FINALLY.

The Knicks end their 9-game skid against the Bucks on the holiday stage.

Good morning! A quick reminder before we get started today that there will be NO NEWSLETTER tomorrow. The plan was originally to take yesterday off for Christmas, but as fate would have it, I got some unexpected writing time last night. Next newsletter will be an OKC game recap on Thursday, followed by a mini-mailbag on Friday.

Hope everyone got what they asked for under the tree.

Game 29: Knicks 129, Bucks 122

A Christmas miracle.

In a New York minute…

It was the RJ & Jalen show early on, with Brunson and Barrett combining to score the first 24 points for New York. It helped the home team stake an early lead, and despite an 8-0 Bucks run in the second, the Knicks closed the half strong to take an 11-point advantage into halftime. Another Bucks run of nine straight made things close late in the third, but New York’s bench brigade helped reclaim a comfortable lead, and despite some maddening moments in the final minutes, the Knicks brought it home without much drama.

Three Things

1. FINALLY. The last time the Knicks beat the Bucks, it was November 5, 2021.

Behind 32 points from Julius Randle, 20 from RJ Barrett, and in perhaps his last truly great game as a Knick, 23 off the bench from Derrick Rose, New York won 113-98 to move to 6-3 on the season. In case you forgot, this was the game that saw the Knicks go down by 21 early in the second only to go up by 22 midway through the fourth. It helped that Khris Middleton missed the game and Jrue Holiday played only 20 minutes off the bench as he worked his way back from injury.

Since then, it’s been nothing but misery, but all bad things must come to an end. Kinda cool that they did it on a national stage, and in convincing fashion no less. After they took an 18-16 lead midway through the first, the Knicks never trailed, and despite some dicy moments, never let it get down to a one-possession game following the first quarter.

2. Pounding the Paint. Looking at the numbers, this doesn’t seem like a game New York should have been as in command as they were. For starters, they lost the rebounding battle 44-41. The Bucks finally cooled off from deep, hitting just 31 percent of their 42 three-point attempts, but they still outshot the Knicks, who made just 8-of-26 from long range. Turnovers were about even, and both teams got to the line with roughly the same frequency.

But after getting out-hustled and out-muscled on Saturday afternoon, New York took it to the teeth of Milwaukee’s defense, scoring 72 points in the paint to the Bucks’ 50.

Some of that was opportunism (the Knicks had 23 fast break points, nine of which did not come off turnovers), but it was mostly due to New York thriving in the short midrange. This shot chart is probably not something you’d find on Daryl Morey’s whiteboard…

…but it was the best plan of attack to defeat a Bucks’ D that had been uniquely suited to slowing down the Knicks’ attack before yesterday.

3. D-Fence (finally). After sporting the worst defense in the NBA for a six-game stretch from December 5 to December 16, the Knicks have stabilized on that end of the court, giving up 114.3 points per 100 possessions over their last four games. That figure ranks 10th in the league over this stretch of games, and is more than good enough given how much their offense continues to thrive.

There wasn’t anything complicated about what they did. As Thibs said after the game, the level of intensity was ratcheted up a dew degrees compared to Saturday’s blowout loss. The Bucks still got decent looks, but they didn’t come nearly as easy.

As the Knicks continue to navigate life without Mitch, they know this is the level they have to play it if they want to have a chance against the best teams.

Play of the Day

The way this game ended, it felt like we got our holidays mixed up, because the final five minutes played out like a Halloween sequel.

It was probably fitting. A foe that’s been this big a thorn in New York’s side needed to be killed several times over before it was finally dead for good.

Up 119-103, this one shouldn’t have come down to a big shot in the final 90 seconds, but there we were, with the Knicks up just six with 90 seconds to go. The Bucks had reeled off three straight buckets sandwiched around two Brunson misses.

But you just knew that New York’s point guard wouldn’t come up empty on three straight possessions, not on this day, and not on this stage:

There were a few more mildly tense moments (can we convert a 3-on-1 fast break, just maybe, one of these days?) but for all intents and purposes, this bucket sealed the deal.

💫 Stars of the Game 💫

⭐️ Josh Hart

⭐️ ⭐️ Immanuel Quickley

5:17 left in the third quarter. The Bucks had just reeled off nine consecutive points to cut the Knicks’ lead from 13 to four. Timeout, Thibs. It was one of those spots where you knew if New York gave up the lead, they weren’t getting it back.

Nostradamus that I am, I shot off the following tweet:

Clearly it was I, and not Immanuel Quickley or Josh Hart, who was responsible for the Knicks steading the ship and emerging with a victory.

Either way, New York’s big bench guns came up huge. After a bad pass by Quick out of the timeout, he made up for it by drawing an offensive foul on Bobby Portis, which then led to a Brunson and-one that momentarily stemmed the tide.

From there, Hart and Quickley combined to score 23 of the next 33 points for the home team and give them a 14-point advantage they wouldn’t relinquish (even though they sure did try). IQ and Josh also finished the game one-two in plus/minus, which should shock positively no one considering they’re the runaway leaders in that department through 29 games:

New York’s bench was always going to be their greatest strength this season. On Monday, it finally came through in a huge spot against a team that’s had their number.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Jalen Brunson: With 38 points, six assists and zero turnovers, Brunson notched his seventh game as a Knick with at least 35 points, six dimes and two or fewer turnovers.

He hasn’t even played his 100th game for the franchise.

More than that, his seven such game ties him with Damian Lillard for the most 35-plus point / 6-plus assist / 2-or-fewer turnover games in the league since the start of last season. Only Luka and SGA (nine each) and Kyrie (eight) have more.

It’s stats like this that raise the “disrespect” narrative above the level of feisty Knicks twitter gripe and into the realm of legitimacy.

At just over 26 a night, JB is 17th in the league in scoring, 11th since an up and down first seven games, and eighth in that time frame among players who have played at least 10 games.

The seven that are higher: Embiid, Luka, SGA, Giannis, KD, Trae Young and De’Aaron Fox. All but Young, who plays for a losing team, are on everyone’s short or long list for MVP and are considered shoe-in All-Stars. Since November 8, among those eight, only Giannis is scoring at a more efficient clip than Brunson.

And I mean, for f—-’s sake…

…if these aren’t the moves of a capital-S Star, what does qualify, exactly?

Merry Christmas, indeed.

Tip-Ins…

🏀 Brunson’s 38 points was the third highest scoring game for a Knick on Christmas Day. Just how significant is that? New York has played the most Christmas games of any NBA team, now totaling 56 over their 77-year-history.

The two Knicks with higher Dec. 25 scoring outputs:

• Richie Guerin, who scored 40 in a 136-135 double-overtime victory over the Warriors in 1961. That achievement felt a bit hollow though, partially because it moved the Knicks to just 10-24, but also because Wilt Chamberlain notched 59 in the same game - still a record for most points scored against New York on Christmas day (h/t Ray Marcano).

• The great Bernard King, who put forth the greatest Christmas performance in history when he scored 60 points (…on just 30 shots…with zero threes…) in a 120-114 loss to the Nets.

So while Brunson may be third on this list, it’s arguably the greatest Christmas Day game ever for a Knick in a win when the team was actually playing for something.

🏀 Both Julius Randle and RJ Barrett finished with nice stat lines in strong overall performances, even if neither was a start-to-finish masterpiece.

Barrett got off to his hottest start of the season, scoring 14 of his 21 points in the first quarter, including two 3-pointers (both above the break, no less!). It was a welcome change from Saturday afternoon’s disaster, and hopefully a sign of things to come.

Randle, meanwhile, got stronger as the game went on, scoring 18 of his 24 in the final 26 minutes of action. Like Barrett, Julius also had multiple threes - the first time he’s done so in a game since December 13 - and did what he could against the two-time MVP:

On the whole, this was probably the best collective effort that Jalen, Julius, RJ and IQ have had.

At the very least, it’s the first time all four scored 20 points in the same game, so that probably counts for something.

🏀 Taj Gibson, man.

If you have a bad thing to say about this man, you are no friend of mine.

This was Gibson’s third block of the game, all of which came in a two-minute stretch in the second quarter, and all of which were at Antetokounmpo’s expense.

He’s the second oldest player in the last four seasons to have at least three blocks in a game, falling just short of a LeBron outing earlier this season.

It’s also just the 17th time in NBA history a player at least his age¹ had at least three blocks in under 16 minutes of action. The last one? Marcus Camby, who had four blocks in just 11 minutes for the 2012-13 Knicks almost exactly 11 years ago².

🏀 Not to be outdone, Isaiah Hartenstein was his usual awesome self, grabbing four big offensive boards and playing solid defense over 33 minutes of action.

🏀 By ending their nine-game skid against Milwaukee, New York’s longest current losing streak against another NBA team stands at four games versus the Memphis Grizzlies. They’ll get a chance to end that streak on January 13.

Up Next…

New York heads to Oklahoma City to begin their final road trip of December. Tip off is at 8pm on Wednesday night, and I’ll be back on Zoom for halftime…come say hi!

Final Thought

17-12 after 29 games, with seven of those 29 coming against the Celtics and Bucks, not to mention 17 on the road vs just 12 at home - tied with the Hawks for second fewest home games in the NBA.

All things considered, they’re in a pretty good spot.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

1. 38 years and 184 days, to be exact.

2. Also on the list: Patrick Ewing when he was with the Magic, and Herb Williams in a 1998 Knick win over the Hornets.