Video: Hawks Start Slow, Fall Short to Bucks
The Hawks dropped their fourth consecutive game Wednesday night as the Milwaukee Bucks held off a frantic comeback for a 135-127 victory. Atlanta, who began the season 2-0, is now 4-10 and still reeling from injuries to key rotation players. Slow starts have become a theme for the Hawks, and a lack of urgency at the start doomed them again on Wednesday as Milwaukee jumped out to a 14-4 lead in the first four minutes of the game.
"We started every quarter in a deficit, which is troubling," Lloyd Pierce said. "It’s just the education to a young team of how to come out and start the game with a sense of urgency. The margin of error that we talked about, we have zero, and we can’t put ourselves in a deficit, but I thought our guys did a great job of fighting."
Atlanta did claw its way back into the game several times, including a 15-2 run late in the first quarter and a 13-1 spurt in the fourth. They outscored Milwaukee by a combined 16 points in the second and fourth quarters, but their sluggish start and a dominant third period from Giannis Antetokounmpo left them without enough possessions to make up the deficit late.
"The third quarter I just thought we had no answer for Giannis," Pierce said. "He just started putting his head down. We didn’t have the gaps closed defensively, and he was getting in the paint and getting to the foul line."
The reigning MVP finished with 33 points, 11 rebounds, and four assists on 12-of-17 shooting -- a rather quiet night by his standards. Save for his third-quarter burst, Antetokounmpo made his mark subtly in this game. He willingly and adeptly found open teammates when the Hawks collapsed on his drives while helping anchor Milwaukee's defense. The Bucks smothered Atlanta by 17 points in Antetokounmpo's 30 minutes and outscored the Hawks by 16 in the third quarter.
"I think we just came out, played harder, we were able to to make plays, and moved the ball real well," he said of Milwaukee's run after halftime. "When we came to the locker room everybody was upset. We were down three, gave up the lead that we had, and didn't play well. We came out in the third quarter and tried to make plays and try to do what we do -- get downhill, get in the paint, find the open guy, try to finish in the paint. ... We just did it as a team."
Trae Young and De'Andre Hunter led the way for Atlanta, scoring 25 and 27 points, respectively, and catalyzing the Hawks' offense with their blossoming two-man game. Young added eight assists while Hunter snatched 11 rebounds. Hunter was a focal point of the Hawks' late push to get back in the game, and, crucially, sat out most of the third quarter with foul trouble while Milwaukee made its pivotal run. Cam Reddish, who has struggled offensively as a rookie, played one of the better all-around games of his career as he poured in 17 point.
Offensively, the Hawks played one of their best games of the season, scoring nearly 1.14 points per possession with just 13 turnovers. Thirty-one free-throw attempts and a 14-of-30 outing from beyond the arc helped buoy the through a cold shooting night at the rim.
"I thought the first half, from an offensive standpoint, was probably our best half of the year," Pierce said. "To see Cam and to see De’Andre Hunter really were involved in that first half, and we were executing our offense moving from side to side and just getting rhythm looks, that was really the reason why we were up in the first half."
The Hawks never quite found a sustainable rhythm, however; offense came in fits and starts, and a poor defensive night reduced their margin of error for dry spells. Atlanta must find a way not only to maintain offensive potency, but avoid costly stumbles out of the gate. That falls largely at the feet of Young, Hunter, and the players on the court at the start of games. As the team grows, it will learn to eliminate those initial struggles, but the process has yet to commence.
"It’s the starters, and they know it," Pierce said. "How we start better is going to be the biggest question we have moving forward."
