Bucks Gaming fall to Knicks Gaming, 90-81

The Milwaukee Bucks Gaming team faced off with the Knicks affiliate on Friday, and lost 90-81 despite an excellent performance from Game6Drake.

Bucks Gaming were back in action on Friday night, matching up with Knicks Gaming, who in spite of similar struggles to Milwaukee have found a spark of late.

In spite of some good performances from across the roster, and a star-caliber effort from Game6Drake at point guard, the Bucks were unable to come away with a win that was essential to keeping their faint playoff hopes alive.

The Knicks had a 3-8 record coming into this game, while the Bucks were at 4-7. The Knicks, despite their record, have earned an automatic spot for the playoffs thanks to a recent win in the Ticket tournament. As a result, the overall appraisal of their season has a much more positive slant than Milwaukee’s.

More from Bucks News

• Bucks 2023-24 player profile: Can MarJon Beauchamp take a leap?
• Piecing together the Milwaukee Bucks’ dream starting 5 in 5 years
• Predicting Thanasis Antetokounmpo’s 2023-24 stats for the Bucks
• Grade the trade: Bucks land reputable backup guard in swap with Pacers
• New workout video should have Milwaukee Bucks fans excited

The Bucks are now six games behind the top of the standings, and two games behind the eighth seed, but sit at 15th overall — there are several 5-win teams ahead of them, even discounting the Knicks (who are already in). Moreover, the Bucks have the worst point differential in the league (-69), which doesn’t bode well for potential tiebreaker scenarios.

Still, the stakes were high in this one, as was evident from a high octane start — both teams were hitting perimeter jumpers, and getting layups on the break. Drake distributed the ball really, really well, getting all of his teammates to at least six points in the first quarter, but was not defending his matchup at the point well. On top of that, the Knicks were leaking out very quickly after missed shots, leading to an edge in fast break points, and allowing them to overcome an early Milwaukee lead. The first quarter ended 25-23 in New York’s favor.

In the second quarter, the Knicks started imposing themselves on the boards. Goofy, their center, had multiple offensive rebounds that led directly to points. For the Bucks, both BigMeek and STL2LA, playing the 4 and the 5 respectively, had picked rebounding-based archetypes, but weren’t effectively boxing out, rendering those attributes insignificant. Drake was still balling, reaching his double-double in first half, but continued to give up buckets to his direct opponent, Knicks PG Adam.

As the half wound down, Goofy seemed to become more dominant on the boards, with his six rebounds driving the Knicks to a 12-5 advantage on the glass at that point. With 22 points to go with them, Goofy was the undoubted star of the show, yet Drake was doing his best to keep pace for the Bucks with 13 points and 13 assists at the break. Bucks Gaming had a 7-of-10 showing from deep to thank for being right there with the Knicks at the interval.

As the third quarter got underway, the Knicks began to pull away behind some clever play from Goofy. They fed him the ball under the basket, and he exploited 2K’s “dead zone” to get at least a half dozen contact dunks. If you can get to the right spot on the court, the 2K game engine has some flaws. One of them is allowing centers directly under the basket to get a high number of dunk attempts — and if you pick the right animation setup, most are unblockable.

This isn’t sour grapes — any team can do it, Goofy was just attacking it more than the Bucks. Viewers were complaining in the comments of the Twitch stream that this tactic, although technically fair, was also low-skill, which shows that the actual game of 2K needs to evolve along with the presentation of the content.

https://twitter.com/BucksGG/status/1022978145258020864

Drake did his best to keep the Bucks even, continuing to find people and hitting midrange jumpers consistently, but the Knicks eked out a lead, heading into the final frame up 70-65.

In the fourth, Bucks Gaming went cold with their shooting, and started getting turned over. If you can match Goofy’s high efficiency twos with threes, you have a chance, but the shooting ran out after three close quarters, and the Knicks pulled away.

Adam hit the dagger with 1:51 left, to push the lead to 85-74, and it was never close again.

Bucks Gaming will be back in action on Saturday, August 4, where they will play Warriors Gaming Squad in a 4pm CT tip.