Bucks move to 3-0
Milwaukee beats the Knicks, 124-113, at Fiserv Forum.
Khris Middleton wasn’t about to let the Milwaukee Bucks lose.
With the score tied at 110 with just over three minutes left, the Bucks went to their starting unit to close the game and led by Middleton they did just that, securing a 124-113 win over the New York Knicks with a strong finishing flourish Monday night at Fiserv Forum.
Middleton got things going, driving the lane and dropping off a nifty pass to Brook Lopez, who got a layup to go through a foul. After a stop at the other end, Middleton got the ball matched up with Enes Kanter. He backed out, with everyone in the building likely aware of what he was going to do.
Kanter knew it, too, and guarded closely as Middleton went up for a three-pointer. It didn’t matter. Middleton caught nothing but net, coaxing a Knicks timeout. After a three-pointer from Eric Bledsoe to continue the Bucks’ stretch of three-point plays, Middleton put the cherry on top of the win with another trey, bringing him to 30 points while making 7 of 8 threepointers on the night.
The victory brought Milwaukee to 3-0 for the first time since 2005.
While the game was close late, it didn’t look like it would be that way at halftime after the Bucks broke the game open in the second quarter. Led by Middleton who scored 14 points in that frame, including back-to-back-to-
back three-pointers, and Bledsoe who chalked up nine of his 16 points and five of his 13 assists in the second period alone, the Bucks took a 19-point lead into halftime.
But the third quarter brought Milwaukee’s high-octane offense to a grinding halt. The Bucks weren’t so much shut down by the Knicks as they were let down by their own shooting. They went 7 of 22 from the floor and 1 of 13 on three-pointers, many of those coming on open looks.
The Bucks managed just 17 points in the third and had only a one-point advantage heading into the final period.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had largely been held in check by New York’s defense for the first three quarters, broke out in the fourth. He scored Milwaukee’s first nine points, attacking the rim and throwing down dunks.
With the last bucket of the night, a dunk through a Tim Hardaway Jr. foul, Antetokounmpo finished with 31 points to go with 15 rebounds, with nine of those boards coming on the offensive glass.
But as well as Antetokounmpo played, the night didn’t belong to him. Rather, it was Middleton, Milwaukee’s long-time security blanket, who came up huge throughout the night and especially at crunch time.
TAKEAWAYS
DRIBBLE PENETRATION: The Bucks’ inability to slow Knicks guard Trey Burke in the third quarter helped New York get back into the game.
The 6-foot-1 guard was playing in the G League last season before signing with the Knicks in January and resurrecting his NBA career. He looked unstoppable in the third quarter, getting into the paint at will and scoring 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting.
Burke finished with 19 points, six rebounds and four assists.
GOING BIG: As he has often this season, Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer often used a jumbo lineup featuring Antetokounmpo, Ersan Ilyasova and either Lopez or John Henson.
Budenholzer likes to use that size and versatility without giving up much shooting to throw curveballs at opposing teams. Ilyasova finished with 10 points in 22 minutes off the bench, Lopez had 13 in 30 minutes and Henson added nine points and nine rebounds in 17 minutes.