Game Preview: Knicks @ Bucks, 3/27/2021

UPDATE: The preview is still fine, more or less, but the date has been changed to the represent the fact that Stingy doesn’t know what day it is. Pandy problems. Please enjoy some unwarranted Robert Randolph slander.

I really regard Robert Randolph’s rotten riffs right up there with the most dissatisfying jingles in the game. Suffocate me to the end, my god. The boot-stomping, cowguys and gals, doomp-clomp of it all! If you want me dead, just don your best neckerchief and terrify my rotting arteries with your wailing slide guitar. The sheriff of Friday Town is riding to the square. He eases his elbow down to the saddle horn and doffs his 400-gallon hat. Gotta get there, partner.

As I just vomit all over myself and you walk around me, disgusted, not especially fazed.

Photo by Vernon Biever/NBAE via Getty Images

Projected Starters

Missing Reggie Bullock proved troublesome yesterday as the Knicks really showed how Reggie has become a large part of their offensive identity. Frank Ntilikina’s reluctance to let it fly and hurl his body around Julius Randle’s brawny obstacle course of screens meant there was a staple of the offensive diet they just couldn’t cook down. It showed as they got walloped through three quarters by the terrible defenders the Wizards have.

Elfrid Payton v Jrue Holiday

Alec Burks v Donte DiVincenzo

RJ Barrett v Khris Middleton

Julius Randle v Giannis Antetokounmpo

Mitchell Robinson v Brook Lopez

If Bullock is back, great! I wouldn’t be surprised if coach Thibodeau is inclined to give Alec Burks the starter bump if Reggie remains sidelined. I kinda like the rambunctious pairing of Immanuel Quickley and Frank Ntilikina together so if it happens, maybe that’s a good thing.

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Keys & Matchups

It’s great to have Mitchell Robinson back. In their first matchup of the year Robinson made a terrific effort to get back in transition and wall up at the free throw line as he did his best to corral the flood of Antetokounmpo while the rest of the Knicks chased him down like a battery of barracudas. The Knicks won that game. Of course that one also involved Elfrid Payton having a career night and Frank Ntilikina en fucking fuego blistering the Bucks with a jolting barrage of threes. So New York just needs another couple of those and everything should be fine.

Of course, the Bucks repaid the debt a month later and here we are now. A rubber match in the other Mecca.

Game is at 8:00, Knicks by -2.

Photo by Vernon Biever/NBAE via Getty Images

Parting Shot

New York has been hounding the top teams lately and coming up just short. Sometimes in the land of giants you have to throw your weight around. Julius Randle may have a little thigh tenderness, but he’ll have to power through it and take it to the best’s chest.

Photo by Vernon Biever/NBAE via Getty Images