Poor 3rd Quarter Downs Hawks vs. Bucks

The Atlanta Hawks were let down by poor play in the 3^rd quarter on Tuesday night as they fell to the Milwaukee Bucks by a final margin of 97-92. With that result, the Hawks drop to 18-40 for the year.

Though the Greek Freak, Giannis Antetokounmpo, did not have the finest night of his career for the Bucks, he still managed to notch 15 points and 15 boards, and the Bucks did just enough to eke out a win at home against Atlanta.

The real star of this game for Milwaukee was the recently acquired Eric Bledsoe. Bledsoe only scored 14 points, but they all, critically, came in the second half of this game, including an absolutely unremorseful dunk on former Buck Ersan Ilyasova.

Bledsoe was also everywhere on defense. A few of his highlights included: Blocking a titanic John Collins dunk attempt, forcing Dennis Schröder to miss a point-blank layup after Schröd picked Bledsoe’s pocket and forcing Dennis to boot the ball out of bounds as he was bringing it up.

The athleticism and defensive intensity of Bledsoe completely transformed this game for the Bucks in the 4^th quarter, and they definitely look like a threatening team come playoff time.

Atlanta and Milwaukee seemed to be evenly matched statistically by the end of this contest, but the main reason the Hawks lost this game was a terrible showing in the 3^rd quarter, which the Bucks won by a substantial 33-18 margin.

Though the team played strong defense on Giannis throughout, double- and triple-teaming him all over the court, he was able to pass out of those traps and the ball usually found its way to an open man in the 3^rd, when those bail-out shots were falling.

In the end, the Bucks are a playoff-bound team clawing for home court advantage throughout, and the Hawks are on their way to a top-5 draft pick in a clustered lower echelon of teams. Atlanta played well, but were outclassed by superior talent and shotmaking from Milwaukee.

Individually, the Hawks’ starters outperformed their bench counterparts for the first time in a long time.

All five Hawks starters scored in double figures, led by 18 points from Dennis Schröder. Schröd looked sharp driving to the rack, though Bledsoe’s defense clamped down on him in the second half.

Dennis finished with those 18 points on 8 of 16 shooting with 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. One of his dimes was a half-court lob to Kent Bazemore for this easy score:

DS17 was slicing and dicing early, and he event drilled two three-pointers in the first half (then went 0 of 2) in the second half. Again, Bledsoe really stepped it up in the second half – and he even did on this end-of-quarter teardrop from Schröd, but that didn’t stop it from going in, giving the Hawks a lead:

Speaking of Baze, he almost single-handedly shot the Hawks back in this game in the 4^th quarter. He scored 7 points in the game’s final 5:32, and he also contributed 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 block in 29 minutes of work.

Baze has been almost supernaturally clutch this season, and such was this case in this game as well. Kent drilled a deep three after the Hawks had been down by as many as 14 late in the 3^rd into the 4^th, but the Bucks came right back and took control of the game late.

Dewayne Dedmon logged his second straight double-double as the starting center, and he was feasting on the offensive glass early. The Bucks are a fairly poor rebounding team, and they showed that in the first half (though, concerningly, Atlanta only outrebounded them by 2).

Dedmon finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block in 27 minutes of action. He was also 2 of 3 from deep, continuing his excellent outside shooting:

DD is clearly one of the Hawks’ best players, and his effort and intensity on both ends are contagious. That energy is showcased in this sequence where he nabs an offensive board, dunks it, it pops out, so he grabs it again and finger-rolls it in:

Taurean Prince and Ersan Ilyasova combined for a rather inefficient 26 points on a combined 9 of 27 shooting. Much of that inefficiency stemmed from a lack of touch from downtown, where the two players combined for a very poor 2 of 12 shooting.

Off the bench, the headliner was DeAndre’ Bembry returning to action for the first time since December 22^nd. Though Bembry only played 12 minutes, he scored 2 points to go along with 3 rebounds, 1 assist and a +6 box plus/minus.

John Collins did not make much of an impact in this game on offense, as he could only muster 4 points on 2 of shooting. He did, however, grab 4 offensive boards (5 total rebounds) and swatted a career-high-tying 4 shots.

Collins never seemed to fully recover from getting a thunderous dunk blocked by the 6’1’’ point guard Eric Bledsoe, and that’s understandable (as it looked like a foul on the telecast).

The Bucks’ rebounding woes were typified by Malcolm Delaney getting a career-high 7 defensive rebounds. Delaney also put in 4 points (all from the free throw line) and 1 assist.

Tyler Dorsey was the first substitute off the bench, as has been the case recently, but he only played his usual minutes in the 2^nd quarter and then was iced for the rest of the game. Dorsey did not score, but logged 3 rebounds and 1 assist.

Isaiah Taylor continues to make the most of limited minutes, as he did not score in 13 minutes of action, but he was a +8 in BPM due to a high level of activity and a mastery of the drive-and-kick game. Taylor had 3 rebounds and 4 assists in his very short stint.

Next: The Atlanta Hawks Dynasty: a Blueprint for Ruling the NBA in 4 Years

The Hawks return to action tomorrow in Detroit against the Pistons. Tipoff is slated for 7:00 p.m. EST.