Little Nate starts but woes at point continue for Knicks

The evening started with Knicks fans giving a sustained ovation to Nate Robinson when he was introduced as the final member of Mike D'Antoni's starting lineup.

It ended with the crowd booing the Knicks off the court after a 114-107 loss to the Bucks at the Garden.

The game was headlined by the point guard matchup, with Robinson starting over Chris Duhon and Milwaukee rookie Brandon Jennings playing his first game at the Garden as a pro after the Knicks passed on him in the draft.

Robinson shot 3-for-12 and scored 13 points with seven assists and no turnovers. He was chewed out by D'Antoni for lackluster defensive play in the third quarter.

Jennings, determined to show the Knicks they made a mistake in a game he termed "personal" on Thursday, shook off a poor first half to finish with 22 points and eight assists, although he shot only 8-for-23. Then he said it wasn't personal.

Winners can say that.

"It's a big win for us," Jennings said. "It's not personal anymore. I'm over it. I'm happy where I'm at."

The Knicks selected forward Jordan Hill with the eighth pick instead of Jennings; Jennings has carried a grudge about that. He wanted to play for the Knicks.

Jennings, who played in Italy after high school, was at his best in the second half as the Bucks overcame a five-point halftime deficit.

Milwaukee outscored the Knicks 36-22 in the third quarter to take a nine-point lead into the fourth. Jennings had 10 in the quarter, and it was his three-pointer that tied the score at 64 at the 9:38 mark that led D'Antoni to call a timeout and berate Robinson for leaving Jennings open.

Earlier in the quarter, D'Antoni had screamed at the Knicks (19-30) for getting outhustled by the Bucks (22-26).

"We just didn't play with enough enthusiasm to stop them," D'Antoni said. "We're still searching. It's everybody. It's not [Robinson]. We're just not a real cohesive unit right now, for whatever reason. There's a lot of times during games we start to sag a little bit and we just don't have any collective spirit."

The Bucks opened a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter. A late 7-0 run by the Knicks closed it to 111-105, but Jennings hit a lefthanded layup over Danilo Gallinari with just over a minute left to halt the spurt.

Knicks fans were not happy when Jennings scored 55 points against Golden State on Nov. 14. He has cooled off considerably - Jennings scored a season-low two points against Orlando on Tuesday - but his presence only served to highlight the Knicks' deficiencies at the point.

"He's good," D'Antoni said. "Good little point guard."

Hill? He didn't play at all.

David Lee had 32 points and 15 rebounds for the Knicks and Al Harrington scored 22 off the bench. Ersan Ilyasova led the Bucks with 25 off the bench.

Duhon played 15 minutes and scored six points with three rebounds. The Knicks seemed to function best with Duhon and Larry Hughes in the backcourt in the second quarter, when they outscored Milwaukee 33-25 to take a 59-54 lead into the half. But it didn't last.

After seeing what they could have had in Jennings, the Knicks will see what could be theirs in July when they visit LeBron James and the Cavaliers on Saturday night in Cleveland.