LAS VEGAS — The Milwaukee Bucks have already met the Atlanta Hawks once this season, and it resulted in a 119-104 loss that snapped a seven-game win streak on Dec. 4. After the game, head coach Doc Rivers called the team’s performance “dead-legged” and told reporters that he believed his team “didn’t think well” in the loss.
“It’s just one game, so we won’t overdo it,” Rivers said. “We’ll watch a little film. This is one that, my guess is, I won’t watch a lot of film. I’ll start getting ready for (the next game against) Boston.”
When asked Friday afternoon about their dead-legged game against the Hawks, Bucks forward Bobby Portis cited the team’s emotional win over the Detroit Pistons that ironically clinched the Bucks’ spot in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup and put them in position to beat the Orlando Magic and thus play the Hawks for a second time this season.
This time around, the Bucks know they need to be significantly better in the categories they can control.
In the Dec. 4 loss to the Hawks, the Bucks committed 18 turnovers. They allowed Atlanta to grab 16 offensive rebounds, which led to 21 extra points for the Hawks. Atlanta scored 30 fast-break points and 64 points in the paint overall, as the Bucks regularly failed to get back in transition and allowed the Hawks to repeatedly cut behind their defense in halfcourt settings. Hawks point guard Trae Young went 0-of-9 from 3 and had a quiet night overall with 17 points and 7 assists, yet the Bucks were still thoroughly outplayed.
If their post-game comments are to be believed, the Bucks will cut many of those simple mistakes out of their performance on Saturday and play a much tighter game against Atlanta this time around. If those mistakes persist though, the Bucks are well aware of how the Hawks will make them pay.
