• Tweet

The Milwaukee Bucks deserve congratulations and props for the season, both regular and post-. They went further than any team should have gone, considering their circumstances.

The team, when healthy, surprised some folks with their core of Andrew Bogut, Brandon Jennings and John Salmons. Factor in that Bogut was injured before the post-season and the fact that the Bucks even made it to the playoffs is nothing short of miraculous.

As luck would have it, their first-round opponent was the Atlanta Hawks, a team that is younger, quicker and have more of an upside. But Milwaukee would have none of that as they battled tooth-and-nail until the best-of-seven series was tied at 3 games apiece – a shocker in and of itself.

Game 7 at Philips Arena would be the tiebreaker in which the winner would advance to face the Orlando Magic. And as it would turn out, the Bucks were just plain spent. And the Hawks played the type of game that people were expecting from them during the regular season and the playoffs.

Jamal Crawford led a balanced attack as the Hawks aced the Bucks in all of the meaningful stats and basically dominating the 48 minutes almost from the tip-off, with Atlanta easily disposing of Milwaukee 94-73.

The Hawks took over early as they exploded with a 20-3 spurt near the end of the first quarter that would carry over into the second period. After Kurt Thomas’ jumper gave the Bucks its final lead at 13-11, Atlanta ran off nine straight points to close the first period; the Hawks kept up the pressure, outscoring Milwaukee 11-3 in the first three minutes of the second period to stretch their margin to 31-16.

The rout was on, and Atlanta increased their lead to as many as 24, eventually pulling their starters as the issue was pretty much settled.

Sixth man Jamal Crawford led the Hawks with 22 points, 3 rebounds and 6 assists while Al Horford chipped in 16 with 15 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks; Josh Smith and Mike Bibby added 15 apiece – with Smith grabbing 5 rebounds, dishing out 2 assists and blocking 2 shots while Bibby drained 3 three-pointers, grabbed 6 boards and dished out 2 assists.

The Bucks were led by Jennings with 15 points, 2 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal while Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Ersan Ilyasova added 13 apiece – with Mbah a Moute grabbing  6 rebounds, along with a steal while Ilyasova grabbed 11 rebounds, dished out an assist, along with a steal.

Atlanta, with the win, takes the series 4-3 and will take on the Orlando Magic Tuesday night from Amway Arena.