Bucks 102 Knicks 96: Point-Less
Another horrible first quarter. Another fourth quarter collapse. Another loss to the Bucks. Another Friday night folly.
I'm not sure I have much more than this. But let's try -- it's really hard -- but let's try and be rational about where things went wrong in this ugly loss to the Bucks. Because a few of the key factors that contributed to the loss represent recurring issues, it won't be necessary to spend much time on them. But there were some (very) small positive notes, and a few alarmingly lingering issues, that are worth highlighting.
The fourth quarter scoring issues are getting all the attention, understandably since the Knicks got it down to a single possession game several times after trailing by large margins early, but couldn't get key baskets (or even remotely good looking shots) when they needed them. But in my opinion, this game was lost in the first quarter. After my last two recaps, I wondered whether I was starting to pile on Billups a bit too much, and then Brandon Jennings started the game twirling Chauncey around a skewer and roasting him over high heat for a good five minutes. Jennings had nine of the Bucks' 16 points to give the Bucks a quick 16-4 lead.
It was so bad that Toney Douglas was brought in relatively early (at 7:20 of the first ) to guard Jennings -- Toney did a better job of staying in front of Jennings but he also had his issues with the way he applied defensive pressure on the pick and roll for the rest of the half. Billups, meanwhile, was no better on offense -- he played his worst game since coming back from injury, scoring 8 points on 3 of 11 shooting, and missing 4 of his 5 three pointers. Carmelo Anthony had his typical strong first quarter with 13 points (making all 5 of his FTs), and getting 3 rebounds and an assist, but Amare had another rough opening 12 minutes with dead legs where he struggled to elevate over the Buck defenders, and keep up with the Bucks on defense.
After the somnolent first quarter where the Knicks were down by as much as 16, the silver lining for the team came in the second quarter when D'Antoni decided to play Anthony Carter (and in the second half, Shelden Williams, after another Turiaf injury) to provide a spark on both ends of the floor. Carter responded excellently, with 5 points, a rebound, an assist, and a block in his first half play, while playing extremely energetic defense on Salmons.
The coaches gave Douglas more detailed feedback at halftime on how to guard the pick and roll based on the way the Bucks were running their offense, and TD started the second half with Billups (the two often play together, but almost never to start a half). Douglas did a much better job defending Jennings in the third quarter. The Knicks continued to spend the game going uphill after getting the deficit down several times though, and never could seem to catch the Bucks, even when the shaky Buck reserves got some time.
Once the Knicks got past that low energy first quarter, their defense and effort points improved notably over the course of the game -- they forced turnovers and got tougher on the boards. They were outrebounded by only two, they got 15 offensive rebounds, and got 26 points off 14 Buck turnovers. But the offense never ran smoothly for more than a few possessions at a time (the Buck defense deserves some credit for this). Working with two point guards and having them work so hard on defense to limit the Bucks' pick and roll attack seemed to affect the Knicks' ability to space and move the ball on offense -- the Knicks ended up with only 13 assists, shot 40 %, and missed 9 of 11 three pointers.
The fourth quarter ball movement and spacing was especially dire -- the Knicks took 9 long jumpers and missed 8, and they weren't any better closer in (3 of 16). With no outside punch, the Bucks collapsed on Melo and Amare, and there was no movement of the ball from one side of the floor to the other -- Billups would either play a two man game with Amare on the left and Amare would end up taking it into a thicket of defenders, or Chauncey would feed it into Carmelo on the right block, who would get double and triple teamed. There seemed to be no attempt to have Carmelo assume some point forward responsibilities as he had in previous games, apart from one or two set plays. Things were so bad that even when execution delivered a good looking shot, nothing came out of it: Shawne Williams had two wide open jumpers in the closing minutes and missed them both, which brought on a chorus of boos.
The Knick defense was decent enough in the fourth quarter to win (allowing seven points in the first seven and a half minutes), and they kept Delfino in check, and didn't foul as excessively as they had in previous games. But the attempt to play catch up all game and their scoring struggles appeared to wear the Knicks down mentally, and they gasped their way to the finish as Jennings scored nine points in the final four minutes to bookend his production at the start of the game, and seal the win with the last of his 37 points.
Game Notes:
* D'Antoni played 11 players (though Mason and Jeffries ended up getting barely 2 minutes of time) as he tried to find a unit that could play more energetically and commit more on defense. The presence of Carter and Shelden Williams on the floor together at one point felt like a throwback to the Knicks of the '90s, with the hustle plays, physicality, and extreme effort from both players. As exciting as it was to see the role players contribute, their presence on offense often felt like a tightrope walk -- if the player couldn't move the ball right away or hand it off, there were several awkward seconds of "please don't commit a turnover", especially from Shelden.
* Toney Douglas was being crowded on his threes by the Buck defense, so he navigated the space available to him to attempt and convert some midrange jumpers and floaters. This may have been the most enjoyable adjustment to watch all game, as Douglas looked confident on many of his shots, something that wasn't always the case in previous games. Douglas wound up playing 35 minutes, which matched his season high at Memphis two weeks ago, and he looked gassed by the last few minutes of the fourth.
* The Bucks were as effective as any team the post-trade Knicks have played with execution on the pick and roll. Fifteen percent of the Bucks' plays for the season involve the ballhandler on the pick and roll taking the shot (usually Jennings), and only 5 percent of their plays (on average) involve a shot for the man setting the pick -- the Bucks' scoring producitivity in the pick and roll is 0.79 points per possession (PPP) and ranks 22nd in the league, according to Synergy Sports. But against the Knicks, the Bucks ran the pick and roll for the ballhandler 21 percent of the time, and got 1.05 points per possession (PPP). When the Bucks got the ball to the man rolling to the basket, they scored all 5 times. A lot of this came from Jennings' jumper falling early.
The Bucks also ran more cuts as a proportion of their plays than usual, and scored on 7 of 10 plays (1.4 PPP), impressive considering they are last in the league on scoring productivity through cuts.
* Mike Breen and Clyde Frazier were in full alarmist mode for the most of the game, which is perfectly justified when the team is muddling its way through a discouraging sixth loss in seven games and looking as futile as it did at the start and at the finish. I like Breen's measured take on the local broadcast most of the time even when things are going badly, but he does have a tendency to lapse into "effort cliches" with a whiff of moralism ("you need to deliver a hard foul!" "show some pride!" "double team!"). The neurotic nattering is fine in the way it aligns with the anxiety of fans who deserve a better effort, and demanding accountability from specific players when they're falling short is welcome.
Last night though, the piety about effort and accountability was delivered with too broad a brush -- in particular with Anthony. Yes, he holds the ball a bit long on some possessions, but it's also his bread and butter in allowing him to assess the defense -- and sometimes a player is the victim of bad luck even when he's trying. The whole Knick team had issues in the fourth quarter with shot selection and moving the ball that went beyond a couple of wayward isolations. Clyde hectored the team about its play, but to his credit did so with a better sense of perspective about the larger issues around the Knicks' play than Breen did.
Next up, the Charlotte Bobcats tonight, the sixth back to back this month. The Bobcats stayed alive (barely) in the playoff race for the eighth seed with a big win over the Celtics while the Knicks were losing, and it will be a battle of desperate teams in Charlotte. This is a game against a beatable team with a non-elite defense, unlike several of the teams the Knicks have played lately, but they're struggling so badly that it will be another slog to get to within striking distance of a win. At this point, whatever's needed to get the win will be welcome -- more minutes for the starters, a lot of minutes for bench players if they're on a roll. Whatever it takes at this point.
I'm not sure I have much more than this. But let's try -- it's really hard -- but let's try and be rational about where things went wrong in this ugly loss to the Bucks. Because a few of the key factors that contributed to the loss represent recurring issues, it won't be necessary to spend much time on them. But there were some (very) small positive notes, and a few alarmingly lingering issues, that are worth highlighting.
The fourth quarter scoring issues are getting all the attention, understandably since the Knicks got it down to a single possession game several times after trailing by large margins early, but couldn't get key baskets (or even remotely good looking shots) when they needed them. But in my opinion, this game was lost in the first quarter. After my last two recaps, I wondered whether I was starting to pile on Billups a bit too much, and then Brandon Jennings started the game twirling Chauncey around a skewer and roasting him over high heat for a good five minutes. Jennings had nine of the Bucks' 16 points to give the Bucks a quick 16-4 lead.
It was so bad that Toney Douglas was brought in relatively early (at 7:20 of the first ) to guard Jennings -- Toney did a better job of staying in front of Jennings but he also had his issues with the way he applied defensive pressure on the pick and roll for the rest of the half. Billups, meanwhile, was no better on offense -- he played his worst game since coming back from injury, scoring 8 points on 3 of 11 shooting, and missing 4 of his 5 three pointers. Carmelo Anthony had his typical strong first quarter with 13 points (making all 5 of his FTs), and getting 3 rebounds and an assist, but Amare had another rough opening 12 minutes with dead legs where he struggled to elevate over the Buck defenders, and keep up with the Bucks on defense.
After the somnolent first quarter where the Knicks were down by as much as 16, the silver lining for the team came in the second quarter when D'Antoni decided to play Anthony Carter (and in the second half, Shelden Williams, after another Turiaf injury) to provide a spark on both ends of the floor. Carter responded excellently, with 5 points, a rebound, an assist, and a block in his first half play, while playing extremely energetic defense on Salmons.
The coaches gave Douglas more detailed feedback at halftime on how to guard the pick and roll based on the way the Bucks were running their offense, and TD started the second half with Billups (the two often play together, but almost never to start a half). Douglas did a much better job defending Jennings in the third quarter. The Knicks continued to spend the game going uphill after getting the deficit down several times though, and never could seem to catch the Bucks, even when the shaky Buck reserves got some time.
Once the Knicks got past that low energy first quarter, their defense and effort points improved notably over the course of the game -- they forced turnovers and got tougher on the boards. They were outrebounded by only two, they got 15 offensive rebounds, and got 26 points off 14 Buck turnovers. But the offense never ran smoothly for more than a few possessions at a time (the Buck defense deserves some credit for this). Working with two point guards and having them work so hard on defense to limit the Bucks' pick and roll attack seemed to affect the Knicks' ability to space and move the ball on offense -- the Knicks ended up with only 13 assists, shot 40 %, and missed 9 of 11 three pointers.
The fourth quarter ball movement and spacing was especially dire -- the Knicks took 9 long jumpers and missed 8, and they weren't any better closer in (3 of 16). With no outside punch, the Bucks collapsed on Melo and Amare, and there was no movement of the ball from one side of the floor to the other -- Billups would either play a two man game with Amare on the left and Amare would end up taking it into a thicket of defenders, or Chauncey would feed it into Carmelo on the right block, who would get double and triple teamed. There seemed to be no attempt to have Carmelo assume some point forward responsibilities as he had in previous games, apart from one or two set plays. Things were so bad that even when execution delivered a good looking shot, nothing came out of it: Shawne Williams had two wide open jumpers in the closing minutes and missed them both, which brought on a chorus of boos.
The Knick defense was decent enough in the fourth quarter to win (allowing seven points in the first seven and a half minutes), and they kept Delfino in check, and didn't foul as excessively as they had in previous games. But the attempt to play catch up all game and their scoring struggles appeared to wear the Knicks down mentally, and they gasped their way to the finish as Jennings scored nine points in the final four minutes to bookend his production at the start of the game, and seal the win with the last of his 37 points.
Game Notes:
* D'Antoni played 11 players (though Mason and Jeffries ended up getting barely 2 minutes of time) as he tried to find a unit that could play more energetically and commit more on defense. The presence of Carter and Shelden Williams on the floor together at one point felt like a throwback to the Knicks of the '90s, with the hustle plays, physicality, and extreme effort from both players. As exciting as it was to see the role players contribute, their presence on offense often felt like a tightrope walk -- if the player couldn't move the ball right away or hand it off, there were several awkward seconds of "please don't commit a turnover", especially from Shelden.
* Toney Douglas was being crowded on his threes by the Buck defense, so he navigated the space available to him to attempt and convert some midrange jumpers and floaters. This may have been the most enjoyable adjustment to watch all game, as Douglas looked confident on many of his shots, something that wasn't always the case in previous games. Douglas wound up playing 35 minutes, which matched his season high at Memphis two weeks ago, and he looked gassed by the last few minutes of the fourth.
* The Bucks were as effective as any team the post-trade Knicks have played with execution on the pick and roll. Fifteen percent of the Bucks' plays for the season involve the ballhandler on the pick and roll taking the shot (usually Jennings), and only 5 percent of their plays (on average) involve a shot for the man setting the pick -- the Bucks' scoring producitivity in the pick and roll is 0.79 points per possession (PPP) and ranks 22nd in the league, according to Synergy Sports. But against the Knicks, the Bucks ran the pick and roll for the ballhandler 21 percent of the time, and got 1.05 points per possession (PPP). When the Bucks got the ball to the man rolling to the basket, they scored all 5 times. A lot of this came from Jennings' jumper falling early.
The Bucks also ran more cuts as a proportion of their plays than usual, and scored on 7 of 10 plays (1.4 PPP), impressive considering they are last in the league on scoring productivity through cuts.
* Mike Breen and Clyde Frazier were in full alarmist mode for the most of the game, which is perfectly justified when the team is muddling its way through a discouraging sixth loss in seven games and looking as futile as it did at the start and at the finish. I like Breen's measured take on the local broadcast most of the time even when things are going badly, but he does have a tendency to lapse into "effort cliches" with a whiff of moralism ("you need to deliver a hard foul!" "show some pride!" "double team!"). The neurotic nattering is fine in the way it aligns with the anxiety of fans who deserve a better effort, and demanding accountability from specific players when they're falling short is welcome.
Last night though, the piety about effort and accountability was delivered with too broad a brush -- in particular with Anthony. Yes, he holds the ball a bit long on some possessions, but it's also his bread and butter in allowing him to assess the defense -- and sometimes a player is the victim of bad luck even when he's trying. The whole Knick team had issues in the fourth quarter with shot selection and moving the ball that went beyond a couple of wayward isolations. Clyde hectored the team about its play, but to his credit did so with a better sense of perspective about the larger issues around the Knicks' play than Breen did.
Next up, the Charlotte Bobcats tonight, the sixth back to back this month. The Bobcats stayed alive (barely) in the playoff race for the eighth seed with a big win over the Celtics while the Knicks were losing, and it will be a battle of desperate teams in Charlotte. This is a game against a beatable team with a non-elite defense, unlike several of the teams the Knicks have played lately, but they're struggling so badly that it will be another slog to get to within striking distance of a win. At this point, whatever's needed to get the win will be welcome -- more minutes for the starters, a lot of minutes for bench players if they're on a roll. Whatever it takes at this point.
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