Knicks 116, Bucks 94: The Katalyst
Karl-Anthony Towns continues to impress as the Knicks routed Giannis & the Bucks
In the three seasons since winning his first championship with the Milwaukee Bucks, Giannis Antetokounmpo had lost just one of six games at Madison Square Garden. Then came Friday night, when Karl-Anthony Towns inducted dunked him into a new era of New York Knicks basketball, and served him a second.
Jalen Brunson was an all-pro distributor. OG Anunoby was a top-caliber defender. And the aforementioned big man denied the Bucks any service at his “Big Bodega,” with 32 points, 11 rebounds and five assists in the latest installment of his “Do you still miss Julius Randle?” revenge-but-not-really-“revenge” tour. New York needed a stabilizing win and instead found an ego-inflating victory over a team that’s widely under-kicking their coverage. Milwaukee’s stars couldn’t look further apart as the team fell to 2-6, with Antetokounmpo pleading for the team to look in the mirror while Lillard chose to take a jab at the Knicks.
“They’re a good team,” Lillard told reporters after the game. “I mean, it ain’t like we went in there and played against the Heat when LeBron went there. They made some changes. They were a good team last year. They’re a good team this year.” A broken “Dame Time” watch is wrong twice a day. In his two career games against James’ Heatles in South Beach, Lillard’s teams were 0-2. For all intents and purposes, Friday’s loss was just like playing LeBron and the Heat in 2012. A loss is a loss is a loss is an ass-whooping.
Notes
Jalen Brunson struggled again shooting, going 6-for-14 from the floor and 0-for-5 from three for 15 points. And yet he finished with the highest plus-minus of the night at +28. Why? Because he got the rest of his New York teammates going, with nine assists and no turnovers. Six of those went to Towns, as the two stars continue wasting no opportunity to develop the requisite chemistry needed for a deep postseason run. Brunson and Towns are averaging 2.5 assists between them as a duo.
Shoutout to Tyler Kolek, your favorite hooper’s favorite hooper so long as your favorite hooper is Brunson. This reverse got me out of my seat.
The season’s worst-case scenario features Kolek, Ariel Hukporti and Pacôme Dadiet playing 30 minutes a night over the final 8 to 10 games. That’s about as high a floor as you can ask for.
Miles McBride should have a legitimate claim for Sixth Man of the Year honors if the Knicks win 45-50 games. Seemingly overnight, his offensive ceiling has gone from Frank Ntilikina to J.R. Smith. Deuce finished with 14 points, five rebounds and two assists. It’s worth noting that outside of blocks per game, all of his per-36 averages are up: made threes; made twos; free throws made and attempted; rebounds; assists; even blocks. Deuce has remained a constant for New York throughout a challenging start to the year. And his defense hasn’t lost a damn step.
Speaking of defense, how about Anunoby? He certainly looks the part of a $212 million player after guarding Antetokounmpo for a majority of this one. The Greek Freak shot just 2-for-8 when guarded by OG. More like anuNOby, right?!
When New York traded RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley for OG, I was concerned the team sacrificed too much shotmaking. No need be concerned, says Anunoby, who’s averaging an efficient 14.4 points nightly. He’s the rare kind of scorer whose buckets loom largest off the stat sheet. They’re not filler shots early, nor game-winners. But each bucket from Anunoby mirrors the Knicks as a whole in that moment. When he’s dunking like this, things are usually going pretty well for the orange and blue.
Okay. The other half of “Wingstop.” Let’s talk about it. Mikal Bridges shot 7-for-18 in a blowout win. He’s 47% from the floor and 35% from three on the season. It’s not as bad as it feels in real time. Bridges has maintained the confidence he held in Brooklyn and Phoenix despite not getting the same results. He’s firing when he’s open, and if he’s at one of his hot spots he fires even when he’s not. When you’re this far into your investment into a guy – five first-round picks and one first-round swap – these are the small wins you celebrate. And while his defense hasn’t been trademark, Bridges hasn’t been a traffic cone by any means. He finished the win over Milwaukee with 17 points, three rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block.
Working our way through the starting lineup, I wonder if anything needs to be said about Josh Hart, who finished with 11/9/7. He is the Swiss Army Knife you hear so often described elsewhere around the league. I could go on and on about his effort, his rebounding and his refound 3-point confidence, but then we could just copy and paste it into every recap. Because he, like his head coach, are one and the same, night in and night out. And on a team with so much ebb and flow between its biggest players, that kind of presence is invaluable.
Big Bodega, The Purr, Mr. Meow, Karl from Downtowns – whatever you want to call him, just don’t call him Randle. Because he’s not. For these Knicks, Towns is better. His last two performances have cemented that sentiment in my mind. Randle had two 30/10/5 games last season for New York, both losses. Towns notched his first in his eighth game with the team, and the Knicks won, on a night where Brunson didn’t have it going. No, it’s not that black and white, and it never will be. So what is it?
Is it the rebounding? Towns is averaging 12.8 per game, 3.5 on the offensive glass. But Randle also inhaled rebounds. I guess I’d say Towns goes out into space and grabs them. It’s not the inside scoring – Randle shot 63.6% inside of five feet last season; Towns is only making half his from shots there. 3-point consistency? One is certainly better than the other, and that one plays for the Knicks.I don’t know. I don’t have the argument behind the answer. I just have the answer. Sometimes that’s enough. Towns' presence raised New York’s ceiling, but his actual play threatens to punch a hole through it. Just listen to the MSG crowd during this play.
That’s the crowd during the eighth game of the season, in a win that got the Knicks back to .500. Imagine that moment in the postseason. Every time I try to, my ears start ringing with premonition.
Milwaukee looks the part of a teen who got paid for a day’s work a few hours early, struggling to find care, motivation, wherewithal. But that Bucks championship check from 2021 won’t last forever. New York exposed them Friday night. And it was Towns who was the Katalyst. As the Knicks march on, Milwaukee is the team with more questions than answers. That’s a nice change of pace for New York. Towns told Antetokounmpo and the Bucks do not pass go, and do not collect $200.