What do the Atlanta Hawks need to do in order to win this series?
For three consecutive seasons entering the 2020-21 season, the Atlanta Hawks had not finished with more than 29 wins in a season and they were a very inexperienced team. Adding Bogdan Bogdanovic and Danilo Gallinari were big additions to this team, giving them some much needed shooting and scoring, but this Hawks team was still a work in progress.
Trae Young had cemented himself as a terrific, All-Star-caliber player in just two seasons in the league and John Collins was viewed as a very athletic, young talent on the rise, but who else was going to step up for this roster in order for them to find success?
Well, the answer was pretty much everybody else on the roster! The Hawks battled numerous injuries all season long, but they always played with that “next man up” mentality and were able to find ways to win games without their key rotational guys. Kevin Huerter, De’Andre Hunter, Clint Capela, Cam Reddish and even guys like Tony Snell and Solomon Hill played key roles for this team all season long.
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Now, in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Hawks are without both Cam Reddish (Achilles) and De’Andre Hunter (knee surgery) due to injuries, but the rest of this team has really grown over the last few months. Trae Young is on the verge of becoming one of the best point guards in this league at just 22-years-old and with Kevin Huerter being the hero of the Eastern Conference Finals, the sky’s the limit for what this team can achieve.
Just because they have overachieved the expectations placed upon them this year and just because they just beat the 1-seed in the Eastern Conference does not mean that they can overlook their next opponent though. The Milwaukee Bucks are the betting favorites to win the NBA championship this year and that is not a coincidence.
They were one of the most overlooked teams during the regular season and with Giannis Antetokounmpo being locked in right now, the Hawks will have their work cut out for themselves in this series. So what can Atlanta do in order to potentially reach the NBA Finals for the first-time since 1961 when they were the St. Louis Hawks?
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Everything for the Hawks starts with Trae Young and he is going to have to be fantastic yet again in this series for them. Jrue Holiday will be matched up on him and Holiday is one of the best one-on-one defenders in the league, so Young will really have to work in order to get the easy looks he was getting against the 76ers.
Perimeter shooting is also going to be key yet again for the Hawks. They shot 33.5% from three-point range against the 76ers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, but in their four wins, they were hitting perimeter shots late in the game in order to pull away from Philly. Given how well the Bucks can shoot from three-point range, the Hawks will need guys like Kevin Huerter and Bogdan Bogdanovic to not only knock down three-point shots late in games, but set the tone from deep early on in games.
Getting out to leads early on in this series for the Hawks will be huge, especially since Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton have shot lights out in the second-half during these NBA playoffs. Atlanta is 5-2 on the road in these playoffs, so stealing a game or two on the road in Milwaukee is definitely do-able for them, but it definitely will not be easy seeing as the Bucks are 5-0 at home this postseason.
