The Milwaukee Bucks have managed to turn things around after a nightmare start to the 2024-25 season; they have gone 9-1 over their past 10 games heading into their Wednesday night clash against the Atlanta Hawks, climbing all the way up to the top five of the mediocre Eastern Conference. But all good things come to an end, as they hit a roadblock on the second night of a back-to-back, suffering a 119-104 loss to the Hawks.
There is no shame in losing to the Hawks; after all, they’re the only team to have beaten the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers thus far this season. And the schedule did the Bucks no favors, and head coach Doc Rivers acknowledged how the rest disparity between the two teams led to their downfall on Wednesday night.
“I thought we were dead-legged most of the game. We didn’t think well, which is a direct sign of fatigue. Didn’t execute very well. Our passes were really late,” Rivers said following the Bucks’ defeat, per Eric Nehm of The Athletic.
Indeed, it looked as though the Bucks were content with taking shortcuts for most of the night, playing sloppy basketball which simply cannot fly against an active Hawks team. Atlanta had 16 steals as a team on the night, and the Bucks were guilty of a ton of inexcusable turnovers, preventing them from getting into much of a rhythm especially in the second half.
Moreover, this also led to some very soft defense on the interior. Jalen Johnson led an all-out assault from the Hawks at the rim, with Atlanta scoring 64 points in the paint compared to just 34 for the Bucks — an inexcusable deficit for a Giannis Antetokounmpo-led team.
This fatigue also manifested in their struggles from the charity stripe; Antetokounmpo shot 15-26 from the charity stripe, leaving a ton of points on the board for a Bucks team that desperately needed more to keep up with the more well-rested Hawks team.
Can Bucks get back to winning ways with looming tough stretch?
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The Bucks may have turned things around over the past few weeks, but literally only one win during that span has come against a team currently above .500 (Houston Rockets). Milwaukee will thus be tested in their next few games.
The Bucks will be taking on the Boston Celtics on Friday night and then they’ll be looking to avenge their loss to the Brooklyn Nets earlier this season on Saturday. They would then square off against the Orlando Magic in the NBA Cup quarterfinals on December 10. This will show the Bucks’ true colors, and whether or not they’ve truly turned things around or whether they’ve simply benefitted from the favorable schedule.
