Knicks lost again after scoring 114 points, and you would have guessed it - it was defense again, or lacking thereof.

Without Chandler and Jefferies, D\'Antoni was forced to play Amare at 5, Melo at 4, and moved Landry to 3. The game started so promising from the tip off. The Knicks team was so aggressive - Melo attacked the basket, Amare found his joy to cut to the basket like he did with Suns, and Jeremy was running the show, freely. They started with 10-10, but then the change came, or better to say Bucks\' change came. Dunleavy decided to light everyone up, and Novak certainly is no match for him. With Baron at the point, all of the sudden, the offensive flow wasn\'t there anymore. The lead kept shrinking, and in the second half, Knicks was actually the one desperately chasing. With some smart plays of Lin and Braon in the 4th quarter, they got as close as one point, but they came up short on the end.

A frustrating loss, but there is certainly signs of improvement. The defense in the last few minutes looked pretty intense and decent.

I am just going to try to rate players\' performance in this game, with my own observation. Because it\'s a loss against No. 9 in the East, so nobody gets an A.

Amare: B+
I am generous with Amare in this game, because I felt this is actually the best game he played in a long time. He can score, especially when he cuts to the basket, and the guards can find him. He did that tonight. He started aggressively with a few catch & dunks, and finished aggressively. One thing I\'d like to praise him for, is he actually tried to defend. He tried to challenge some shots, and grabbed 11 rebounds. On the end, he fouled out. Boy, if you know Amare, you would have known that he was trying tonight.

Lin: B+
I am kind of harsh here with Lin for not giving him an A-, because I wasn\'t too happy with his decision making at the defensive end. He ran the show pretty well, especially out of gate, he came with a vengeance. You can see he\'s serious and wants to win tonight. He got his teammates involved really early. Amare, Melo, Landry were all beneficiaries. He picked and chose his shots, and didn\'t force at the offensive end. He came up pretty big at semi-crunch time when they got that serious catch-up run with his scoring and assists. But at the defensive end, too often, he ran to double or help when it wasn\'t necessary, and left his own man open, and when the ball swung back, he was caught in the middle guarding nobody. He played his best defense after he got his 5th foul. Not just that sequence he forced Jennings with that prayer, but a few possessions before and after that. Lin followed Jennings around, kept his head up and one arm up, but his feet grounded. He didn\'t go for any fake, and stayed with his man. That\'s disciplined I am talking about. He\'s not going to block any jump shot with his height. So, don\'t need to lean, coz it only risks for fouls. He just needs to bother the shot with hands up. Hopefully he can learn from his own success.

Landry: B
Fields gets a solid B because he made good use of his minutes at the 3, and contributed both offensively and defensively. In offense, with the freedom he\'s got, and guarded by bigger but slower forwards, instead of usual quick SGs, he drove to the basket or sliced behind defenders for alley oops. He played very smoothly at the offensive end. Maybe he could see more time at the 3 in the future.

Melo: B-
Melo is always controversial. He started very well, by attacking the basket instead of just resorting to long jump shots. It was tough for him to play the 4, because he\'s not used to the banging down low and grab rebounds. He didn\'t do great in that department, but he did better than usual. His numbers certainly got hurt when he stayed extended minutes with the second unit, when Dunleavy lit them up, and Baron couldn\'t throw the ball into the ocean. He went to the freethrow line 10 times, a testament of his aggressiveness today. Too bad he didn\'t convert the most important dunk and freethrow. If that was a converted AND One, we could have been talking about a win here. As a 4, he didn\'t protect the board well, but he\'s playing out of position, and he worked harder than those losses before tonight.

JR: D-
JR is a pure negative tonight at the starting lineup. Coach was force to play Lin and Baron together for extended time. There was NO shooting guard. JR was so bad that he didn\'t contribute either side. Speaking of all the trading possibilities, maybe the first priority is a quality SG.

Coach: C-
The starting lineup was a forced move, but it worked. The first sub was a disaster. He left Melo with Baron, Novak, and Shumpert. There was no protection at the rim, and there was no speed at perimeter. That\'s what burned Knicks severely. Dunleavy came into the game, lit Novak up, and Ilyasova and Goodon burned them at the board. D\'Antoni shouldn\'t have subbed 4 players at once, and he should have called timeout much earlier, and sub Amare and Landry back in much earlier. Instead, he waited till the whole lead vaporized. Then the Bucks sat in the driver\'s seat despite small lead Knicks still had. In the second half, it was a catching-up game.

Novak: C-
Too bad the homeboy kind of disappointed me. He made a few threes, but he hurt the Knicks defensively really bad. He\'s no defensive specialist, and he under- or over-commits all the time. Bucks\' shooting from perimeter was just that hot tonight, but it certainly had something to do with Knicks\' defense.

Baron: C
The old fox is really old, no lift and no speed. When he was on the floor, the offense was slow, and the defense was like a welcome gate. The reason he didn\'t get a C- or D is because he did provide some much needed spark in the 4th quarter when Knicks tried to come back.

It was a must win, and a could have won. Certainly a disappointing loss, but we see it\'s more like a team then a few nights back. I don\'t know who Knicks\' defensive coach is, or whether they have one. Team rebounding is so important in basketball, but Knicks is a mess in that department. Guards rebounded way too little in this game. The main reason is, they are always out of rebounding positions. As I said earlier, guards like Lin wanted to help with double team, but they don\'t pick and choose who to double, just ran at the guy who has the ball. Where is the scouting report? They should know walking into the game, who you have to double, and who can actually dare to shoot. Often times, they committed to double, when the ball swung back to outside, they are nowhere near perimeter shooters. Either Bucks score, or long shot led to long rebounds. Guess what? Knicks guards are NOT in position for long rebounds. In high competitive sports, details could decide your final results.

Hopefully they can review this game carefully, and build on the aggressiveness, but start to play defense from the beginning.