The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly From Atlanta's 131-113 Win Over Milwaukee

The Hawks have now won five in a row after their big win over the Bucks last night

Mar 4, 2026; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels (5) drives for the basket against Milwaukee Bucks forward Ousmane Dieng (21) in the third quarter at Fiserv Forum. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images | Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

Atlanta fell behind by as many as 16 points in the first half of their matchup vs the Bucks, but Atlanta dominated from there, winning by 18 and putting more distance between themselves and Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference Play-In Race.

Let's look at the good, the bad, and the ugly from last night's win.

The Good

• A win is always good, but this one was needed. It put the Hawks five games above the Bucks for the play-in tournament and if the Hawks beat the Bucks again next weekend, they will further distance themselves from Milwaukee and win the tiebreaker between the two teams.

• Dyson Daniels was terrific in this game. His stats won't wow you (they rarely do) but he finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds, and three assists. He also had to guard Giannis Antetokounmpo for much of the night and more than held his own. Daniels is talked about too often in the light of his lack of three point shooting, but he is a fantastic player who does a lot for the Hawks.

• The offense was pretty solid the whole night. Atlanta finished the game shooting 54% from the field and 44% from three. Onyeka Okongwu, Jalen Johnson, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker all had over 20 points, and the Hawks finished the game with a 132 offensive rating for the game and they had a 66% true shooting percentage. They were not facing one of the NBA's best defenses, but this was a good showing for Atlanta.

• The defense after the first quarter was solid. It really picked up in the second half, but the Hawks were able to overcome the Bucks hot shooting to start the game. Milwaukee scored 75 points after putting up 38 in the first quarter and the Hawks defense was much better

• Corey Kispert had one of his best games as a Hawk. He finished with seven points and seven assists while tying Daniels with a +21 on the court. Kispert did not shoot the ball his best but found other ways to impact the game.

• Zaccharie Risacher had a solid night off the bench. He finished with 12 points on four made threes and also had four rebounds.

• Mouhamed Gueye had eight points and five rebounds, including hitting a couple of key corner three pointers in the game. He was solid off the bench

The Bad

• The Gabe Vincent minutes did not go well. Credit to Quin Snyder for not leaving him out there for long, but he was -11 in just a little over five minutes. Vincent has been solid over the past week for the Hawks, but last night was not his night.

• 11 turnovers is not disastrous, but Atlanta would love the number to be lower.

The Ugly

The first quarter defense. Some of the it was poor shooting luck and Milwaukee making some tough shots, but the defense was poor and allowed the Bucks to score 38 points while shooting 73% from the field and 67% from three.