Carmelo Anthony’s Knicks Debut Could Be Mucked Up By Gnarly Bucks Defense

Carmelo Anthony will make his New York Knicks debut on Wednesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks (7:30 PM Eastern, League Pass or local TV). Fortuitously for the Knicks, Anthony's virgin game in a New York jersey will come at Madison Square Garden where, despite reactions to Wednesday's Deron Williams trade, fans will be incredibly excited to welcome their new star.

One man who hopes to ruin the fun is Scott Skiles, coach of the Bucks, whose team is well outside the Eastern Conference playoff picture but whose defense remains among the league's fiercest. Milwaukee has the No. 4 defense in the NBA, with top-5 showings in shooting defense, turnover creation and defensive rebounding. The Bucks' offense is completely bad -- worst in the league, no small feat considering the existence of the Cleveland Cavaliers -- but that defense will mess an opponent up. It's anchored by Andrew Bogut, whose continued issues with the broken arm suffered late last season have hurt his offense much, much more than they have his defense. Brandon Jennings is a fine pickpocket, and players like Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Ersan Ilyasova really get after it defensively. Roleplayers like Keyon Dooling are also a boon.

The Knicks expect to have a brilliant offense in pairing 'Melo with Amar'e Stoudemire. Whether Stoudemire can thrive despite a relative downgrade in playmaking at point guard -- Raymond Felton to veteran Chauncey Billups -- remains to be seen, but the mere presence of a second planetary object the size of Anthony should catch defenses in a pickle. Scott Skiles typically laughs at pickles, delivers a hard foul and goes about his business.

'Melo has faced the Bucks twice this season. In December, Milwaukee held him to 14 points on 4-13 shooting, but the Denver Nuggets survived. Exactly a week ago, 'Melo ripped of 38 points on 16-30 shooting in leading Denver to a win over the Bucks.