Evening, friends. Tonight's game should be...interesting. Amar'e Stoudemire is out, possibly for a while. Jeremy Lin is also out, though hopefully just for tonight. Meanwhile, the Knicks have a match-up with the Bucks, the team that sits just a game and a half below them in the Eastern Conference standings. It's a really important a game, and the Knicks will play said important game with this starting lineup:
Baron Davis
Iman Shumpert
Landry Fields
Carmelo Anthony
Tyson Chandler
Josh Harrellson will probably see a lot of minutes off the bench with no Amar'e or Jared Jeffries, and Toney Douglas and/or Mike Bibby will have to play pretty heavy minutes to spell Baron (who, let's not forget, is having his minutes monitored because he's not totally healthy).
So, this one'll be pretty weird. I've heard some folks say that this is Melo's game to take over, but I'll be looking more for him to step up his performance on defense and on the glass. Ersan Ilyasova was one of several big men that killed the Knicks last time these two teams met, and even with Tyson Chandler back this time around, Melo's will really have to play like a power forward to stop the Milwaukee front line.
Comment along here if you're watching, check out Brew Hoop for Bucks stuff, and please refrain from posting photos, .gifs, illegal streams, and pigeon-catching instructions in the thread. Find a way, Knicks.