Hoopinion: Atlanta Hawks 96 Milwaukee Bucks 86

[Hawksquawk]

Boxscore

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
MIL	86	1.000	43.3	8.9	37.5	15.1
ATL	87	1.103	49.4	21.3	25.6	11.5

Al Horford and Josh Smith were the dominant forces on both ends of the floor for the Hawks. They combined for 41 points (on just 24 shots and 8 free throw attempts), 24 rebounds, 10 assists, 5 blocks and 4 steals. They committed only two turnovers. They were on the court together for 30 minutes and 23 seconds during which the Hawks outscored the Bucks 67-45. They were both off the court for 6 minutes and 42 seconds* during which the Bucks outscored the Hawks 19-4.

*One minutes and 50 seconds of that was garbage time, won 4-0 by the Bucks. Call it a 15-4 deficit over 4 minutes and 52 seconds of competitive basketball.

Horford and Smith allowed the Hawks to coast to victory on a night when Mike Bibby and Jamal Crawford combined to make just 4 of 18 field goal attempts (1 of 6 three-pointers) and Joe Johnson once again chose to make both his ability to make difficult shots and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute's fine on-the-ball defense too central to events. Johnson scored 27 points on 23 shots. Not especially impressive unless you saw how difficult the shots were. Perhaps less impressive when you consider 5 of Johnson's 12 made field goals were assisted by either Smith or Horford. Johnson earned six assists of his own (against three turnovers) and, to his credit, was more active than normal defensively, blocking two shots himself, and playing a significant role in Brandon Jennings's (somewhat predictable) 3-15 shooting night.

Smith and Horford had hands in that as well. They're asked to defend the entire court on a regular basis, but it works almost flawlessly when they're leaving players as limited offensively as Mbah a Moute, Kurt Thomas, or Dan Gadzuric to cover for Atlanta's perimeter defenders. I suspect Scott Skiles will either have to start Mbah a Moute on Smith to improve Milwaukee's post defense or play Ersan Ilyasova (who had a double-double at halftime but was a non-factor in the second half) a lot more in the hopes he does damage in the space Horford and Smith vacate when switching on ball-screens or providing help defense.

Something has to change for Milwaukee to win one of the next two at home as it's hard to imagine Milwaukee making enough shots of the quality they're getting or Atlanta missing enough shots of the quality they can get when they play through Smith and Horford.

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