Atlanta Hawks deal with foul trouble, lose to Bucks, 108-101

The Atlanta Hawks dealt with foul trouble in a physical, low post battle with the Milwaukee Bucks Friday night, falling on the road in overtime, 108-101.

The Atlanta Hawks fought hard Friday night in the BMO Harris Bradley Center against the Milwaukee Bucks, but the game in the paint was too taxing for the Atlanta Hawks. Paul Millsap and Kent Bazemore ended up fouling out as the Atlanta Hawks fell to the Milwaukee Bucks, 108-101 in overtime.

While this was certainly a better effort than the one the team displayed on Wednesday night in Charlotte, the Atlanta Hawks have now lost two straight during what stands as a relatively easy stretch in their season schedule. The next team the Hawks will play that could end up winning multiple playoff series is the Los Angeles Clippers on January 27th.

It wasn’t that the Atlanta Hawks took the 13th place Milwaukee Bucks lightly, it is that the team had to deal with the young and physical front court of the Bucks featuring Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jabari Parker, Greg Monroe, and John Henson.

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Atlanta committed 25 fouls against the Bucks Friday night, with two starters fouling out and shooting guard Kyle Korver only one away from making it three. Because of the rampant fouling by the Atlanta Hawks, the Milwaukee Bucks lived at the free throw line Friday night. However, Milwaukee only 67.6% (25-37) from the charity stripe.

The Atlanta Hawks had four players in double figures scoring with Paul Millsap leading the way with 23 points and 10 points in his double-double. Millsap had six assists, four blocks, and two steals before fouling out in late in the fourth quarter.

Al Horford had 18 points and eight rebounds, but didn’t shoot the basketball terribly well tonight, hitting nine of his 23 shots from the field. As a team, the Atlanta Hawks only shot 43% as a team (43-100).

Kyle Korver had a great game shooting the basketball. He had 17 points on 7-10 shooting, including 3-5 from three. He also had four rebounds and three assists playing 41 minutes and 15 seconds tonight to lead the team.

Dennis Schroder had 16 points, five rebounds, but only one assist off the Atlanta bench. Jeff Teague did a solid job of distributing the basketball with 10 assists of his own. However, he couldn’t effectively penetrate in the lane Friday night, resulting in only nine points on 4-13 shooting from the field.

Overall, the difference in this game was that the Atlanta Hawks’ best player on the court in power forward Paul Millsap got in foul trouble and the Milwaukee Bucks best player in small forward Giannis Antetokounmpo did not. Antetokounmpo led the game with 28 points and 16 rebounds in an absurd 50 minutes and 3 seconds of playing time.

Next: Atlanta Hawks: Eastern Conference Power Rankings, Jan. 14

Atlanta will travel back to Philips Arena to take on the Brooklyn Nets at home on Saturday night. Tipoff for that game is at 7:30 PM ET and the game will air on Fox Sports Southeast. Hopefully the Hawks can end their two-game slide with a strong showing at home tomorrow night. Let’s Go Hawks!

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