Atlanta Hawks (106) Milwaukee Bucks (102) OT Game Recap

(Photo by Scott Cunningham/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Hawks capped off a sluggish night with a 106-102 overtime victory over the visiting Milwaukee Bucks. I say sluggish because it wasn’t the Hawks best performance defensively to date but I will point out that the Bucks came into the game playing their best basketball of the season and had won six games in a row. So they in fact had been playing pretty good basketball coming in.

Offensively the Hawks didn’t do much of anything new. It was all Joe Johnson one on one down the stretch and in overtime. The difference in this game was those long jump shots and tough fade aways went in. One on one Joe can be deadly. I couldn’t figure out why Milwaukee didn’t double team him late but feel fortunate that Scott Skiles chose not to. Joe finished with 24 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. However, he was hardly efficient needing 26 shots to score those 24 points.

Al Horford bounced back from a couple of tough games to put up a double double of 17 points and 10 rebounds. Josh Smith continued his magnificent play with 22 points, 15 rebounds, and 6 assists. It seems like when he is playing well he flirts with a triple double every night. Jamal Crawford scored 14 points but had a horrible night shooting the ball (3-14) in what has become a full blown slump following the All Star Break.

Pretty much a typical game from the Hawks in my opinion especially one when they are only moderately interested in defending. One of the changes I did see was Marvin Williams played 40 minutes to Mike Bibby’s 23 and was in the entire overtime period. I guess Woodson sensed that he might have needed an extra defender on the floor. Williams didn’t take advantage of the extra playing time offensively attempting only five shots and scoring 7 points. With time winding down we even saw coach Woodson make a defensive substitution as he ran Mo Evans in for Jamal Crawford. The Bucks hit a three on that possession so go figure.

It wasn’t pretty but it was a win and that is a lot better than a loss. Could be a first round playoff preview.