NBA: Milwaukee Bucks vs Atlanta Hawks Preview, Odds, Prediction

The Milwaukee Bucks have a new challenge ahead of them, as they travel to Atlanta to meet the young Hawks. The hosts from Georgia have their best player Trae Young out, but they still aren’t slowing down despite that fact. Bogdan Bogdanovic took over the leadership, and the Serb gets along well in that role. On the other side, the Bucks are solid, and the latest two wins against the conference-leaders 76ers suggest that they slowly increase the pace.

Preview

Milwaukee Bucks (37-22, -260) demolished the Philadelphia 76ers last night, inflicting them one of the toughest losses in the previous few years, 132-94. All those talks that Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons didn’t play won’t diminish this victory, especially because they beat the Sixers with Embiid two days earlier, 124-117.

Giannis played for 24 minutes, scoring the same number of baskets and adding 14 boards and seven assists. He was 9-for-12 from the field but again had troubles with free throws, making just five of ten. Bobby Portis was looking good again with 17 buckets off the bench.

In the last few games, head coach Mike Budenholzer gave more playing minutes to the guys on the bench, probably because he wants to make them ready for the playoff battles. As said in the recent texts, the Bucks rely upon Giannis too much in certain situations, and when the playoffs start, that needs to change.

Atlanta Hawks (33-27, +240) have to play without Trae Young, who sprained his ankle against the Knicks. And once almost everybody believed that Nate McMillan’s side is going to fall apart without their top star, the Hawks beat Miami Heat 118-103, without any problems.

Bogdan Bogdanovic took over the leading role in Trae’s absence, with the Serb both scoring and organizing the game for Atlanta. Against the Heat, he had 21 points, and 8 assists, clicking perfectly with John Collins. Bogi averages 21.6 points over the last 10 games, shooting an astonishing 47.3% from downtown.

Collins had 20 points, while Danilo Gallinari, the veteran forward, added 17 off the bench, the same as Brandon Goodwin. Just to remind that the Hawks played without Clint Capela as well, but that it didn’t affect their performance. There might have been more holes in the defense, but offensively, the Hawks are much more dangerous with Collins on the floor.

Head to Head

These two teams are the division rivals, and they already played twice during this season. The first match in late January saw the Buck winning 129-115 at Fiserv, the same as in the second in Georgia some 10 days ago, 120-109. Jrue Holiday had 23 points for the winners, while Bogdanovic dropped 28 for Atlanta

Prediction

We didn’t tell you that Giannis came back on the floor following a six-game absence the last time Bucks faced the Hawks. The reigning MVP wasn’t 100% ready, but his team still didn’t have any troubles against Atlanta. In tonight’s event, the hosts won’t have two of its starters available (Young and Capela), which is a significant handicap for them, especially against one title contender. So our suggestion here is to bet on Milwaukee’s win. They are all healthy and on the rise, coming off two triumphs over a big rival.