The Bucks will not die, like the Night of the Living Dead zombies they just keep coming and coming and coming. They are relentless. Intellectually you know it, they do exactly what you expect them to, but they don’t roll over, they will keep defending and keep trying.
The Hawks are the better team, they have the mismatches all over the floor, they are longer and more athletic. That’s what won them this game, 102-92. But like they will all series, the Bucks are going to make them work hard for it.
Early on, this one was ugly to watch, unless you were a Hawks fan in Phillips Arena. In the first half, the Atlanta executed their game plan perfectly. It was 6-6 early when the Bucks made a couple turnovers and no team converts turnovers into spectacular points like the Hawks. One was Bibby stealing a lazy outlet pass and draining the three, he had 19 for the day on 8 of 9 shooting. The Hawks feed off that stuff, and suddenly the lead was 10 and growing.
The Hawks are killing it because they are recognizing their mismatches and exploiting them. Marvin Williams being guarded by Luke Ridnour? The Hawks get him the ball and clear out for Williams, allowing him to back it down and get the good shot in the paint. No Buck could deny Josh Smith or Al Horford position on the block, and they got the ball where they wanted it. Like a great jazz band, for the Hawks it was just variations on the theme all game. They were getting the shots they wanted in the paint (34 points in the paint in the first half). The Bucks try a zone for a while, that fails, Jamal Crawford just shoots bombs over the top of it.
The Hawks had an offensive rating of 161 (points per 100 possessions) at the end of the first quarter, 141 at the half. Crazy good numbers.
But Brandon Jennings would not die. He was the Buck that kept held the Hawks lead to “just” 24 — he was 8 of 14 for 20 in the first half. However, like his teammates he was not really getting into the paint, he was 5 of 7 on jumpers (that means 3 of 7 in close, trying to deal with the length of the Hawks). The problem was the rest of the team had 20 points and shot 28.6 percent in the first half. It was all missed Jumpers.
Then in the third quarter, the Hawks relaxed, the Bucks were zombie relentless. They kept coming in waves.
The Bucks took 17 shots in the third quarter, and just seven were jumpers. They attacked the paint, even if it meant Horford swatted a couple. The Bucks were the aggressors. The result was they scored 30 points, and a suddenly on their heels Hawks team had just 19 in the quarter.
And we had a game. But the Bucks could never get closer than six.
With the game in single digits and just 6 minutes left things reverted to form: The Hawks dominated the paint because they have the physical matchups to do it. In the halfcourt offense in the last six minutes, the Bucks took eight jumpers (five of them threes) to just three shots near the rim. They became a jump shooting team again. Jennings had one layup and four jumpers (two these). The Bucks defense masked these problems.
This game went largely to form. We knew the Hawks had the physical advantage, we knew that the Bucks would scrap and defend. And we expected that over time, the Hawks would win out. Despite all we saw from Jennings, from the Bucks, doesn’t sound like we’ve deviated from the script in any way.
