Ranking 5 potential first round opponents for the Milwaukee Bucks

Ranking potential first-round opponents for the Milwaukee Bucks: #4 – Atlanta Hawks

One of two potential rematches from last year’s championship run that the Milwaukee Bucks could see in the first round. The Hawks have not lived up to expectations this season and that’s why they’re sitting in 10th, but have a comfortable lead ahead of the 11th seed while being a game and a half out of 8th.

Like the Hornets, the Atlanta Hawks share a lot of similarities with the Hornets in that they’re young, fun, and exciting but also don’t play much defense (in fact, they have a worse defensive rating than their division rivals).

They, like the Hornets, have taken two games from the Bucks this season but lost the final meeting. Milwaukee had a comfortable lead at halftime and led by as many as 19 points before having a classic third quarter where they were outscored by seven and ended up winning by nine.

The Hawks seem to have lost their magic from last year’s playoff run.

Trae Young is a thorn in the side of the Bucks with how he can torch their pick and roll coverages, but they were able to show him a couple of different bodies in Jrue Holiday, Jevon Carter, and Wesley Matthews (Hill would mix in here as well) that threw him off in the first half of that game.

I’d be slightly more worried about this series than the Hornets only because we’ve seen what the high-end of this team can look like, but it doesn’t appear as though we’ll be seeing that this season.