Atlanta Hawks: 4 Observations from 115-107 Loss to Bucks

Live and Die By the Trey

If there’s any stat that really hurts, it’s the contrast in the 3-point percentages of both teams.

Team A: 9-of-41 (22.0%)

Team B: 17-of-45 (37.8%)

In most of the NBA games one will watch, a 15.8% differential in 3-point percentage is enough to doom the team on the short end of the comparison. Not so tonight. That’s right, Milwaukee is Team A.

Coach Budenholzer has completely turned the Bucks offense around in the one season he’s been there, making this game tonight an interesting matchup stylistically–both teams love to run and chuck. And even though more of the Hawks bombs fell, they still ended up with the L.

Why? Part of it is having one of the three-best players in the league on the opposing team. Part of it is shooting nearly half as many free throws as your opponent. And part of it is the Bucks shooting over 60% on 2-point attempts.

The aforementioned Alex Len was leading the charge for the Hawks’ barrage of treys, going 6-for-12, but four other Hawks made at least two triples as well, all of them downing at least 50% of their attempts.

Gunning from deep is what the Hawks do every game, and it makes them entertaining to watch. Unfortunately, it also guarantees some unreliable team results.