Turning the Tables

The Knicks completed a season sweep of the Bucks with a formula that's been 73 games in the making.

Good morning! Sorry this didn’t go out earlier, but had to get a bonus newsletter out after last night’s very encouraging win over a potential first round opponent. Happy Saturday, everyone.

Game 73: Knicks 116, Bucks 107

If you’re a Knicks fan of a certain age, I don’t have to tell you what it feels like to be dominated by another team.

Over the years, more than a few opponents have had New York’s number. Occasionally those mountains seemed unscalable, and as a result, it felt like the Knicks would never succeed in capturing the ultimate prize. Thankfully, Bill Russell finally decided to call it quits when he did, but only after beating Reed, Clyde & Co. en route to an 11th NBA title. History nearly repeated itself a quarter century later when Michael Jordan temporarily hung up his hightops, but the Rockets - another team that had New York’s number - had other ideas.

There have been other, less scarring examples throughout franchise history, and each time, the hope has been that the Knicks would discover a way to eek out but a few victories when it mattered.

That was the case not long ago with the Milwaukee Bucks, who beat New York 28 out of 35 times over a stretch lasting nearly 10 seasons immediately following Giannis Antetokounmpo’s rookie year. In two of the seven wins, Antetokounmpo was in street clothes.

So to be three weeks away from a potential first round bout with the 2021 NBA Champions and riding a five-game winning streak against the team that seemed to own the Knicks a mere 15 months ago, it’s hard not to be a little impressed, with the most recent win perhaps the highlight of the bunch.