Milwaukee Bucks vs. New York Knicks Preview: Please Let Us Trust You

The Milwaukee Bucks stayed on brand Thursday night with a 119-111 loss to the Brooklyn Nets, and tonight they face NYC’s other team, the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. With Thursday’s loss, the Bucks have almost cemented themselves to that eighth seed. The seventh seed is not out of reach, but the Washington Wizards own the tiebreaker and will be angling for that seventh spot and a shot at the depleted Boston Celtics.

Bucks Update

Thanks to the inepitude of the Miami Heat and the Washington Wizards, Milwaukee still somehow have a chance for the 6th seed. Milwaukee’s offense has still been humming along rankinf in the Top 10 but poor shooting nights from Giannis will doom them. Milwaukee still has a favorable schedule down the stretch but we can’t expect them to take advantage. Unfortunately, we will have to deal with a game lacking the Bucks’ star, as Giannis is out with ankle soreness.

Player to Watch: Khris Middleton

The newly named Team USA player has been having a good stretch of games. Thursday he was the best Bucks player scoring 30 points and filling up the stat sheet. Milwaukee will need him to have another good shooting game to counter an inneficient Giannis or Jabari game.

Knicks Update

The Knicks have been going nowhere but down since Kristaps Porzingis tore his ACL in an earlier matchup against Milwaukee. The Knicks had lost four in a row but sandwiched those with wins against the Washington Wizards two weeks ago and Miami last night. New York will look to continue playing spoiler in the battle for the 7th seed tonight. New York does have a few injuries with Enes Kanter, Lance Thomas and our favorite son Michael Beasley all considered Day-To-Day.

Player to Watch: Trey Burke

Burke went from a lottery pick to out of the league in the recent past. But he has come back into the NBA and has been providing strong performances for the Knicks. Burke in the last five games has been averaging 22.4 points and eight assists per game. He has the ability to get hot, so Milwaukee will need to keep an eye out for him.