Brook Lopez is walking to the Milwaukee Bucks’ bench equal parts dumbfounded and frustrated. His head coach Doc Rivers just called another timeout to stop the bleeding. Specifically, Rivers called a timeout because Lopez’s defensive assignment, Knicks All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns , just galavanted to the basket unimpeded for the umpteenth time, and there are still nine minutes and 31 seconds left in the second quarter.
The bleeding would last all night long. Lopez is sulking, his shoulders are sunken well below his neck. Towns has 17 points, and after making his first three attempts from downtown, Lopez closed out hard, only for Towns to pump-fake, drive by the Bucks big man, then throw it down with one hand, a play that sent Towns tumbling to the ground and Rivers on a quick walk mid-court after calling a timeout.
It happened again midway through the second quarter, this time courtesy of a screen Towns set on Jalen Brunson. Lopez does not have the foot speed to stay in front of Towns, who rolled hard to the rim off the screen, received the pass from Brunson, and threw down another uncontested dunk. Lopez was one of the pioneers at the stretch-five position.
At 7’0”, he hasn’t shot worse than 33.8 percent from downtown in a season since he first added the shot to his bag in 2016. But at 36 years old, he doesn’t have the foot speed, nor the youthful exuberance, to match Towns step-for-step.
Nor has he ever logged a season shooting Towns’ career average of 3.