Knox’s 21 points, not enough to beat the Bucks on Christmas day

Kevin Knox led the Knicks with 21 points on Christmas day but it wasn’t enough to hold off the travelling Bucks, who’s star, Giannis Antetokounmpo, torched New York with 30 points and 14 rebounds to help Milwaukee win their 23rd regular season game, 109-95.

Boxscore

The Knicks put up a 16-2 run early on the first, after trailing 10-2 and held the Bucks to a two point lead at halftime but that was all. As soon as the game entered the third quarter, which the Bucks won 36-22, the Greak Freak stepped up and delivered 11 of his total points, scoring at ease in all kinds of ways.

 

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A post shared by Milwaukee Bucks (@bucks) on Dec 25, 2018 at 3:27pm PST

“The guy puts constant pressure on you. He always puts the official in a position to make a decision on if he’s going to make a call because he’s so aggressive. The guy’s such a physical beast and they have such great spacing.”

– David Fizdale

Unlike the Knicks, who play regularly on Christmas day, for the Bucks this was their first matchup in 40 years. Antetokounmpo was the reason for why Milwaukee were selected to play on this day. In fact this was their fifth time to play on this occasion and their record is now 3-2.

New York on the other hand is the team that played more games then any other team in the league. They own the record for the most wins and for the most losses. Currently, the Knicks Christmas day record is 22-31 and yesterday’s loss was their sixth straight.

Brook Lopez dropped 20 points for the Bucks and Malcolm Brogdon added 17.

Mario Hezonja, who dunked, then stepped over Antetokounmpo on their previous meeting didn’t played last night and saved his groin from being punched as promised.

Noah Vonleh, whom coach Fizdale called the most complete player had a double-double night with 14 points and 15 rebounds, Tim Hardaway Jr. also finished in double-double with 14 buckets and 10 boards, Enes Kanter scored 12 and Emmanuel Mudiay added 11. The bench finished in single digits with Luke Kornet leading with 9 points all of them from behind the arc.

The Knicks got their last home win this season on December 1st, against the same Bucks and since then they haven’t tasted winning but once, going 1-10.