Just four minutes into the Second Quarter, Obi Toppin had scored 6 points, 1 rebound, and 1 assist on perfect shooting. Working with George and Paul, he tied the score and forced the Bucks to call timeout.
After Buden called the timeout, the Knicks took the opportunity to make another round of adjustments.
While most teams liked extending their starters' minutes to deal with the Knicks' Bench Bandits, New York simply changed its approach tonight.
Before you could extend your core players' minutes, I'd already extended mine!!
In this League, few people understood running starters into the ground better than Thibodeau!!
I just hadn't used it before because the team was deep enough that I didn't need to. But that didn't mean I'd really "forgotten my roots"!~~
After the timeout, the Knicks immediately put out a lineup of Paul, Chen Xi, George, Toppin, and Hartenstein, sending several core rotation players back onto the court early.
Meanwhile, the Bucks returned with Lillard, Connaughton, Clarkson, Jordan Nwora, and Portis.
The gap in strength between the two lineups was obvious to the naked eye.
Buden had been outmaneuvered.~~
Under these circumstances, unless someone on the Bucks suddenly went supernova while the Knicks played poorly, Milwaukee was in for a miserable time.~~
The game quickly resumed.
The Bucks had possession first.
Lillard brought the ball across half court and faced Chen Xi's defense at the top of the arc.
He signaled early. While still two steps away from Chen Xi, he called for a Pick-and-Roll, accelerated around the screen, then used Nwora's second screen to shake Chen Xi and draw George on the switch.
He slowed slightly and adjusted his rhythm. Lillard steadied his somewhat complicated emotions, then used a Front Crossover into a Crossover Step drive, followed by a Step-back. He gathered and