Brutal loss to the Bucks, who clearly seem to have the Knicks' number. Neither team started very well (it was 7-5 five minutes into the game) and plenty of bricks were flying throughout the first quarter, but it became apparent quickly that the Bucks were sharper mentally and once their shots started dropping, the Knicks were out of it.

The early story of the game was Al Harrington being late to the game due to being caught in snow-related traffic, but the symbol of the team's early futility was QRich missing his first seven shots, on his way to a 1 for 10 performance. A performance this dismal can't just be pinned on one player though -- the whole team, with the exception of Nate, was shockingly lacking in energy.

The Bucks got out to a 37-20 lead, before Harrington went on a 13 point tear to get the lead down to four at 39-35. Knicks had a chance to get it to two, but Robinson had a turnover which led to a Redd 3, and two more turnovers helped the Bucks get their lead back to double digits.

The killer for the Knicks besides poor shooting and low energy was 23 turnovers, with CDu and Nate coughing it up 5 times apiece. The Bucks built their lead to as high as 25 points and kept it at 18 to 20 points throughout. Rose, Roberson and Jerome James played the final six minutes of the game, which got the Garden about as excited as it had been all night. Jerome ended with four points and lots of cheers, but unlike his season debut at Sacramento where the bench was whooping it up for him, his teammates were much more somber and disgusted with their own performance.

The Bucks effectively kept the Knicks off balance on both offense and defense -- they mostly took away the Knicks' pick and roll, forced the players to make awkward passes off the dribble or fire standstill jumpers, and the Knicks rotated poorly on the Buck's shooters and got caught on back door plays when they tried to chase the shooters off of screens. Redd and Jefferson had their moments, and the Bucks had great balance in scoring (six players in double figures), but the real killers were Bogut, Mbah a Moute, and (of all people), Lue, who couldn't miss.

The Celtics are up next, which means the Knicks are looking at four losses in a week. But it's losses like this that are the most dispiriting -- as well as the Bucks match up with the Knicks, this should have been a much better effort. One thing that's clear with these Knicks -- when they get down big, they have a hard time coming back, and the deficits quickly get out of hand too frequently. They have the offensive chops and the system to run off many points in a hurry, but they just aren't tough enough defensively at this point in the season to make multiple consecutive stops without some significant help from the other team.