Atlanta Hawks: Can Lou Williams have an impact on the Eastern Conference Finals?
The Atlanta Hawks had a rare bad game from Trae Young in the second game of their Eastern Conference Finals matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks. This situation was tailor-made for Lou Williams to come in and take the game over but he was not able to do this due to the Bucks suffocating defense.
There was even a moment when Williams faked out Bryn Forbes, getting him up in the air. Williams has been drawing fouls like this for almost his entire career. However, he did not go up to draw the foul, possibly because he was unsure if he was going to get it.
This series could be a bit of a struggle for Williams, the Bucks have the guards who can defend him and his defense is not at the level required, particularly if he plays alongside Young. He is going to get most of the non-Young minutes unless head coach Nate McMillan liked what he saw from Kris Dunn.
Can the Atlanta Hawks still benefit from Lou Williams this series?
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In order for Williams to be successful, he needs the rest of the team to be doing good things. Danilo Gallinari was huge in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals but has been inconsistent with his shooting. He still is able to exploit mismatches but needs to become part of the wall when defending Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Kevin Huerter also had a bad second game of the series which again placed more pressure on Williams’ game. Williams has averaged just over 12 minutes per game in the Conference Finals, and he has hit only 3-of-11 from the floor. He has a better percentage from deep, but a small sample size, hitting 2-of-4 from beyond the arc.
Tellingly, Williams has not made it to the free throw line in the series and has only two assists. If he is going to make an impact on the series, he needs to get back to his usual aggressive offense and making his shots.
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If he can’t do this then he will lose his minutes to the defensive-minded Dunn. As Williams is only averaging 4.0 points and 1.0 assists per game in the series, the net effect of having Dunn on the court will not be detrimental to the Hawks.