The 2012-13 version of the Atlanta Hawks, coached by Larry Drew, lost 20 of their 38 defeats by ten or more points.

The 2013-14 edition, with Mike Budenholzer at the helm, is now more than halfway through their season, and suffered just their fifth double-digit setback on Friday night. Although it’s the second straight drubbing with a deficit that exceeded ten points, that total still represents less than a fourth of their L’s this season, compared to over half of the losses last season.

After the Men in Black had their way with Atlanta along the perimeter, the Hawks hope the goring won’t continue tonight, on the road, at the antlers of the Milwaukee Bucks (8:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, FoxSports Wisconsin).

It’s a bit of a stretch to call tonight’s affair a vengeance match for ex-Hawks coach Drew. That's not only since Drew and GM Danny Ferry engineered a most amicable departure this past summer, but also because Drew, now in charge of the woeful Bucks (8-34), won’t need to gameplan against nearly half of the roster that he left behind from his final season with Atlanta. Al Horford (pec) and Jeff Teague (ankle) are back in Georgia recuperating, as is John Jenkins (back). So the only Hawk reunions going on will involve LD and Kyle Korver, Lou Williams, Mike Scott, and Shelvin Mack. Zaza Pachulia will be stylin’ and profilin’ as usual, but only from the bench as he continues recuperating from a fracture in his right foot.

In Milwaukee (8-34, one win in the last eleven games), Drew captains a shoddy ship loaded with veteran disillusionment and discord. The perpetually seething Larry Sanders showed everyone what happens when keepin’ it real goes wrong in a nightclub, tossing around bottles of Champale like the world’s worst juggler. Sanders’ absence (to heal a thumb on his bottle-heaving hand, crucial for his sarcastic relations with the refs) pushed Zaza into heavy minutes for Drew, perhaps too prematurely for the sake of his fragile footsies.

Caron Butler openly barbed with his team in the media, insistent that 24 minutes a night off the bench is not what the Wisconsinite signed up for. O.J. Mayo has taken Butler’s lead, insisting the team needs a “staple”, an identity, without any sense of cognizance about how he might help establish it.

The play of shooting guard Luke Ridnour (6.5 PPG, 39.6 FG%) has bordered at times dangerously close to self-parody, even as Drew insists on starting him ahead of Mayo. Fresh from the NBA Finals, free agent acquisition Gary Neal reads Spurs box scores nightly and weeps into his Miller Lite. That is, when he’s not feuding loudly with Sanders in front of the beat writers. And were it not for the size of the media market he plays in, Ersan Ilyasova (38.8 FG%, 26.4 3FG%, 9.1 PPG, 5.2 RPG), on the front end of a 5-year $40 million deal, would be fodder for late-night comedians, despite the blame placed on mid-season maladies.

It’s all a poisonous brew for Drew, who needs to play youngsters to give fans hope for the future, but not lose so badly that he can’t be included as part of that future. His Buckaroos struggled on the road in Cleveland yesterday, falling victim to big runs in the middle frames before succumbing to the subpar Cavs by 15 points.

Largely with Sanders watching much of the game from the bench, Cleveland outrebounded their venison 52-34, including 21-8 on the offensive end. Atlanta can feel their pain, playing poultry to the Spurs on Friday by getting out-boarded 54-36 (15-9 offensive).

Resigned to losing, Bucks fans are disinterested in the vets striking out, but ravenous over the potential of some of their stockpiled forwards. None moreso than The Greek Freak. Rookie Giannis Antetokounmpo lacks eye-popping nightly stats but is a tantalizing highlight reel on a short leash. He and sophomore Khris Middleton (as well as John Henson and Ekpe Udoh) are getting pegged for starts lately over the likes of Mayo, Sanders, and/or Butler. Drew has already trotted out 19 different starting lineups this season.

Aside from Greece Lightning, the only constant of late among the starters has been up-and-down point guard Brandon Knight, the player Milwaukee settled for acquiring once Teague’s offer sheet was much by Atlanta last summer. Even Knight (team-leading 15.3 PPG and 4.5 APG) had trouble getting back in the first unit when Drew became briefly enamored with rookie second-rounder Nate Wolters. Against a steady Shelvin Mack (3.26 assist-to-turnover ratio, 5^th among point guards with 10+ minutes per game), Knight will need constant help from his forwards to disrupt Atlanta’s ball movement.

Ilyasova has been ineffective at power forward on both ends of the floor, and Drew has shifted him to the 3-spot in hopes it will thaw his once-reliable shooting efficiency. This will put either the rangy Alphabet or Middleton on Paul Millsap. Sap got some well-designed rest in Friday night’s blowout at the hands of the Spurs, and will be sought by the Hawks to work his way around the yung’uns and get to the hoop.

Even with Sanders (1.9 BPG) or Henson (2.2 BPG) waiting in the paint, Millsap will work to draw fouls and thin out the Bucks frontline. The Bucks take just 0.1 fewer field goals than their opponents, and despite their poor shooting (league-low 42.1 FG%; 44.7 2FG% second-lowest in NBA), the few trips they earn at the free throw line creates much of the scoring discrepancy. Opponents shoot 5.5 more free throws than Milwaukee, the third-largest differential in the league. Atlanta can use their newly-improved free throw accuracy (3.3 percentage-point differential on FT%, 5^th in NBA, highest in NBA East) to pad the points when the Bucks try to slow the game down.

One guy looking for a bit of payback is Gustavo Ayón, who was cut in July not long after the Bucks picked up his team option. Ayón (14.3 offensive rebounding percentage, three O-Rebs versus the Spurs) was a key acquisition in the Tobias Harris deal with Orlando, but wound up getting yo-yo’d by Bucks management in the offseason. He’ll come into tonight’s matchup with the Bucks (70.4 defensive rebounding percentage, worst in NBA), a little better prepared after getting tenderized by Tim Duncan last night.

Closing out on shooters around the perimeter will be crucial for both teams. Absent the roving DeMarre Carroll (still questionable tonight with a hamstring strain), Atlanta failed to do so against the league’s best 3-point shooting team last night, and was buried for their lackadaisical defensive effort (Spurs 11-for-18 on 3FGs). Milwaukee is nowhere near as strong a long-range shooting team (34.5 team 3FG%, 25^th in NBA), but they will jack threes as needed to stay competitive and fight the Hawks’ bigs to earn second-chance opportunities.

Go Hawks!

~lw3