The Knicks and Milwaukee Bucks entered Friday night’s showdown at Madison Square Garden with plenty in common.
Both expect to contend in the Eastern Conference behind a high-scoring point guard and a uniquely skilled big man.
Both paid heavy prices to swing franchise-altering trades in effort to win now.
And, most significantly, both are off to surprisingly slow starts amid sky-high expectations, inviting early-season hand-wringing among their respective fan bases.
That applies more dramatically to the Bucks, who, after finally snapping a six-game losing streak with a win Thursday against the Utah Jazz, entered Friday’s game at the Garden at just 2-6.
“We have a lot of good things here, and we’ve gotten off to a tough start,” head coach Doc Rivers said before Friday’s game.
“Kind of a quirky schedule. We haven’t played well. We’ve played, what, three home games this year? It’s gonna come together. I’m not concerned by that. I really am not. I think everyone else may be outside of us. I don’t think anybody in our building is concerned.”
There are myriad reasons for the Bucks’ skid.
Since their October 2023 trade for perennial All-Star point guard Damian Lillard, which cost them an all-world defender in Jrue Holiday, the Bucks have struggled to stop opposing offenses.
They surrendered 116.0 points per game through their first eight games of this season to rank 20th in the NBA. That’s in line with the 116.4 points per game they allowed last year to rank 21st.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is playing through an adductor strain, though the injury forced the two-time NBA MVP out of Monday’s 116-114 loss to the red-hot Cavaliers.
The Bucks remain without Khris Middleton, whose offseason ankle surgeries have taken longer to recover from than expected.
Without Middleton, Milwaukee has struggled to find consistent offense outside of Antetokounmpo, who entered Friday averaging 31.0 points per game, and Lillard, who was averaging 28.4 points. Bobby Portis (13.3 points per game) was the only other Buck averaging double-digit scoring.
And the early schedule did the Bucks no favors, with six of their first nine games on the road, including stops in Philadelphia, Boston and Cleveland before their trip to the Garden.
But even with that adversity, the Bucks — with their championship pedigree and superstar duo — have underachieved. They lost games to the Bulls and Nets. The brutal beginning to the season prompted speculation about Antetokounmpo’s long-term future in Milwaukee.
This follows a 2023-24 season in which the Bucks finished 49-33 but went only 17-19 under Rivers, who replaced Adrian Griffin in January. They lost their first-round playoff series to the Indiana Pacers in six games, though Antetokounmpo, 29, missed the series with a calf strain and Lillard, 34, sat out two games with an Achilles injury.
The situation is less dire for the new-look Knicks, who entered Friday at 3-4, but has nonetheless been eye-opening.
Their depth — a concern after they traded Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Karl Anthony-Towns last month — continues to be tested.
Injuries to rim-protecting center Mitchell Robinson, reserve forward/center Precious Achiuwa and backup point guard Cameron Payne have exacerbated an already-thin bench.
They traded a haul that included five first-round draft picks, meanwhile, to acquire forward Mikal Bridges from the Nets during the offseason, hoping to bolster their defense while reuniting him with college teammates in point guard Jalen Brunson and shooting guard Josh Hart.
But the Knicks opened the season with a humbling 132-109 loss to the defending champion Boston Celtics, who tied an NBA record by making 29 3-pointers. They entered Friday allowing 110.7 points per game, which ranked 12th in the NBA.
“You always have things you can do better,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said of his team’s defense. “We had that tough game in Boston, and I think defending the 3-point line, we’ve done better in that area. I also think the percentage of shots that are allowed in the restricted [area] has been pretty good. Now, the [shooting] percentage has to come down, but we haven’t allowed the ball to get into the paint.”
Towns, a smooth-moving center with sharp-shooting ability, added an entirely new dynamic to the Knicks’ offense. So did Bridges, who is an excellent slasher.
And while forward OG Anunoby fit in seamlessly after last year’s midseason trade, it’s worth noting he entered Friday with just 30 regular-season games as a Knick under his belt.
“I know the Knicks’ coach, and I know that he is gonna get it all together,” Rivers said. “I’m sure of that. Tom’s a phenomenal coach. They made changes, man. They made changes to their core guys. Chemistry is an amazing thing, and they had it last year and they’ll get it back, but you don’t just wake up and have it. It takes time, and it’ll come for them.”
The Knicks and Bucks both entered Friday looking to get right in an Eastern Conference in which only two teams — the Cavaliers and Celtics — had a winning record.
And while it will certainly take more than one game to do so, stringing together wins would help quiet the early-season noise.
