Hawks’ bench is much better than the Bucks bench in this series

Through the first three games in this series, we never really saw the Hawks bench and role players explode like we thought they could against Milaukee’s second-unit. In Game 4 though, Atlanta’s bench was magnificent and they really stepped up with Trae Young out. 

The Hawks bench outscored the Bucks bench 35-24 in this game and while he was in the starting rotation, you can count Lou Williams as a bench player that stepped up for Atlanta. His 21 points were huge and he also affected the games in other ways as well, pulling in 5 rebounds and dishing out a team-high 8 assists. 

Without DiVincenzo and now likely without Giannis, the Bucks bench is limited to Pat Connaughton, Bryn Forbes and Bobby Portis versus a fully-loaded Hawks bench with guys like Danilo Gallinari, Lou Williams, Onyeka Okongwu and Cam Reddish. 

Atlanta has much more talent and depth on their bench now in this series than Milwaukee does and this definitely showed in Game 4. The return of Cam Reddish has been huge for the Hawks and as long as they can count on guys to hold things down in the second-unit, they have a really strong chance to win this series. 

Prior to Game 4, the Hawks had a slim rotation of only 8-9 guys and with Bogdanovic dealing with a knee injury, they really did not have much production to count on. Trae Young being out is definitely not ideal, but this was a great opportunity for coach Nate McMillan to open up hsi rotation more and give other guys a chance to prove themselves.

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This may have been the best thing to have happened to Atlanta because now, they have plenty of options that they can turn to for production and no matter who is in the game, Milwaukee will have to play things safe now and not over help on certain guys because bench players like Williams, Reddish and Gallinari have proven that they can make a difference offensively. 

The Hawks’ bench finally broke through in Game 4 of this series and now, with them seizing momentum back in the Eastern Conference Finals, their bench could continue to step up in big ways to possibly help elevate them to the NBA Finals.