Milwaukee played this one without Tyler Herro. He was listed as questionable going in and was ruled out with the knee injury on the day of the game. That took away their leading scorer, the only proven shot creator on a roster the preview already called short on shooting, and Gary Trent Jr. and Kam Jones were both day-to-day coming in. Without Herro to run the offense, the Bucks scored 34 points in the first half. That is the problem with this roster in one number.
To Milwaukee's credit, the 3rd quarter happened. The Bucks put up 38 points, beat New York by 11 in the quarter and got the gap down to 85-72 heading into the 4th. For 12 minutes they looked like a team that could cover for a missing star. Then the 4th started. The Knicks won it 32-13 and scored more points in that quarter than Milwaukee did in its entire first half.
For New York, the scoreboard tells the story better than any single player can. The Knicks scored at least 26 in every quarter and topped 30 twice, and they did their damage in the 2nd and 4th, which is when benches play. That fits what the preview expected from Brunson, Towns and the reserves behind them, though the box score available at press time didn't give individual lines for Brunson, Towns or Josh Hart, whose ankle was New York's one open question. What the score does show is that the Knicks never let the 3rd-quarter run turn into a real game. They came in 5-4 and leave with a win that looked like they were taking care of business.
For Milwaukee, the problem is the same one the preview laid out: 2 bad quarters out of 4, and the losses keep coming. Allowing 117 at the Garden actually beats the 122.1 per game the Bucks had been giving up, but that's not much to build on when the offense put up 13 points in 2 separate quarters. Without Herro, there was no one to stop the bleeding when New York went on its runs. Whether he's back in a few days or a couple of weeks will decide whether this team can stay competitive.
The Bucks are 1-10, and the rebuild has gone about the way rebuilds go. A 38-point quarter is something to point to. Getting outscored 64-26 in the other 2 quarters that mattered is the actual result.
