Atlanta Hawks 83 Milwaukee Bucks 60

Box Score

The Summer League Hawks got themselves up off the deck Thursday night with an 83-60 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. The Hawks picked up their defense substantially in this one and gained the upper hand by attacking from the inside which led to a lot of free throw attempts for the good guys. They also cut down significantly on the number of turnovers they had been putting up finishing with 14 as a team on the night. That is down from the previous games total of 22. 

Jeff Teague played a huge part in cutting down the turnovers by limiting himself to only 3 on the night, down from 9 the previous game. He looked more in control and focused in this one. He finished with a modest 13 points and 5 assists but the Hawks were a whopping +23 with him on the floor. Milwaukee clearly had no answer for him at guard and he scored 5 straight points in the third quarter just when it appeared that the Bucks were trying to get back into the game. 

More after the Jump

Richard Hendrix replaced Randolph Morris in the starting lineup. Whether that was the significant change defensively or not is debatable but Morris only playing some 4 minutes on the night can't bode well for him. Hendrix does an excellent job of scoring in the post despite being undersized. You wish that he would rebound a little better and to be quite honest hasn't appeared (to me anyway) to be giving the effort that a guy should be giving if he was trying to make a team. Even with that he has probably been the most consistent of the Hawks bigs during the summer league. Hendrix finished with 14 points on the night to lead all Hawks scorers. 

Jordan Crawford had his worst shooting day of the summer league going only 3-12 but still coming up with 12 points. He failed to hit a three pointer for the first time in the summer league as well 0-2. That is only part of the story though. He has impressed by showing a much more rounded game this summer league that what was previously advertised. He has already impressed with his passing and even running the point some with Pape Sy sidelined. He really showed excellent effort last night on defense and was also a big part of the Hawks best defensive performance of the summer thus far. 

Alade Aminu and Luke Jackson each chipped in 10 points with Trey Gilder adding 8 of his own. 

Pape Sy did not play again apparently with a sore Achilles. Hopefully with the Hawks upcoming off day on Friday, he can return to action for the final two games of the Summer League. 

The Hawks next action will be at 10:30 on Saturday night against the D-League Select team.

Apologies for the game thread last night as it didn't post until halftime. We will make up for it on Saturday night. 

Highlights