The Bucks and Knicks will open up the NBA on Christmas Day slate (12 ET, ESPN).
Two meetings in three days, both “extreme” matinees, one arena. These teams played at Madison Square Garden on Saturday before a rematch on Christmas (Noon ET, ESPN), which leads off the league’s slate of five yuletide games.
3 key storylines
- Bucks supremacy: The Bucks have beaten New York twice by a total of 29 points in two In-Season Tournament games played in Milwaukee. Their quarterfinals meeting Dec. 5, a 146-122 shootout, was a bonus matchup (these clubs will face each other five times by season’s end). Milwaukee averages about one more 3-point field goal than the Knicks but that night outscored them by 48 points from the arc (23 makes to seven).
- Star power: Each team is led by a Big Two. So far, New York’s Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson have outscored Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard 126-115 across two games. The Bucks’ advantage has come from its other starters (66-48) and its bench (75-53). But against Brooklyn Wednesday, those crews trended up for the Knicks, combining for 65.3% (79 of 121) of the scoring.
- Undersized Knicks: Ankle injuries to both Mitchell Robinson (left ankle surgery) and Jericho Sims (right ankle sprain) have the Knicks scrambling at center, pushing Isaiah Hartenstein and Taj Gibson up in the rotation or going small with Randle. The matchup inside is challenging against Antetokounmpo’s rim attacks and Brook Lopez’s extended prime. At 35, Lopez remains an inside-outside threat and is averaging a career-high 3.1 blocked shots.
All-time Christmas Day records
The Bucks are 5-4 entering this year’s Christmas Day matchup. The Knicks are 23-32.
Picks
- Bucks – Steve Aschburner
- Bucks – Brian Martin
- Knicks – Shaun Powell
- Bucks – John Schuhmann
- Bucks – Michael C. Wright
Full 2023 NBA Christmas Day schedule
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
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2023-12-25 15:13:08
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