Bucks-Knicks Preview

Posted Jan 31 2013 3:42PM

The Milwaukee Bucks have enjoyed plenty of success against the Atlantic Division this season, but like many teams, they had none when they faced New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony in November.

The Bucks seek to even the season series with the Knicks, and they have played well at Madison Square Garden in recent seasons heading into Friday night's matchup.

Milwaukee (24-20) is 8-2 against Atlantic foes, though it fell 102-88 at home in its lone meeting with New York (28-15) on Nov. 28. Anthony scored 29 points while sitting out the fourth quarter with the game in hand.

Few other teams have been able to slow down Anthony, as he's set a franchise record with 30 straight games of at least 20 points. He's averaging 29.7 in a three-game win streak over the Bucks, though Milwaukee has won six of eight at MSG.

"He's an MVP candidate, I don't care how you slice it," Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. "He's put himself in that category based on how he's played and how he's gotten guys around him to play at a high level. I mean, that's what the great ones do."

Woodson's primary concern Friday figures to be containing Milwaukee's high-scoring backcourt of Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings. Orlando guards Jameer Nelson and J.J. Redick combined for 50 points in the Knicks' 113-97 home victory Wednesday, and the coach says his team's pick-and-roll defense remains a problem.

"(It) just wasn't good enough," Woodson said. "We just gotta get better in that area. Everybody's running pick-and-rolls."

New York's three-game run against Milwaukee has happened without Amare Stoudemire, who made all seven shots for 14 points Wednesday. The Knicks have lost four straight to the Bucks with Stoudemire available.

Still, New York feels better about itself now that Anthony, Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler are playing well together.

"When the three of us are on the court, we are making things happen offensively and defensively," Anthony said.

The Bucks have gone 8-3 in the first half of back-to-back games and should have more energy than they did in Wednesday's 104-88 home defeat to Chicago, in which they trailed by 18 at halftime. Milwaukee won the night before in Detroit, then returned home around 11 a.m. on Wednesday due to an engine issue with the team plane.

"Coming off the back-to-back, it's going to be kind of tough for us to make that run to get back in the game, especially the way they were playing," Ellis said. "It's just one of those days."

The Bucks host the Magic on Saturday night.

Ersan Ilyasova scored 18 points but shot 6 of 18 for Milwaukee. Ilyasova is averaging 21.5 points in his last six games, but he has been a non-factor with a total of five in his last three versus New York.

Jennings, bypassed by the Knicks in the 2009 draft, is averaging 20.1 points against New York for his highest mark against an Eastern Conference opponent.

Woodson expects Jason Kidd to return Friday after the veteran sat out one game with a sore lower back. Kidd missed the first matchup with Milwaukee.

Bucks forward Larry Sanders was out Wednesday due to illness and his status is uncertain.

Carmelo scores 25 as Knicks beat Bucks 96-86

By ADRIANO TORRES
Posted Feb 02 2013 12:45AM

NEW YORK (AP) Knicks coach Mike Woodson wants to know why his team waits until the second half to lock down on defense.

If his players would simply start off that strong, winning could be so much easier.

Carmelo Anthony scored 25 points, Amare Stoudemire had 17 points and seven rebounds off the bench, and New York extended its winning streak to three games with a 96-86 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night.

After Monta Ellis gave the Bucks a 12-point lead, their largest of the night, on a turnaround jumper in the opening minutes of the third quarter, the Knicks got stingy on defense. They chipped away at Milwaukee's lead and went ahead for good late in the period.

"I wish I could explain," Woodson said. "If we played like we did in the third and the fourth quarter, we would have won this thing going away."

After a strong showing to close the third quarter, the Knicks' defense kept it up, keeping the Bucks scoreless for almost 5 minutes to begin the final quarter before Brandon Jennings made a layup.

Milwaukee shot 20 for 42 in the first half and 6 of 13 on 3-pointers for a 53-47 lead, but withered in the second half. The Bucks hit just 13 of 41 shots and were limited to 13 points in the fourth quarter.

"You've got to give Milwaukee credit, too. They're 8-4 with their coach," Woodson said. "They've beat some good teams on the road and they came in here and played a good first half. But I thought our third- and fourth-quarter defense kicked in and secured the win for us."

The Knicks will need similar defensive efforts if they plan to make a deep playoff run this season.

"I think overall over the past six or seven games we have been playing pretty good defense," said Anthony, who has scored 20 or more points in a career-best 31 straight games, extending the single-season franchise record.

"The first quarter, we still have to work on that and figure that out. But for the most part, for the whole course of the game, we've been holding the teams to a low percentage shooting-wise. We'll take that on any given night. Offensively we're going to miss shots, they're going to make shots, but if we can buckle down and do what we've been doing these last couple of weeks, we'll be fine."

J.R. Smith had 17 points and Tyson Chandler pulled down 20 rebounds in New York's fourth straight win over Milwaukee.

"You've got to have that type of effort for 48 minutes," Stoudemire said.

Ersan Ilyasova led the Bucks with 19 points and seven rebounds. Monta Ellis added 16 points and Jennings scored 14.

Ellis and Jennings combined to make eight of 23 shots in the second half.

"We were just missing shots. They're not a great defensive team," Jennings said. "They do more switching but I think that made us hesitant a little bit. We were just missing point-blank shots."

The Knicks trailed for the majority of the game until late in the third quarter when they stormed back.

With 4:02 remaining in the period, New York was down 70-63 after a turnaround jumper by Ellis. But the Knicks went on an 8-0 run as Anthony hit a 3-pointer and Raymond Felton connected on an alley-oop with Chandler, who finished with nine points.

Smith then hit a 3-pointer to make it 71-70 with 2:04 left.

Ilyasova drove to the basket and was fouled by Chandler before making a free throw that tied it at 71. Samuel Dalembert briefly gave the Bucks a 73-71 lead with a tip-in after Ilyasova stole the ball from Anthony.

But the Knicks answered right back. Anthony scored on a drive and was fouled, converting a three-point play that put New York ahead for good with 42.5 seconds left in the third.

"For us offensively, we just kind of hit a wall there. We couldn't score enough points," Bucks coach Jim Boylan said. "We were searching for offense pretty much the whole second half. We only had 20 points in the third quarter and we've been a pretty good third-quarter team coming out of the locker room. But tonight for whatever reason, we just didn't have enough."

The Knicks opened the fourth quarter with another run. Stoudemire made a pair of free throws and a hook shot in the lane to give the Knicks a 78-73 lead before Milwaukee called a timeout after Pablo Prigioni drew a charge on Mike Dunleavy with 9:35 left.

Milwaukee missed its first five shots and turned the ball over twice before Jennings' layup made it 78-75.

The Knicks then went on an 8-2 run and never looked back. Iman Shumpert scored on a layup and Chandler followed with a dunk to make it 82-75. Marquis Daniels answered with a layup for Milwaukee but Shumpert made another basket and Felton followed with a 3-pointer to make it 87-77 before the Bucks called timeout with 4:58 to go.

"We've got to get after guys from the start to finish," Stoudemire said. "So we started off a little bit slow tonight but we were able to get it going in the second half."

NOTES: The Knicks honored former New York City Mayor Ed Koch during a timeout in the first quarter. Koch died of congestive heart failure Friday at 88. ... New York Yankees ace CC Sabathia was in attendance. ... The Bucks had won 12 of 14 against the Knicks before losing four straight. ... The Bucks are 0-12 when held to 90 points or fewer this season. They scored 88 in a loss to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night.

Notebook: Knicks 96, Bucks 86

Joshua Newman, for NBA.com
Posted Fri Feb 01, 2013 11:52 PM - Updated Sat Feb 02, 2013 1:06 AM

THE FACTS: Carmelo Anthony led four players in double figures with a game-high 25 points, Tyson Chandler hauled in 20 of the Knicks' season-high 50 rebounds and the Knicks rode a strong second half to a 96-86 win over the Milwaukee Bucks at Madison Square Garden.

It was the fourth win in five games for the Knicks, who got 17 points apiece from Amar'e Stoudemire and J.R. Smith, and 14 points and eight assists from Raymond Felton, who appeared to re-injure the right pinky that kept him out for 12 games from Dec. 26 to Jan. 24. Felton iced it and came back to play a solid fourth quarter to help take the Knicks home.

For the Bucks, Ersan Ilyasova finished with a team-high 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting, while the backcourt duo of Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis combined for 30 points, but shot just 12-for-38 from the field.

Down as many as 12 points in the first half, the Knicks outscored the Bucks, 49-33, after halftime while holding them to 13-for-41 shooting over the final two quarters.

QUOTABLE: "If we played like we did in the third and fourth quarter, we would have won this thing going away. You have to give Milwaukee credit. They played a good first half, but I thought our third and fourth quarter kicked in and secured the win for us."
-- Knicks head coach Mike Woodson.

THE STAT: The Knicks are not a great rebounding, ranking just 21st in the NBA rebounding differential, 25th in rebounds per game and 17th in opponents rebounds per game. Friday was a different story as the Knicks outrebounded the Bucks, 50-40, behind those 20 rebounds from Chandler. The Knicks are now 12-7 when they outrebound their opponent, 16-10 when they grab at least 40 rebounds and 1-2 when they grab at least 50 rebounds.

TURNING POINT: Down 66-59, with 5:27 to go in the third quarter, the Knicks closed the period on a 15-7 run to get back in the game and take a 74-73 lead going to the fourth. During that spurt, the Knicks shot 6-for-9 from the field, including 2-for-4 from 3-point range. Once they had the lead, the Knicks merely extended it thanks in large part to a strong defensive effort. In the fourth quarter, the Bucks were outscored, 22-13, while shooting just 33.3 percent from the field.

HOT: Since returning from preseason knee surgery, Stoudemire has flourished in his new role off the bench. Coming off a 14-point performance on Wednesday that saw him shoot 7-for-7 from the field, Stoudemire was at it again on Friday, shooting 5-for-10 from the field and 7-for-8 from the foul line for his 17 points in just 24 minutes of action. Stoudemire had come into the game averaging 16.4 points and 6.3 rebounds in 24.8 minutes over his last five games.

NOT: Since making his season-debut on Jan. 17 following knee surgery last spring, Iman Shumpert has struggled to find his way on both ends, but specifically on defense. That trend continued on Friday evening. After playing just 6:39 in the first half, Woodson pulled the second-year guard after just 1:01 of the third quarter after a defensive breakdown. Averaging just 20.2 minutes over his first six games of the season, Shumpert played just 18 minutes and scored seven points. However, all seven points came in a fourth quarter in which he played 10 minutes, and shot 3-for-5 from the field.

QUOTABLE II: "You just have to deal with it. I knew this day was gonna come when I got hit on it really hard and the pain was gonna be very, very painful, But I'm alright, it's just something I gotta deal with"
-- Felton on re-injuring right pinky.

QUOTABLE III: "I just wanted to be aggressive tonight, I felt like we needed a little pick-me-up, so I just tried to get a little more lively on the boards."
-- Chandler, who registered the first 20-rebound game for a Knick since David Lee grabbed 20 on April 2, 2010 at the Golden State Warriors.

INSIDE THE ARENA: Actor John Leguizamo, actress Penny Marshall and Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia, and Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys watched the game courtside.

NOTABLE: Anthony scored at least 20 points for the 31st consecutive time, extending his own single-season franchise record. The 31 straight games of at least 20 points is the longest such streak of Anthony's career, while Friday marked the 36th time in 37 games this season he has reached at least 20. The franchise record for most consecutive 20-point games is 33 by Richie Guerin.

NOTABLE II: The Knicks' win, combined with a Miami Heat loss on Friday, night leaves the Knicks a half game behind the defending NBA champions in the Eastern Conference. With that, Woodson will coach the Eastern Conference All-Star team in Houston on Feb. 17 if the Knicks win at home Saturday against the Sacramento Kings and the Heat lose Sunday against Toronto. Should it come to be, Woodson will be the first Knicks coach to head an All-Star Team since Jeff Van Gundy in 2000. The Knicks hold the season-series lead on the Heat, 2-0.

NOTABLE III: Friday marked the 29th anniversary of a significant moment in Knicks history. On Feb. 1, 1984, Bernard King scored 50 points at the Dallas Mavericks, one night after he scored 50 at the San Antonio Spurs. With the 50 points on Feb. 1, King became the first player to score 50 points on back-to-back nights since Wilt Chamberlain accomplished the feat in February 1964. The last player to score 50 points in back-to-back games at the time was Rick Barry in February 1967.

UP NEXT: For the Knicks, Saturday vs. Kings, Monday vs. Pistons, Wednesday @ Wizards. For the Bucks, Saturday vs. Magic, Tuesday @ Nuggets, Wednesday @ Jazz.

• Bucks: Lamb, Przybilla
• Knicks: Camby, Wallace

• Bucks: --
• Knicks: --

• Lead Changes: 8
• Times Tied: 5

• Arena: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
• Officials: #19 James Capers, #31 Scott Wall, #63 Derek Richardson
• Attendance: 19033
• Duration: 2:10