Hawks 102 Bucks 96

Boxscore

Gameflow

I got to see the final 17 minutes of last night's game which, from that limited vantage, appeared to be a higher scoring version of the wins over Washington and Charlotte last week: The Hawks didn't play particularly well but closed out a valuable win against an injury-weakened opponent.

I won't attempt to draw too many conclusions from a game I didn't really watch (I'm sorry I missed what the boxscore leads me to believe was a good performance from Solomon Jones in relief of Zaza Pachulia.) but it was great to see Al Horford looking like himself again and Flip Murray was extremely valuable on a night Maurice Evans was uncharacteristically subdued.

I'm somewhat concerned that a Bogut-less Bucks could so dominate the glass and I'm resigned to the fact that any opposing point guard with a pulse will put up a night like Ramon Sessions' 21 points (9-15 FGA), 8 assists, and 2 turnovers against the Hawks at once exposing the team's inability to keep quick guards out of the paint and Billy Knight's abject failure to acquire a competent point guard.

The Hawks were appropriately glad to win without being impressed with how they did so.

Mike Woodson:

"I’ll take a win anytime you can get it."

Joe Johnson:

"We always find a way at the end to pull it out. And a win is a win. I’ll take it any way we can get it."

• One more thing for which to be thankful today: Josh Smith is traveling with the team this weekend.
• Brew Hoop has a typically excellent recap from the Milwaukee perspective.
• I always feel better when Tom Ziller agrees with me.