NBA: New York Knicks vs. Milwaukee Bucks Preview, Odds, Prediction

The New York Knicks travel to Wisconsin to face the reigning NBA champions, the Milwaukee Bucks. The Knicks are not in a good position, and we already wrote about that in several previous previews. They are on the verge of the play-in tournament zone, and for the moment, they aren’t looking like a team that might make some noise in the postseason if they reach it in the first place. Meanwhile, the champions are inconsistent, but they are keeping pace with the top teams in the East, monitoring the situation from close.

Preview

New York Knicks (23-26, tba) come to Wisconsin with only one win in the past five games, looking pretty bad. They already played two road events before this one, losing both, the first in Cleveland, 95-93, and the second in Miami, where Heat routinely defeated the big rivals, 110-96.

A very poor opening of the clash in which NYK allowed 30 points while scoring only 16 determined the course of the entire event. After such a slow start, there wasn’t any hope for the Knicks to come back.

RJ Barrett scored only 17 points, way below what he delivered in the recent few games. Meanwhile, Julius Randle was even worse with 11 buckets, proving that he has been in a crisis over the last month. Obi Toppin scored 18 off the bench, while Immanuel Quickley added 12.

Milwaukee Bucks (30-20, tba) aren’t shining either, but at least they have more wins than losses in the past several weeks. The Bucks had three straight home triumphs before visiting the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday and losing 115-99.

Despite opening the match well, and taking the first period 35-26, the Bucks experienced a meltdown in the third period, losing that sequence by 17 points. After that, the Cavs continued in the same manner, eventually breaking the opponent’s resistance. Milwaukee was bad from downtown, making only nine threes, while hosts scored 19 shots from deep.

Giannis was excellent with 26 points and nine boards, missing just one of his 12 free throws, which is great. On the other side, he committed seven turnovers. Khris Middleton added 21 buckets, while Bobby Portis played another very good contest, with 22 points and seven boards, shooting 10-for-15 from the field. It seems that Brook Lopez’s absence won’t have any impact on the Bucks game under the rim.

Head to Head Games

The Bucks and the Knicks already met three times during this campaign. The first game was in Milwaukee, and the Knicks won, 113-98. However, the champs responded, beating the NYK in Maddison on the next two occasions – on November 10, 112-100 and December 12, 112-97.

Prediction

The Knicks practically have no chances to surprise the Bucks at Fiserv Forum. We are under the impression that NYK is yet to fall apart because they simply don’t have the chemistry on the court, and on the other side, the pressure of the public is too much for them. So after each failure, the frustrations grow bigger as well as the pressure. And that spiral will drag them down until the end of the season. We predict an easy win for the champs, who are going to solve this one by at least a 10-point margin.

Pick: Bucks -10

Here is the preview for the Clippers vs. Heat game.