NBA Preview: Milwaukee Bucks at New York Knicks

Added on Mar 25, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

When the New York Knicks acquired Carmelo Anthony they quickly became one of the big ‘public’ teams in the NBA. Their performance on the court hasn’t quite lived up to the hype. They’ll face a tough challenge on Friday night hosting a Milwaukee Bucks team that is in many ways their diametrical opposite.

Milwaukee Bucks at New York Knicks
March 25, 2011 4:35 PM Pacific

A good defense beats a good offense. Or is it ‘the best defense is a good offense’? We’ll find out on Friday night when the high scoring/defensively porous New York Knicks take on a strong defensive Milwaukee Bucks team that couldn’t score in a brothel with a fistfull of $100 bills. Bucks are dead last in scoring offense, but are a top 3 defense. Knicks are the #2 scoring offense in the NBA, but are tied with Phoenix for #27 in team defense leading only Minnesota and Golden State.

Milwaukee enters this game trying to drag themselves into a playoff spot with a 5-5 record in their last 10 games. The Knicks, meanwhile, are 3-7 SU and enter this game on a 1-7 SU/ATS run. They’re coming of a lopsided loss to Orlando and they haven’t been a very resilient team this year–after a loss by 10 or more points they’re 2-8 SU/3-7 ATS in their next game. This is a matchup nightmare for the Knicks and we love the Bucks commitment to solid team defense. New York has struggled against the Central Division this year going 4-10 ATS while Milwaukee has beat up on the Atlantic (at least from a pointspread perspective) going 12-2 ATS. Despite these relative performances, however, the Knicks remain a favorite of the ‘squares’ while the Bucks are a team that no one in the ‘public’ really cares about. They’re not on SportsCenter highlights and don’t get rap superstars sitting on the sidelines at their home games (assuming that there *are* rap superstars in Wisconsin). They just play tough, aggressive defense and at this point that should be enough to cash a ticket for us here. We’ll call for the outright upset but we’ve got plenty of margin for error if they fall short.

Bet Milwaukee Bucks +6 over New York Knicks