The New York Knicks had no fear of the deer.

Despite missing three vital backcourt men, the Knicks completed a season sweep of the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night at Fiserv Forum, downing the deer by a 116-107 final in the third and final meeting of the campaign.

The effort was enough to impress Milwaukee franchise face Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose near-triple-double (30 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists) was hardly enough to counter the shorthanded Knicks.

"They're a better team than us. Simple as that," Antetokounmpo said in his postgame comments (h/t New York Basketball on X). "If you play a team that is ... two in the East, three in the East, whatever they are, that beat you already beat you twice, you've got to come out and play with a high-level of intensity. You've got to hit first. You've got to put your body on the line. You've got to want it more, play with more exit. I don't think we did for 48 minutes [tonight]."

Antetokounmpo praised the way the Knicks shut down Milwaukee shooting, noting that New York had 16 more tries from the field in the first half, a phenomenon that the two-time MVP likened to sitting out of the first quarter entirely.

"In the first half, I feel like [Mikal] Bridges was able to read the pick-and-roll. He knew that I was going to stay with [Karl-Anthony] Towns and he was able to take advantage of that," Antetokounmpo noted. "Second half, [OG] Anunoby, he was able to, great player, able to get to his spots, knock downs some threes, get in transition. That's why they're a good team: when one guy doesn't go they have other people that can carry that load for the team."

To Antetokounmpo's point, Bridges had 19 points on 9-of-15 from the field while Anunoby staved off a Milwaukee comeback with 20 tallies in the final period alone. With the final victory, the Knicks' average margin of victory against the Bucks this season was just under 22.

With the loss, an Antetokounmpo-led Bucks team endured a season sweep at the hands of the Knicks for the first time. The scary part for Milwaukee is that the carnage may not be over: if the season ended today, the Knicks and Bucks would be doing first-round battle in the matchup of third and sixth seeds.

The Knicks' win further nestled them in the third slot on the Eastern Conference playoff bracket, as they're up three games and a tiebreaker on fourth-place Indiana. Having now dropped five of seven, the Bucks (40-33) have fallen to the bottom of the six automatic Eastern qualifiers. It's unlikely that one of the Play-In quartet catches them (they're up five on seventh-place Atlanta with nine to play) but a first-round date with the Knicks is increasingly likely.

A Knicks doubter could note that the Bucks were missing key pieces: Damian Lillard is out indefinitely due to blood clots, while former Knicks and depth stars Bobby Portis and Jericho Sims are still respectively sitting due to a suspension and a thumb injury, respectively.

Even if and when they get those men back in tow, Antetokounmpo knows the Bucks are missing something if they're going to take down the Knicks in a best-of-seven set.

"We have the regular season, nine games left, and then we have two months to change our lives," Antetokounmpo said (h/t New York Basketball on X). "That's pretty much it. We've got to lock in two months, stay healthy, and go out there and compete. That's all you've got to think about. I'm not going to think about what in December when we lost to the Knicks or, I don't know, Boston. It doesn't really matter. When you get into the playoffs, anything can happen."