Merry Christmas to all Silver Dollar heads this morning!! I'll try a quick (yeah right) rundown of todays slate.
Knicks/Bucks - Maybe the most intriguing matchup from my seat as they meet for 4th time this year. Bucks now -3.5 and 241.5 after touching -4 on the overnight.
G1 the Knicks outplayed the Bucks in a 5-pt loss but couldn't withtstand Milwaukees 20-39 3-pt shooting while countering with 10-39 of their own. Brunson ran circles around Lillard all night but this was prior to the Bucks being the train they are now.
G2, also in Milwaukee, saw Thibs insert some Doug Moe into his gameplan and run run run on all makes or misses. It was working ok but again, when you shoot 30% from three while your opponent shoots 60% even
@benhogan will say this is a make or miss league.
G3, in NY. More of the same, Knicks shoot 30% from 3, Bucks 50% and cruise most of the night. Brunson and Randle had a field day again but the Knicks second unit was awful once again. Bench shooting, Knicks 5-19 and Bucks 14-22 led by Bobby Portis 9-14.
Interesting to note.....
* Mitchell Robinson was no factor in the two games he played but bumping up Hartenstein and Taj Gibson into those 5 minutes is a massive downgrade to M-Robs presence alone.
* Quickley has shot 3-15 in the last two Bucks losses which can't happen for the Knicks to stand a chance with their thin bench today.
* What's up with the 3-pt disparity in this series? The Bucks are loaded w shooters while the Knicks don't defend the 3 very well which can account for much of their bump but over 50% every game? And the Knicks under 31% every game? Variance, Luck, Matchup Adv....hmmm.
* Dynamic of being second leg of a B2B and a holiday day game to boot.
Nothing pregame for me but will be watching to see if anything live transpires in the 1H.