Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways from 120-112 win over New York Knicks

Big Bucks

The struggling Bucks were the beneficiaries of some modest reinforcements in the form of Tyler Zeller‘s return to the lineup, who had been on the mend after taking a hard foul from Joel Embiid during the Bucks’ recent win over the 76ers.

Zeller (12 points and 6 rebounds) and starting center John Henson (14 and 4) put in hard minutes against Knicks centers Enes Kanter and Kyle O’Quinn, helping to neutralize the only positional advantage the Knicks could tout in this matchup.

Kanter and O’Quinn combined for 30 points and 10 rebounds, which is certainly not shabby. The Bucks centers were right there though, scoring a combined 26 points and pulling down 10 rebounds of their own.

Henson was huge on the defensive end as well, as his four blocked shots can attest to. To be fair, he was manhandled in the post a few times by Kanter, but that’s par for the course.

Both of the former Tarheels manning the pivot for the Bucks have been injured recently. While neither is dominant, when they are both healthy the Bucks can at least maintain a presence down low throughout an entire game, on both ends of the floor.

Their play turned out to be a key in this game. If Kanter in particular had been allowed to dominate, it’s likely that the Knicks would have put the Bucks into a big hole at some point in this game.

Hopefully Zeller and Henson then made it to a TV in time to see their alma mater knock off Duke in the ACC tournament.