
Nearing the end of their four-game road trip, the Milwaukee Bucks will be in Madison Square Garden for the second time this season to take on the New York Knicks this afternoon. It will be the third meeting between the teams, splitting the first two games and the Bucks winning the last game in MSG.
It’s been a tale of two different seasons for both teams since their last meeting in early November. The Bucks win took them to 6-6 and then proceeded to lose the next two games before ripping off eight straight wins to get the season back on track. As for the Knicks, including the loss to the Bucks, they’ve gone 5-10 in their last 15 games, including losing five of their last six games as they sit at 12-14.
This is the first game of a back-to-back for the Bucks, as they conclude their road trip tomorrow against the Boston Celtics, so ideally they can wrap this up and rest but that’s easier said than done against a pesky Knicks team.
The Milwaukee Bucks will need more production from their bench against the New York Knicks
I know I shouldn’t be expecting too much from a group that consists of Rodney Hood, Wesley Matthews, DeMarcus Cousins, and Javonte Smart, but they combined for four points against the Houston Rockets and 10 points against the Miami Heat.
Since George Hill has been out of the lineup, the Bucks have struggled to get much of anything from their reserve players not named Pat Connaughton. Hood has essentially struggled all year, Matthews is still working his way into NBA game readiness (and is also old), Cousins is in a similar boat to Matthews, and Smart is still an undrafted rookie guard so it’s unfair to ask too much of him in Hill’s absence.
I’ve said before that there is a clear nine-man rotation for the Bucks in the playoffs assuming everyone (including Brook Lopez) is fully healthy. The four bench players would be Connaughton, Hill, Donte DiVincenzo, and Bobby Portis, which is a very solid bench unit that can give the Bucks a ton of juice.
Right now, we’re seeing the limitations of asking these fringe rotation players to do more than they should, and, as a result, we’re seeing heavy minutes for the Bucks’ big three which isn’t ideal for an 82-game season.
Hopefully one of these fringe guys can find a bit of a rhythm in the next couple of games to not only give the Bucks a jolt off the bench in the short term but prove they can be a potential playoff rotation player as well.