Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways From Loss to Atlanta Hawks
By Adam Coffman
Dying by the Three
As mentioned in our game preview, the Hawks are a much better team when they shoot the three-pointer effectively, and that definitely showed through here.
Altogether, Atlanta hit 13 of their 26 attempted threes, much more than the 8.8 they average per contest. Leading the way in this aspect for the Hawks were Kent Bazemore and Mike Dunleavy, who made four each, as well as Paul Millsap, who hit three.
Defending the long ball has been a season-long struggle for the Bucks; they are just 3-8 on the year when their opponent hits 13 or more threes, and rank 20th in terms of opponent attempted three-pointers per game.
On their half of the long-ball effort, Milwaukee finished just 6-19 from behind the arc, including 0-5 from Jabari and Giannis. Mirza Teletovic was curiously absent form the rotation for yet another game, which led to some clogged spacing at times.
Outside of Parker’s career-high nine dimes, the Bucks didn’t have a ton of great perimeter passing, which makes it tough when no one on the roster is especially adept at shooting off the dribble.
Running their opponents off the line will be essential for the Bucks to beat the elite teams of the league, as most if not all of them use the deep ball early and often.