The Hawks ended the Bucks' seven-game winning streak with a 119-104 win

The Atlanta Hawks replaced the Milwaukee Bucks as the hottest team in the Eastern Conference by winning their fifth straight game with a 119-104 victory over the Bucks at Fiserv Forum on Wednesday night.

The loss ended Milwaukee’s seven-game winning streak and dropped them to 11-10. Atlanta improved to 12-11.

“We don’t like the feeling of defeat,” Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “We had won seven in a row so it was quiet in the locker room when we came in here and that’s the feeling you want to have as a team, yeah we gave one away. But now we just have to go back and look at it.’ Film, make our adjustments and we have one of the best teams in the East. We have a big game (in Boston) in two days and we’re getting ready to play there.

Box score:Hawks 119, Bucks 104

More:Milwaukee Bucks schedule for the 2024-2025 season

The Bucks and Hawks could meet again next week, either in the Emirates Cup semifinals in Las Vegas or as a possible regular season game if they do not advance to Las Vegas.

Milwaukee looked like a team playing for the second night in a row after Tuesday’s win at Detroit, as many of its missed shots were short and Atlanta was able to come out and run (30 fast break points) and the Bucks to beat. Rotations in the interior (64 color points).

“I thought we were stuck for most of the game,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said. “We didn’t think well, which is a direct sign of fatigue. We didn’t play very well. Our passports came very late. I don’t think we passed the ball well tonight. We had guys open and then we passed it to him.” . All night it felt like Giannis and Dame were trying to win the game, which is probably not a good thing because they spent so much energy there.

Antetokounmpo (31 points, 11 rebounds) and Damian Lillard (25 points, five assists) led the Bucks. Gary Trent Jr. added 11 off the bench and Taurean Prince had 10. Milwaukee shot just 42.3% and just 15 of 44 (34%) from behind the three-point line when the starters were still in the game.

For their part, Antetokounmpo and Lillard did not admit that the schedule played a role in the loss.

“I’m not making excuses, man — they played better than us,” Antetokounmpo said. “Sometimes we were able to move the ball, but sometimes we didn’t move it at all. We didn’t take enough shots and didn’t defend well enough. Overall they played better than us.”

Prince, the league’s best three-point shooter, was just 2 of 5 and AJ Green was just 2 of 11 from long range.

“We’re playing great,” Rivers said. “We won’t overdo it in any game. In a way it’s a quick turnaround again, so we need to get some rest before we head to Boston (on Friday). But we will be prepared for it.”

Atlanta has victories over Cleveland, Boston, New York and Milwaukee, four of the top six teams in the East.

Six players scored in double figures for the Hawks.

Old problems surface for Bucks in loss

Jalen Johnson ran after Antetokounmpo missed a jumper in the second quarter and threw down an unloaded slam dunk. The Hawks smashed the offensive glass and created several chances. There seemed to be some miscommunication in the halfcourt, allowing Atlanta’s shooters to either duck behind the three-point line to get open looks or get to the rim.

On offense, Milwaukee was sloppy with the ball in the final moments of the first quarter – and it continued that way afterward – which led to running opportunities for the Hawks. Open three-point attempts failed hard at the rim or went completely wide. The Hawks were quicker on 50/50 balls.

These were all issues that plagued the Bucks in the first few weeks of the season, and they resurfaced against the Hawks.

“Transition, transition (was) No. 1,” Antetokounmpo said of what hurt the Bucks the most. “They had 40 points in the game in the first half. We have to do a better job of breaking down the guys down there whenever the floater goes up or the layup goes up offensive rebounds, they have guys that want to crash the paint or attack, but most importantly they have guys, that run out when you shoot the ball, (De’Andre) Hunter, Johnson, (Clint) Capela The rim runs every time, so we just have to do a better job.

Although 20-point leads are not insurmountable in today’s NBA, the Hawks’ buildup in the third quarter proved sufficient as the Bucks simply were unable to string together enough stops and then make enough shots on the other end. They cut the deficit to 89-81 when Green capped a three-pointer to start a 12-0 run, but after a timeout the Hawks extended the lead back to double digits.

“Every now and then there are these games, these simulation games, where I was like, let’s go into the second half and be alive and then try to steal it,” Rivers said. “We hate to say it at home, but it was just the feeling. That was an emotional, tough game (in Detroit) and coming in today I didn’t feel like we had much.”

The Bucks cut the deficit again, this time to 99-92 early in the fourth quarter, but then two turnovers and a technical error by Bobby Portis Jr. halted that momentum.

Atlanta grabbed 16 offensive rebounds for 21 second-chance points and scored 19 points off 18 turnovers by Milwaukee.

“Even when we play the right way, sometimes it just doesn’t go in,” Lillard said. “I think we had a lot of great looks tonight. Shots that went into the goal didn’t go in tonight. And we also had 18 turnovers tonight, a lot of them were live turnovers where they went the other way and got layups.” “The turning over of the ball, the lack of open shots and then being able to get the second and third chances “It really hurt us.”

Wausau’s Jalen Johnson is a rising star for the Hawks

The No. 20 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, Johnson has reached a new level for Atlanta in his fourth season. The 6-foot-10 forward entered Wednesday night’s home game averaging 20 points per game, the highest of his career, thanks to a career-best 36.7 percent mark from behind the three-point line. He is also averaging career highs in rebounds (9.8), assists (5.5), steals (1.3) and blocks (1.1) while playing the most minutes (36.2) of his career.

This came after the Wausau native signed a $150 million rookie extension just before the start of the regular season.

Against the Bucks, Johnson had a few powerful dunks en route to a team-high 23 points on 10 of 19 shooting. He also had 13 rebounds and five assists.

He also scored some timely baskets in the second half when the Bucks had a pair of runs that cut Atlanta’s deficit to single digits.

Johnson led Nicolet High School to the WIAA state title as a junior in 2019 and played part of his senior season there in 2020, part time with IMG Academy in Florida. He played his first two high school seasons at Sun Prairie. He played a partial season at Duke University in 2020-21.

The Hawks bench stands out

Atlanta point guard Trae Young led the league in assists per game (12.2) and averaged over 20 per game, but the Bucks did a good job limiting him as a playmaker with just 17 points on 19 shots . He also only had seven assists.

Co-starters Dyson Daniels and Clint Capela did not reach double figures.

But the four-man bench of Bogdan Bogdanović, De’Andre Hunter, Onyeka Okongwu and Kobe Bufkin combined for 50 points and 10 assists. Hunter had 20, while Bogdanović scored 13 of his 15 in the decisive second quarter, helping the Hawks turn the game in their favor.

5 numbers

2-3: Bucks record for the second night in a row.
2-4: Bucks record against teams with a record of .500 or better on the day of their game. Two of those losses come to the Boston Celtics, who the Bucks play on Friday night at TD Garden.
19: Giannis Antetokounmpo has scored at least 20 points on at least 50% shooting from the field in straight games, the longest such streak to start a season in league history. On Wednesday night, he shot 8-for-14 (57.1%) and 31 points.
67.1: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s free throw percentage in his last five games after a 15-for-26 performance against Atlanta (51-76 overall). In his first 14 games of the season, he shot just 57.9% from the line.
01/16/2023–03/01/2023: The Bucks recently won eight games in a row. That stretch was a 16-game winning streak that coincided with Khris Middleton’s return from injury. The team began the 2022–23 season with a nine-game winning streak and would finish the season as the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Is Giannis playing?

Yes. Giannis Antetokounmpo likely started the day with pain (tendinopathy) in his right patella. He has had this pain under control since the start of the season and has yet to miss a game because of it.

Bucks trend:Damian Lillard swaps jerseys with Detroit Lions’ Kerby Joseph after Milwaukee’s stunning win over the Pistons

What channel are the Bucks on?

The game will be simulcast locally on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin and WMLW-TV, with Lisa Byington, Marques Johnson and Melanie Ricks.

Bucks injury report

Khris Middleton is out (surgery on both ankles)Rivers: “If it felt right, of course he would play. Again, we can keep asking and moving on, but there is no answer. We have a feeling that’s coming soon. And you’ve heard this before.
MarJon Beauchamp is out (neck cramps)
Chris Livingston is out (left ankle sprain)Note: Livingston injured his ankle late in the game at Detroit on December 4th.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, probable (right patella tendinopathy)

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