The Hawks did not have Trae Young in their Monday night rematch against the Bucks, but they showed they have the power to withstand one of the NBA’s best teams.
The Hawks downed the Bucks 117-98 to hand them their first loss of the season.
Here are five observations:
1. Despite the absence of Young, who did not play because of right shin soreness, the Hawks eventually found the right balance to their system. The team had a solid start from Dejounte Murray, who kept Atlanta afloat in the first quarter after the Bucks took a 13-point lead.
Murray accounted for 76% of the team’s points in the first quarter, scoring eight points and handing out five assists, with 11 points created from his dishes.
Murray led the Hawks (7-3) with 25 points on 11-of-24 shooting from the floor.
He also had 11 assists, and the Hawks scored 25 points off Murray’s creations.
“But there’s some certain things we have to do out on the floor,” Hawks coach Nate McMillan said. “And DJ led us, you know, he led us from the very start being aggressive creating offense. I thought he ran some really good plays. You know, got all the guys involved. And, you know, pretty much carried us, and then the bench came in and continued to play solid basketball.”
2. AJ Griffin had been working his way into the Hawks’ rotation through the first nine games. On Monday night, he showed how his hard work has paid off. Griffin scored a career-high 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting.
Griffin gave the Hawks some much-needed juice on offense, scoring 10 points in the second quarter. He also stood strong when he guarded Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The rookie had four rebounds and three steals in 31 minutes.
“I mean, it was an AJ Griffin game tonight,” third-year center Onyeka Okongwu said. “You know, AJ, man, (heck) of a game tonight, proud of him, and he was the spark that we needed to finish it out.”
3. The Hawks played solid defense in the final three quarters. After giving up 36 points in the first quarter and allowing the Bucks (9-1) to knock down eight 3-pointers, the Hawks held them to 62 points across the final three frames.
The Hawks have allowed their opponents to score on average 53.8 points in the paint per game. But they gave up only 40 points in the paint, the fewest they’ve allowed through the first 10 games.
In addition to that, the Hawks outrebounded the Bucks 48-41, limiting them to seven second-chance points.
“I mean, basketball is a game of runs,” Murray said. “Like I kept telling the group, like, ‘They made their run, they (were) making a bunch of 3s, it ain’t gonna be that way the whole night. So we got to continue to fight and just fight and fight, and it will go our way.’”
4. With Griffin leading the way, the Hawks got some big minutes from their second unit. Atlanta’s bench outscored the Bucks’ second unit 59-33.
Griffin, Okongwu, Jalen Johnson and Justin Holiday helped the Hawks claw back late in the first quarter and the beginning of the second.
On top of that, the second unit’s defense held the Bucks to 1-of-9 shooting from the floor during the first three minutes of the second quarter.
Johnson finished with eight rebounds, one block and two steals and had plenty of help from veteran guard Aaron Holiday. The 26-year-old guard gave the Hawks several strong minutes against his older brother Jrue and held him to 3-of-7 shooting in the second half.
The Hawks also had a big offensive night from Justin Holiday, who made 4 of 7 3-point attempts.
5. The Hawks also had another strong night from Okongwu, who continued to make life difficult for Antetokounmpo. Okongwu stuck with Antetokounmpo whenever the two were on the court and challenged him to make several difficult shots.
Okongwu helped hold Antetokounmpo to 9-of-20 shooting from the floor and allowed him to get to the free-throw line only eight times. The last time the Hawks faced the Bucks, Antetokounmpo punished them in the paint and benefited from the whistle, going to the line 19 times.
On top of helping to slow down Antetokounmpo, Okongwu chipped in 12 points and six rebounds. Four of Okongwu’s points Monday came off putback dunks after outjumping the two-time league MVP.
“Onyeka was really good,” McMillan said. “Just trying to stay in front of Giannis and then offensively being aggressive outworking the opponent on the boards, and he had two or three really big offensive plays for us that normally, I think the officials, they referee aggressive play. If you play aggressive from start to finish, a lot of times you can get away with some things, and I thought, you know, our guys were aggressive, really, from the very start.”
Stat to know
Atlanta held Milwaukee to 98 points, marking the first time the Hawks have held the Bucks to under 100 points since Feb. 13, 2018, as well as just the sixth time an opponent has held Milwaukee to under 100 points in 2022.
Quotable
“I jumped out of my seat, went crazy. Man, you gotta love that for them dudes, man.” – Murray on his reaction to Okongwu’s first putback dunk.
Up next
The Hawks face the Jazz on Wednesday night at State Farm Arena.
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