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Jamal Collier, ESPN
NEW YORK — The Milwaukee Bucks picked up their seventh consecutive victory with a 130-111 win over the New York Knicks on Saturday afternoon thanks to five players scoring at least 19 points, a sign to Bucks star Damian Lillard that the team is starting to hit its stride.
“You put a lot of really good players together, it takes time to jell, get to know each other and make things work for everybody,” Lillard said after scoring 19 points in Saturday’s win. “Now you’re starting to see us win in a different type of way because we’re starting to get to know each other better.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo paced the Bucks with 28 points, seven assists and seven rebounds. Lillard was joined by Malik Beasley with 19 points. Khris Middleton played a season-high 33 minutes and matched a season-high 20 points. And Bobby Portis contributed 23 points and 11 rebounds, his fifth double-double of the season off the bench, the most in the NBA.
“We’re getting more comfortable,” Lillard said. “It’s different when you can communicate a little differently. You know what somebody likes. You know what somebody wants. You know how to make it work. We’re just continuing to get better and I think a game like tonight shows.”
Milwaukee improved to 8-1 in December, its only loss coming to the Indiana Pacers during the in-season tournament semifinals in Las Vegas. The Bucks, who rank third in the league in points per 100 possessions, have scored 130 points 12 times this season, the most in the NBA.
And their offense is playing at an even higher level this month; the Bucks own the No.1 offense in the league in December at 125.9 points per 100 possessions. In their last 10 games, the Bucks are averaging 132.4 points per game, the most over a 10-game span in franchise history, according to research by ESPN Stats & Information research.
Milwaukee’s defense has also taken a huge step forward this month. After starting the season 29th in defensive rating after five games, the Bucks are up to 19th in the category after Saturday’s win. The Bucks are holding opponents to 114.7 points per 100 possessions since the start of December, 10th in the league this month.
“Time and also experiences,” Lillard said. “We’ve had our moments of frustration as individuals and as a team, where we expect better from ourselves. Guys coming into a new situation like myself, Khris and Giannis, me being new to them, it’s normal for us all to have moments of frustration. Because you want things to be able to work for everybody, but it might not be going how you want it to go or in a comfortable way for you. We just kept working through it. We didn’t separate, we just kept trying to find solutions.”
Middleton added: “Communication is key. Especially with a veteran team that doesn’t spend that much time on the practice court. A lot of times when we’re together, we’re talking about the game, talking about how we should and how we want to play. How we can compliment each other’s game and we’re figuring it out.”
It’s why Lillard pointed out those strides were not be accident and he believes they are trending in the right direction. An uneven start to the year (the Bucks were 5-4 through nine games) forced Milwaukee to address and correct its issues up front and he believes its starting to pay off.
“We don’t come in and let things keep rolling, we come in and we try to find answers and try to improve,” Lillard said. “We’re not ignoring things. We’ve addressed everything — our struggles defensively, our struggles offensively, what works for Khris, what works for Giannis, how do we space the floor, what’s going to work for me, how do we improve our defense, what works for Brook defensively, what do we have to do in our second group – these are conversations that we straight up have been having.”