The Milwaukee Bucks returned to the NBA on NBC in style, with a dominant second-half defensive performance to win 121-111 over the New York Knicks, limiting them to just 40 points after halftime. Giannis had another MVP-level performance with 37 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists, while Ryan Rollins set a new career high with 25 points. Jalen Brunson had 36 to lead the Knicks.
Game Recap
With all the All-Stars on both sides of the court tonight, it was a bit of a surprise to see former
two-way player Ryan Rollins steal the show early, hitting a couple of threes after Mikal Bridges hit the opening shot of the game. Rollins had to come out of the game right after that after getting hit in the face and cutting his lip. Milwaukee built an 8-3 advantage, but a 13-0 run by the Knicks, even after a Bucks timeout, built their lead up to 16-8. Giannis helped restart a slumping offense for Milwaukee, getting a couple of shots from the inside to go. From there, the Bucks went on an 8-2 run to retake the lead with 2:13 left, thanks to six straight points from Gary Trent Jr. and a couple of free throws from Kyle Kuzma. Jalen Brunson continued his string of strong performances against the Bucks, going for 15 points, but a Rollins layup with 15 seconds left gave Milwaukee a 27-26 lead after one.
The split lip didn’t seem to bother Rollins at all: he picked off a pass from OG Anunoby, drove to the lane on a fastbreak, and hit an and-one layup. That built the Bucks’ lead up to eight points, but things flipped on a dime from there, as New York went on a 17-10 extended run to take their largest lead of the game at 14 points with 2:04 left in the second. The Knicks’ offense was just scorching, finding wide-open threes off second-chance opportunities and good passes, going 8/10 from distance in the frame. The hot shooting, plus the offensive engine of Brunson, equaled 45 Knicks points in the second and they took a 71-59 lead at halftime.
After a rough end to the half, the Bucks were able to swing the game back within reach. Milwaukee slowly started to chip away at New York’s lead, quickly cutting it to a five-point game early. Landry Shamet gave the Bucks issues from the perimeter, hitting back-to-back threes to keep the Bucks at bay and keep the Knicks up eight. That didn’t last long as threes from Rollins and AJ Green around a dunk from Giannis tied the game with 6:35 to go. From there, neither side got much separation, with the Bucks only leading by two points for most of the quarter. Towards the waning stages of the stanza, Anthony drove the lane and then found Taurean Prince for a corner three, causing an eruption from the mostly filled Fiserv Forum. After a three from Jordan Clarkson and Kuzma going 1/2 from the line, the Bucks entered the fourth quarter up by just three, 94-91. They limited New York to just 6/26 (23.1%) from the field in the third.
Things tightened up even more heading into the fourth quarter. Doc Rivers tried to give Giannis and the rest of the starters a breather for as long as possible, leaving Kuzma, Coffey, Prince, Bobby, and Anthony out there for nearly five minutes of game action. While it did seem to work for a few minutes as the Bucks went up by five, most of the Knicks’ starters came back in and took a two-point lead before Giannis and Rollins returned to the game. Their job did seem to get easier for a moment, with Jalen Brunson on the ground after two hard falls that may have tweaked a groin. Yet, after the media timeout, Brunson was back out on the floor for the Knicks. The Bucks then clamped down on defense, holding the Knicks scoreless for nearly four minutes as they pushed their lead out to six with 3:45 left. The Bucks held them to just eight more points in that span and cruised to victory.
Stat That Stood Out
It was a tremendous defensive game plan to limit All-Star center Karl Anthony-Towns and make him a non-factor. Between the trio of Myles Turner, Bobby Portis, and—surprisingly—Kyle Kuzma held Towns to just eight points on 2/12 shooting from the field and 0/3 from three-point range. It was the first game for Towns with no three-pointers made on at least three attempts since April 6 against the Phoenix Suns, where he went 0/3.
