You look at Derek, you look at (Knicks) management, they understand how to do that quite well. He has a good mentor (Phil Jackson) to do that. It’s not this is going to be Phil’s team. It’s Fish’s team. I think he made that clear. But he has someone to draw from, how to handle different situations.”

NEXT UP

The Knicks (2-3) have just two games preseason games remaining to tune-up for the regular season, which starts a week from Wednesday.

The next chance to tune-up comes on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden when New York hosts the Washington Wizards. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET and the game can be seen on MSG.

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