In just a couple of hours, the Milwaukee Bucks will reheat their playoff rivalry with the Atlanta Hawks to kick off the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals.
The Bucks enter the Conference Finals after having answered the greatest challenge in franchise history by escaping the Brooklyn Nets in seven games last round. The Hawks similarly answered with their own challenge an vanquished the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers to move on to their second Conference Finals since the Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968.
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This will be the fifth time both sides have met in the playoffs and there is no shortage of storylines that both teams share in their current iterations going into such a massive series. Considering the history too and the fact that the Hawks were formed in while in Milwaukee during the 1950s, the two franchises have plenty of ties with one another.
So without further ado, let’s take a stroll down memory lane and re-examine the Milwaukee Bucks’ past playoff run-ins with the Atlanta Hawks.
Milwaukee Bucks take hard fought first round series over Hawks in 1984 NBA Playoffs
Coming off the heels of a 50-win season, a year in which the Bucks had to stave off multiple injuries, the Bucks booked their first series with the Hawks during the first round of the 1984 NBA Playoffs.
As the second seed in the East that year, the Bucks went up against a Hawks team that entered the playoffs after having finished with a 40-42 season.
The disparity in the two sides certainly showed in the opening pair of games in Milwaukee as the Bucks took a 105-89 win in Game 1 and a 101-87 victory in Game 2. It was as the series shifted backed to Atlanta where the Bucks had the rug pulled out from under them. The Hawks managed to pull out Games 3 and 4 on their home floor to even up the series at 2 games a piece and send it back to Milwaukee for a do-or-die Game 5.
For any intrigue that may have been leading up to Game 5, the Bucks made sure to dispel it all by walloping the Hawks in a 118-89 win that propelled them to the Eastern Conference Semifinals where they met up against the New Jersey Nets.
It proved to be the perfect series to whet the palate as their playoff meetings grew throughout the 1980s.