Milwaukee Bucks Game Preview: Jan. 15 at Atlanta Hawks

The Milwaukee Bucks next game is against the weird Atlanta Hawks on the road, with the fourth spot in the East potentially at stake.

The Milwaukee Bucks got a day to rest up and watch the Atlanta Falcons beat the Seattle Seahawks in Atlanta on Saturday, but now it’s time to go to work. The Atlanta Hawks are the Bucks next opponent, and they’re weird.

After it was reported that Atlanta was seeking to trade Paul Millsap away, they instead traded Kyle Korver for Mike Dunleavy Jr. and a future first-round pick from the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Hawks kept winning games in the meantime, and so they eventually reportedly took Millsap off the trading block.

And so here the Hawks sit at 22-17, a game and a half ahead of these Milwaukee Bucks for the fourth spot in the East. If the Bucks won on Sunday and then again at home against the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday, they’d have a chance to own the fourth spot themselves.

Of course January is too early for that to be worth anything. The important thing is holding a spot like that when the playoffs are actually here. Milwaukee contending for a homefield seed nearly halfway through the season is pretty cool, though.

First thing’s first–there’s a pretty good Hawks team standing in the way. To find out how each team could get the upper hand in this Bawks showdown, we’ll look at major keys for both squad, highlight a Hawk to watch and then make predictions about the game.