Three is Not The Magic Number

The third quarter did the Bucks in Friday night at the Bradley Center. Both teams started off slow shooting in the first half, and the Bucks had a 34-31 lead at half. Things at that point didn't look bad, but the third quarter was one to forget. Milwaukee was outscored 29-11 in the quarter. The worst part about all of it is Carlos Delfino scored the first hoop of the quarter 24 seconds in. For those who are not great at math that means the Bucks scored nine points in the final 11:36 of the quarter. Milwaukee didn't make another basket till the 3:39 mark.

The fourth quarter got good when the Bucks fought back to get within seven. The score was 69-62 with 4:28 left in the game, when Jerry Stackhouse tried a reverse layup, but he was "blocked" by Josh Smith. For some of the calls that were made in this game this should have been a foul. It just seemed that every time the Bucks played strong defense a weak foul was called. Milwaukee would drive, and the Hawks would block them with nothing called. The game seemed to be called one way, but that is not a good excuse. The Bucks just couldn't make a shot Friday night when they needed one.

Lets check out a few highlights from this 83-69 defeat.

* Carlos Delfino kept us in the game in the first half. He made three straight trey balls, and I really thought that might get everyone else going. He finished the game with 20 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals. Too bad he couldn't have hit some triples in the second half.

* Bucks had been doing a good job on the glass, but Friday night the Hawks got the best of them. No Milwaukee player had double figure rebounds, and as a team the Hawks out rebounded us 51-42. Of those 51 rebounds the Hawks had 15 on the offensive side.

* 32.9% is what the Bucks shot from the field. That is not good at all, and it is really bad in a game 6 when you could knock out the other team. Kurt Thomas and Luke Ridnour were the only players to make 50% or better of the shots they took.

* The crowd did all it could do in this one. It was crazy how people were standing in the first quarter, as the Bucks went on a 7-0 run. It was very loud, and everyone stayed in the stadium till the final seconds.

No love for any Hawks players in this post. I'm really starting to hate all the Hawks as this series goes on. The Bucks will have to play them one more time in Atlanta Sunday at 12:00. The game will be on ABC, and the good Bucks team better show up. If I was told before the series that Milwaukee would be playing game 7, I would have been shocked. If Milwaukee did show one thing tonight it was, you win as a team and you lose as a team. It is not worth giving up now. This team still has a shot to make it to the second round, lets hope that happens.

(Editor's note from Bear - One of the most interesting points of the night was when Jerry Stackhouse sang the National Anthem... not only the crowd cheer and whistl after every line of the song, Ive never heard a louder crowd just after he finished. It was a sight to see and feeling to experience.)

Bucks please win game 7....