In the first half, things mostly went according to plan. The Knicks had twice as many free throws, and only one turnover. Brandon Jennings seemed a bit too anxious to make a splash on Broadway, demonstrating questionable shot selection and missing 7 of 8 shots. Without Bogut in the game, rebounding was mostly even. The Knicks did a good job of adjusting to the Bucks' overplaying and ran back door plays and got to the rim easily with Bogut's absence. The only major red flags were the Knick's own soft defense, which gave up 54 first half points, and an 18 point first half from Ilyasova, who hustled and played with more swagger than all the Knicks combined.

It was one of those halves that was a portent of very bad things to come, given how flat the team felt even with a 59 point half and 5 point lead. Sure enough, the Bucks made their run in the 3rd quarter. The Jennings storyline gained obvious traction with his scoring burst to put the Bucks up for good, but the real damage was done by the more aggressive defense on the ball by the Bucks, which produced 10 second half turnovers, many of them in a stretch spanning most of the 3rd quarter and part of the 4th. Additionally, the Bucks seemed to get every loose ball even when the Knicks were able to get stops. By the time the dust cleared, the Bucks were up by 13 and managed to repel a couple of Knick runs to pull out the win.

Unlike other tough or overwhelming losses where some excuse could be conjured, no matter how weak (on the road, second of a back to back, injured players, mid-season blues, etc etc), this one was the most painful yet, because of how inexcusable it was. Playing at home, against a team that suddenly lost its best player -- a team with very solid, well-coached players but hardly overwhelming talent -- the Knicks didn't play with urgency and were outhustled and outworked. This wasn't a star vehicle where the fans at the Garden could begrudgingly accept that the other team simply had a difference making player or two that would eventually shut the door on the home team. Every "loud" hustle play seemed to be made by the Bucks, and the Garden crowd let the Knicks know how poorly they thought of the effort, unleashing the loudest boos of the season.

Notes:

*  Part one of Nate as starting PG yielded mixed results. He was mostly restrained on the offensive end and managed to get to the rim and FT line in the second quarter as the Knicks erased an early 10 point deficit. Ball movement was not especially good while he was on the floor, but the Bucks deserve some credit for that with their defense. In the fourth quarter, Nate ran the pick and roll with Lee particularly well as the Knicks rallied, a very encouraging sign. He did not shoot well from the perimeter, though, and most difficult to accept were the 3 pointers he gave up on slow close-outs (3 to Charlie Bell and 1 to Jennings). 

*  D'Antoni expanded his rotation slightly to make room for 3 guards (Nate, Duhon, Hughes) in a sort of committee arrangement. Duhon, in particular, acquitted himself well in his limited minutes on both ends of the floor, and Hughes was strong in the first half, less so in the second. The 3 guard arrangement did mean Jeffries got a relatively paltry 13 minutes in the first half and 27 for the game, after averaging over 35 minutes in the last month.

*  Speaking of Jeffries, he had his share of hustle plays and good help on defense...but this was his worst game in some time, and he was on the floor for a good deal of the third quarter meltdown. The Bucks were a particularly bad matchup because Jennings is too quick for him at the point,  and the Bucks wings and frontline players were often too strong and frequently muscled him out of the way on the boards and on screens. He made a couple of 3 pointers in the 3rd quarter to keep the team in the game, but then became a bit too enamored with the shot, taking (and missing) 2 more jumpers in the last minute and a half to enable the Bucks to build their lead entering the final period.

*  I try to avoid commenting on officiating or attributing losses or wins to calls, but the game became much more physical in the second quarter and the officials largely chose to swallow their whistles, with sometimes comical results on both sides. Though the Knicks certainly got their licks in, the physical play favored the Bucks, who looked more comfortable being physical on defense. The Knicks are simply not a strong physical team, and the lack of whistles also meant the Knicks had a hard time drawing fouls that could build on their early free throw advantage.

*  Al Harrington continues to be essential and maddening in equal parts, and is transforming into an increasingly slower and more labored version of the essential and the maddening. His outside shooting got the team back in the game, but he struggled to convert inside all night long, bothered by the physical interior defense of the Bucks.  He still managed 22 points (on 20 shots) and 8 rebounds, but seemed a step slow relative to the more engaged Bucks.

*  David Lee had his usual monster stat line with 32 points on 18 shots, 15 rebounds and 3 assists. I was a bit intemperate on twitter in the wake of the loss and declared the offensive statistics misleading in light of a lackluster defensive effort and some damaging turnovers (4 in the second half, including two unsightly ones in the lane on drives, both induced by Buck defender extraordinaire Mbah a Moute). Upon reflection, David had a terrific game...but he couldn't stop the bleeding once it started, and missed several crucial rebounds on the Bucks' end that allowed them to gain crucial additional opportunities when the team was trying to rally.

*  Gallo looked slow, almost leaden, and overly deferential when the Bucks crowded him on his shot, and he missed 4 of 6 free throws.  D'Antoni in the post game conference indicated Gallo needed to create more opportunities for himself, and not pass up the ones that were there when he shook his defender. Whether he's hit a wall, his back is acting up, or he's simply navigating slowly to the next step in his evolution as an NBA player, his struggles are painfully apparent right now, and it may require the all-star break for him to clear his head and go back to playing more instinctively.

*  While I referred to the Bucks' modest talent earlier, I don't mean to slight them in any way in terms of their ability to win the way they did last night. They've been involved in tightly contested games with some very tough teams, and it was easy to see that when the Knicks were able to get the lead down in the 4th quarter, the Bucks had a level of composure that's been missing from the Knicks too often in close games. Ilyasova and Mbah a Moute were outstanding, and Warrick and Delfino also made several big plays. They may very well continue their credible challenge for the final playoff spot in the East late into the season, contrary to the claim I made in my preview. (The Bucks are extremely well served by two outstanding blogs, BrewHoop and Bucksketball -- both great reads that I enjoy following)

*  D'Antoni was miked up for the game and MSG  captured every bit of his anger and frustration in the third quarter with the sagging energy of his team -- he looked a hundred times more passionate than the players on the floor. The post game press conference was more of the same: though he always maintains a certain level of calm and tries to express as much of the positive as he can, his frustration was as evident as it has been all season. He parried largely tactical questions about lineups and Nate's performance as a point guard, and kept lamenting the lack of spirit and something greater in the performance of the team (as a *team*) that can get them to win games they need to win.

On to the Cavaliers tonight, who'll probably get their 11th straight without too much of a problem at home. It would be just like the Knicks to show more effort and passion in a long shot game like this one, rather the far more winnable and important game the night before, but I'll take whatever they can provide at this point.