New York Knicks Rookie Kristaps Porzingis will start in debut against Bucks

A group of Latvians from Milwaukee gathered outside of the New York Knicks' locker room to greet Porzingis about an hour after the final buzzer. Herington said the Bucks forced her to cover uniform cleanings, tanning sessions, false eyelashes, routine manicures, and hair appointments.

The Latvian crew was decked out in Porzingis' No. 6 Knicks jersey. "We can't go up and down with the sun and the moon one day at a time".

They weren't the only Porzingis converts on Wednesday.

The cries of Moose when Greg Monroe first emerged for a regular season game as a Buck were spine-tingling though, and clearly evoked a fast start from the Bucks new signing.

And the runaway win came with Knicks star Carmelo Anthony scoring just 11 points on 4-for-16 shooting.

Knicks team president Phil Jackson had money to burn in free agency but couldn't turn any of the big names available into takers.

The New York Knicks opened their season last night with a win against the Milwaukee Bucks. The Knicks looked great in their season opener, as they handled a playoff team who is actually a great ball club.

"I think we were lackadaisical on defense tonight".

That the Knicks (1-0) put together such a great bench performance against a playoff club like Milwaukee (0-1) was somewhat ironic.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The Knicks will rely heavily on Anthony to produce each night if the Knicks are going to find the postseason. He certainly showed flashes of being able to provide that on Wednesday. He was a force in the paint for the Knicks off the bench as he shot nine free throws and was aggressive for the second unit. If the Bucks end the first quarter up double digits and Carmelo starts sulking around the court by half, we could be in for another year of the Knicks being disgusting.

"There's not a lot of 7-3 guys who can do that", Porzingis said quietly and humbly yet proudly.

After the game, Porzingis credited Anthony for finding him in places where he could attack.

His starters were solid in the opening minutes and then regressed over the course of the game.

"Anthony made his first two shots in the third quarter, cutting the Hawks"™ lead to 65-51.

Anthony went through a lengthy rehabilitation that extended through last week, a grueling physical process that required him to remove those mental barriers - "the hardest part", he said - in order to make the necessary progress.

Knicks: Host Atlanta in their home opener on Thursday.

Milwaukee was in bad shape all-around, but a less vigorous, less coherent Knicks team could have easily played a game with them. Grant tied with Anthony for five assists in the season opener and he credits the veterans for help before the season began.

New York's next game is Saturday night against the Washington Wizards. Plenty of Wisconsinites who probably barely knew we had an NBA team - I'm referring to non-basketball fans, not the historic apathy about the team beyond the Milwaukee metro area - were already critical on social media and in person after hearing the governor propose education cuts and state spending on an arena.