MILWAUKEE -- The Hawks looked to close out their five-game road trip on the right side of the win column Saturday, but fell to the Bucks 132-121 to end it at 2-3.
Here are five observations.
1. The Hawks had the game within their grasp in the final minutes, but went cold on the offensive end.
The Bucks went on a 13-2 run over the final 3:40 of the game with guard Damian Lillard scoring on three of the final six possessions. The Hawks, meanwhile, went 1-of-8 on their final nine possessions.
“They’re a tough team and coming down to the wire, it takes a few plays for things not to go your way and couple of shots not go in and then them come down and have a couple of plays that go their way and the lead can spread from one to seven real quick and I think that’s just what happened late in the game,” guard Trae Young said. “So we’ll learn from it and we’ll be better from it, for sure.”
2. Young along with backcourt partner Dejounte Murray powered the team early in the game. The two combined for 38 points on a combined 15-of-25 in the first half. They built off of some solid momentum from Thursday’s game in San Antonio where they played efficiently against the Spurs.
The two scored 15 of the team’s first 20 points and tried to set the tone and build a solid lead. But in going up against a team like the Bucks, the Hawks could not afford to go cold and they ended up doing so at the wrong time.
Young and Murray ended the night with 32 and 30 points respectively. Young also had 12 assists.
3. On the other side of the ball the Hawks had two super stars that they would need to limit in Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo. They did a solid job of keeping them off the line for the most part, holding the two to a combined seven free-throw attempts.
But the two still did damage offensively with Antetokounmpo shredding the Hawks inside the paint on 13-of-15 shooting as part of his 32 points. On top of that, he outmuscled the Hawks on some of his 11 rebounds and also doled out 10 assists.
He had plenty of help from Lillard, who had nine assists along with 25 points. Eight of Lillard’s 13 second-half points came in the fourth quarter with four of those points coming on ridiculously-contested shots over Hawks defenders.
“When we do get a stop, and we had a couple really clean looks that we didn’t make and then Dame did some things, even when we guarded well, that we’re taking them out of the net and it just puts more pressure on us to have offensive possessions that we can get to the line, we can get an offensive rebound, where we don’t just have to rely on making shot,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said.
4. With no Jalen Johnson, the Hawks have had to get creative with their rotations. They paired Onyeka Okongwu and Clint Capela for some minutes to try combat the Bucks’ big lineups of Antetokounmpo in combinations with Brook Lopez or Bobby Portis.
The team ran their two centers together six minutes, the longest stretch of the season.
Capela had 17 rebounds after having to battle it out with the Bucks’ frontcourt to get the Hawks some second-chance opportunities.
5. The Hawks also plugged in Garrison Mathews into the rotation to give the team some energy on the defensive end, as well as a body that could help stretch the floor.
He came up with a big stop in the last 30 seconds of the third quarter. As Lillard tried to drive downhill, Mathews got into position and drew the charge. It was the team’s second offensive charge drawn after Capela got into position to stop a drive from Antetokounmpo earlier in the game
Stat to know
7th -- Coming into Saturday, the Hawks ranked seventh in the league in charges drawn averaging .71 per game.
Quotable
(Garrison Mathews’) charge is a huge play but it’s a stop defensively, for one thing,. and then it’s also those things are really important for our defense. .... Hawks coach Quin Snyder.
Up Next
The Hawks host the Nets on Wednesday at State Farm Arena.
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