Brook Lopez is walking to the Milwaukee Bucks’ bench equal parts dumbfounded and frustrated. His head coach Doc Rivers just called another timeout to stop the bleeding. Specifically, Rivers called a timeout because Lopez’s defensive assignment, Knicks All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns, just galavanted to the basket unimpeded for the umpteenth time, and there are still nine minutes and 31 seconds left in the second quarter.
The bleeding would last all night long.
Lopez is sulking, his shoulders are sunken well below his neck. Towns has 17 points, and after making his first three attempts from downtown, Lopez closed out hard, only for Towns to pump-fake, drive by the Bucks big man, then throw it down with one hand, a play that sent Towns tumbling to the ground and Rivers on a quick walk mid-court after calling a timeout.
It happened again midway through the second quarter, this time courtesy of a screen Towns set on Jalen Brunson. Lopez does not have the foot speed to stay in front of Towns, who rolled hard to the rim off the screen, received the pass from Brunson, and threw down another uncontested dunk.
Lopez was one of the pioneers at the stretch-five position. At 7’0”, he hasn’t shot worse than 33.8 percent from downtown in a season since he first added the shot to his bag in 2016. But at 36 years old, he doesn’t have the foot speed, nor the youthful exuberance, to match Towns step-for-step. Nor has he ever logged a season shooting Towns’ career average of 39.8 percent from deep.
As a result, the Knicks were able to exploit the matchup of the night to improve back to a 4-4 record with a resounding 116-94 victory over the struggling Bucks on Friday.
They did so courtesy of Towns, the scoring center on whom the franchise’s championship hopes now hinge, acquired in a pivotal trade that sent Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to the Minnesota Timberwolves agreed upon just three days before training camp.
Towns finished with 32 points, 27 of which were scored by the half, on 12-of-20 shooting from the field to go with 11 rebounds and five assists on the night, a walking matchup nightmare for most teams the Knicks have run into this season. Matchups are critical for the Knicks this season, particularly now that the cat is out of the bag.
No, not KAT.
But Brunson, who emerged as such a lethal scorer for the Knicks last season that teams do not guard him straight up on a nightly basis.
Brunson is coming off of a season averaging 28.7 points per game on 47.9 percent shooting from the field and 40.1 percent shooting from three. As a result, opposing defenses are replicating what worked in spurts against the Knicks captain last season, particularly in the playoffs, where the Philadelphia 76ers deployed a combination of Kelly Oubre Jr. and Nicolas Batum in the first round before the Indiana Pacers used Aaron Nesmith and Andrew Nembhard in Round 2.
Case-in-point: Over the last three games, Brunson has seen Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks in Houston, the hard-nosed Dyson Daniels in Atlanta, and then a combination of wings in Taurean Prince, AJ. Green and Milwaukee’s 6’6” wing Andre Jackson Jr. on Friday.
Brunson started Friday’s matchup against the Bucks shooting 1-of-7 from the field and finished with just 15 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the field. In typical floor general fashion, he found a way to impact the game despite the difficulty he faced getting clean looks, logging a season-high nine assists, many of which went to Towns, who the Bucks had no shot at defending.
After Lopez, Milwaukee tried backup forward Bobby Portis, and after Portis, the Bucks tried Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Which brings us to another key matchup on the night: OG Anunoby, who held Antetokounmpo scoreless in the first quarter until picking up his second foul three-and-a-half minutes into the first quarter.
Antetokounmpo finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds on 11-of-21 shooting from the field, but by the time he began to impose his will on the game, the Knicks had already run up a double-digit lead this rendition of the Bucks did not have the capacity to overcome.
Damian Lillard added 19 points on 6-of-15 shooting from the field, but the Knicks held every other Milwaukee player under 10 points to get back on track after ending their four-game road trip with two straight losses.
Anunoby finished with 14 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks on 4-of-12 shooting from three-point range, Josh Hart added 11 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists, and Mikal Bridges scored 17 points on 7-of-18 shooting from the field.
Thibodeau emptied his bench with just under 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter, and Matt Ryan, who was signed to a season-long contract after the Westchester Knicks drafted his first-overall in the G-League Draft, made his season debut in the blowout victory over Milwaukee.
The Knicks will need to carry the momentum forward for their upcoming two-game road trip: They travel to Indiana to play the Pacers on Sunday, then fly to Philadelphia to play the 76ers— who are without All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey and MVP center Joel Embiid, who has yet to appear in a game this season and is serving a three-game suspension after a physical altercation with local beat reporter.
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