3 keys as the Milwaukee Bucks try to bounce back vs New York Knicks

How big of an impact will Grayson Allen have in his return to the Milwaukee Bucks lineup?

After serving his one-game suspension for the incident with Alex Caruso, Grayson Allen is expected to be back in the Bucks lineup tonight. After what I mentioned above regarding other players needing to step up if Antetokounmpo has another rough scoring night, Allen is a prime candidate.

He’s another player who can take advantage of the Knicks’ propensity to give up 3-pointers and he has in their three previous games. Allen is averaging over 16 points on 72.1 percent true shooting and is 13-of-24 from 3.

Before missing the previous two games (suspension against the Cavs, injury against the Kings), Allen had been hit-or-miss with his jumper. In his first two games back from health and safety protocols, Allen shot 6-of-13 from 3 and looked as if he’d found his rhythm again. He then shot 3-of-9 in his next three games.

Allen has seemingly struggled more with finding an offensive rhythm when the Bucks have their big three together, which is a problem despite the team being 18-4 when they play together.

Part of that is likely due to the lack of continuity that the Bucks have had with their big three playing together sporadically this season due to various injuries and illnesses. Allen hasn’t been able to find his footing within the offense regularly and has to toggle between needing to score more when one of them is out versus playing a tertiary role when the group is together.

Hopefully, this is the start of a stretch where the Bucks (and Allen) can string a few games together as a complete starting unit and get Allen more acclimated with where he fits into the offensive game plan when he’s not asked to do as much.

There are only a little over a handful of games left before the trade deadline and you can be sure general manager Jon Horst will be keeping an extra close eye on the coming performances.