Well. That was something.
What it was was a thrashing, a threshing, a throttling. What it was was a beating, a battering, a bludgeoning. What it was was a humbling, a hammering, a humiliating 146-122 dismantling, the Bucks taking the Knicks both to school and to the woodshed. It was that bad. It was that brutal.
“They busted our ass,” Immanual Quickley said. “For real.”
“Tonight,” Bucks coach Adrian Griffin said, “we were the better team.”
It was appalling to watch. It was no surprise that the Bucks were this good; they have been a member of the NBA’s elite for the better part of a decade now, they have a title in their bag, believe they have others on the way, and now head to Vegas for a chance to add the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament to their collection.
What was stunning was the complete team-wide breakdown the Knicks suffered in the second half. They had actually engaged in a fun (if defense-optional) first-half track meet, tied at 72 with under five seconds left before Damian Lillard made a 3 to give Milwaukee a 75-72 lead.
But just that score hinted at the fiasco that awaited in the second. Seventy-five first-half points is the kind of number that’s going to kick Tom Thibodeau’s insomnia into high gear for two days.
And that was the hopeful half.
That was the half when the Knicks looked like they at least belonged in the same 414 area code as the Bucks. It didn’t take long for the Bucks to make a folly of that. It was 109-96 by the end of the third. Before long the lead passed 20, hit 27, settled on 24, and really could have been whatever the Bucks wanted it to be.
The earlier rounds of this tournament, teams were required to run up the score to beef up the point-differential tiebreaker. The Bucks did it Tuesday night purely for fun.
“When we’re at our best,” Griffin said, “I love our chances.”
And when they’re at their worst — and this was the Knicks at their very worst so far this year — the Knicks look so far removed from the elite teams in the league that it’s fair to wonder how that gap could possibly be bridged across the next five months. And as a consolation prize, they’ll get to do it all over again Friday night, when they get a bonus game in Boston.
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If the Celtics were watching Tuesday night, they probably can’t believe their outrageous good fortune.
“Some days we’re gonna fall short,” Thibodeau said. “We have to see what we can do better.”
Guarding the 3-point shot would be a start, especially with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis undoubtedly salivating at the chance to take a run at what the Bucks did Tuesday, making 23 of their 38 3s. There isn’t a team in the league you’re going to beat when you get outscored 69-21 from behind the arc.
Against an elite team, you wind up looking like JAW.
Just Another Wannabe.
“You’ve got to get back in the gym,” Thibodeau said, “work, and prepare yourselves for Boston.”
It’s more than that, though. The IST gave the Knicks a temporary boost, and it was swell qualifying for the quarters. But the cost was significant. They are going to wind up playing only 40 games at Madison Square Garden now, the way this all shakes out. The reward for advancing were bonus games against the Bucks and the Celtics (as opposed to the Wizards and Hawks, who both the Sixers and the Nets drew).
And then comes a severe 14-game stretch that’ll take them through the New Year in which 12 of those games include two home dates with the Bucks, another home game with the Timberwolves and a stretch of road games at Utah, Phoenix, L.A. (against both the Lakers and Clippers), Brooklyn, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Indiana and Philadelphia.
What the Knicks looked like before the game sitting at 12-7 on Dec. 5 could be very different 16 games and one month from now on Jan. 5.
“It doesn’t change how you approach every game,” Thibodeau said.
Maybe not. The Knicks have plenty of time to prove that Tuesday was an aberration, but for now, we are left with a reality impossible to argue. The Bucks have their feet up in first class, sipping Bloody Marys. The Knicks occupy all the middle rows in coach, begging for pretzel sticks. Until they prove otherwise, that’s where they belong.
