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The Atlanta Hawks look to continue their recent dominance of the Milwaukee Bucks when the two teams meet Friday night to close out the season series. Atlanta has won all three meetings with Milwaukee this season and is going for its first season sweep of the Bucks since the 96-97 season.
Milwaukee comes into Friday's game struggling having lost two straight and seven of its last 10. Plus they could be without two key players in point guard Brandon Jennings and big man Larry Sanders who were injured in Wednesday's loss in Orlando. Jennings is nursing a sore Achilles while Sanders has a sore back leaving both players as questionable for Friday's game.
Atlanta has been battling the injury bug for sometime but returned to some sort of reasonable health in Wednesday's win in Philadelphia. The Hawks got back Josh Smith, Al Horford, Kyle Korver and Devin Harris from various injuries and all are expected to be available to play on Friday against the Bucks.
Despite their recent struggles, Milwaukee is locked into the playoffs so head coach Jim Boylan could elect to play it safe with Sanders and Jennings. Atlanta is currently in sixth place but just a half game behind the Chicago Bulls for fifth with three games to play. The Bulls hold the head-to-head tie breaker over the Hawks so Atlanta must pass them in the standings to move up to fifth.
After losing its third straight game last Saturday and having three straight off days, Hawks coach Larry Drew wanted to see his team refocus against the Sixers. Atlanta started slow but clamped down in the third quarter and cruised home with the win. Drew will no doubt be looking for the same tonight particularly against a Milwaukee team that could be down a couple of key players. All to often the Hawks have come out of the gate slow against teams missing key players and in many cases allowed reserves that were pressed into starting roles to have big nights. Milwaukee in that respect is still a dangerous team and no doubt would like to avoid a sweep at the hands of Atlanta.
Season Series
2/23 - ATL 103, MIL 102 -recap
3/20 - ATL 98, MIL 90 - recap
3/24 - ATL 104, MIL 99 - recap
Standings Watch
5. | Chicago | 43-35 | 19.0 |
6 | Atlanta | 43-36 | 19.5 |
Chicago: at Toronto, at Miami, at Orlando, vs Washington
Atlanta: vs Milwaukee, vs Toronto, at New York
*Bulls hold the head-to-head tie breaker over the Hawks
Gameday Info:
Game Date/Time: Friday, April 12, 7:30 p.m. ET
Location: Philips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia
TV: SportSouth
Radio: 98.9 FM, NBA Audio League Pass, Sirius XM
Online Streaming: NBA League Pass Broadband