It was a feel-good moment when the Milwaukee Bucks were victorious in the Emirates NBA Cup Finals. Starting off the season in miserable fashion at 2-8, it was a complete turnaround for Milwaukee as they defeated a superb Oklahoma City Thunder team. If they could beat Oklahoma City, they should be able to beat anyone.
Very true, unless it’s one of the top-three teams in the Eastern Conference. The Bucks fell to 0-8 against them after their loss on Sunday afternoon.
Giannis Comments As Bucks Stay Winless Against Top East Teams
Bucks Are 0-8 Against Top 3 Teams In East
As the midway point of the season is rapidly approaching, the Bucks own a 20-17 record. That is tied for the sixth-best record in the Eastern Conference with the Miami Heat. They are just a half-game behind the fifth-place Indiana Pacers and a game behind the fourth-place Orlando Magic. They are much farther behind the top-three teams in the conference, and they haven’t helped their cause since they have been unable to beat any of them.
On Sunday afternoon, the Bucks lost in blowout fashion to the New York Knicks by the score of 140-106. They allowed the Knicks to score at least 32 points in every quarter and shoot 58% from the field. Milwaukee had no answer for the Knicks two star players as Jalen Brunson scored 44 points while Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 30 points and 18 rebounds.
That defeated dropped the Bucks record to 0-8 against the three best Eastern Conference teams in the Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics, and Knicks. Here are the results of all eight of those matchups:
- October 28 (119-108 loss at Boston)
- November 2 (114-113 loss vs. Cavaliers)
- November 4 (116-114 loss at Cleveland)
- November 8 (116-94 loss at New York)
- November 10 (113-107 loss vs. Celtics)
- December 6 (111-105 loss at Boston)
- December 20 (124-101 loss at Cleveland)
- January 12 (140-106 loss at New York)
The two games in three nights against Cleveland were lost in disheartening fashion. In the first meeting, Donovan Mitchell hit a jumper with 0.3 seconds left to secure the one-point victory for the Cavaliers. In the second, the Bucks fought valiantly without their superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, but they were outscored by 10 in the final six minutes.
It will be nearly another two months before the Bucks have to play any of these three teams. They have no games remaining with the Celtics. Milwaukee has a home outing with Cleveland on March 9 and a home game against the Knicks on March 28.
Giannis Comments After Knicks Loss
At the beginning of the season when the Bucks got off to their terrible start, Giannis made some comments displaying his frustrations. It led to fans of other teams dreaming of him becoming available via trade, although he never asked out of Milwaukee. Once their play improved, those talks of a potential trade halted abruptly.
Antetotokounmpo let some of those earlier frustrations resurface after Sunday’s no show. He said,
“We’ve gotta get our stuff together. It’s as simple as that. We did not beat Boston. We did not beat the Cavs. We didn’t beat the Knicks. Those are the top three teams, and we’ve played horribly against them.”
Now the NBA Cup win over the Thunder showed that the Bucks aren’t completely hopeless against top teams. Since that win didn’t count in the standings though, they don’t have a regular season win against any of the top-three teams in the Western Conference either. The NBA Cup game has been their only meeting with the Thunder, they haven’t played the Houston Rockets yet, and they lost 122-99 to the Memphis Grizzlies on October 31.
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