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Hawks look to bounce back, take series lead vs. Bucks in Game 3



For the Milwaukee Bucks, this NBA Playoffs series against the Atlanta Hawks has been the best of times (Game 2), and the worst of times (Game 1). Tonight, in Game 3 in Atlanta, we’ll get a good idea of where the rest of this series is heading.

After a disastrous shooting performance in the first contest, the Bucks bounced back to their window of expected accuracy by going 15-for-41 (36.6%) from deep, and it was the sort of output that the offense needed to really get into gear. Milwaukee also made a handful of clever adjustments on defense.

• Having the guard Jrue Holiday leak out into transition anytime Trae Young took a deep three
• having Brook Lopez drop higher (away from the rim) and helping off of Atlanta’s non-threatening shooters (like Clint Capela and Solomon Hill)
• Their defense was swarming and more physical, and they dominated the Hawks in every aspect of the game.

Milwaukee packed the paint against the star point guard on Friday evening and ignored wide open would-be shooters as Young forced a pocket pass time and time again. This is an easily fixable thing. The only issue is that Atlanta is having a harder time deploying their best shooters.

Bogdan Bogdanovic is not the same player he was in the regular season. Their best shooter this season, Tony Snell, is essentially out of the rotation at this point. De’Andre Hunter is out for the remainder of the season. And in this series, Gallinari is increasingly looking like a questionable defensive fit in this match up.

So, what’s the answer? More Lou Williams? Putting Bogdanovic in the corner as reducing his need to move off of the ball? The options are unfortunately slim.

Player To Watch

All eyes have been on Trae Young this postseason, and for good reason. He has been the driving force behind this upstart Hawks squad, and in Game 1 he took such complete control of the game on offense that it was difficult to see how the Bucks could counter. In Game 2, Milwaukee’s countermove was evident, as they showed higher on screens (particularly from Brook), disguised their coverage better, and overall increased the level of aggression with which they checked the star guard. [Young's] best playoff game on Wednesday was followed up by his worst on Friday, so it'll be interesting to see which version of Trae Young the Bucks force into the spotlight on Sunday.

dms269 wrote:Since game 4 of the Philly series, Bogi is hitting 27% of his shots from the field and only 17% from 3...yet he continues to jack up nearly 9 shots a game.

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