Hawks Beat Bucks 83-69, Force Game 7

by

Apr 30, 2010

Hawks Beat Bucks 83-69, Force Game 7 MILWAUKEE — Jamal Crawford broke
out of a slump with 24 points, Joe Johnson added 22 points and the
Atlanta Hawks beat the Milwaukee Bucks 83-69 on Friday night to force a
seventh game in the first-round series.

Game 7 is Sunday in Atlanta.

Carlos Delfino scored 20 for the
Bucks, who came into the game hoping to finish off their heavily favored
opponent but instead went completely flat coming out of halftime. The
Hawks outscored the Bucks 29-11 in the third quarter to take a 15-point
lead.

Milwaukee made a furious comeback
attempt in the last six minutes, cutting the lead to seven with just over five
minutes left, but Josh Smith's block on John Salmons with just over two
minutes remaining helped stop the rally and the Hawks pulled away.

Al Horford had 15 points and 15
rebounds for Atlanta.

It was an off night for two of the
Bucks' top offensive threats, Salmons and Brandon Jennings.

Jennings scored 12 points on 4-for-15
shooting, including 1-of-9 from 3-point range. The rookie missed his
first six shots and made questionable decisions with the ball after
playing well through most of the first five games of the series.

Salmons finished with eight points on
2-for-13 shooting.

The Hawks got what they needed off the
bench from Crawford, the NBA's sixth man of the year. He had been stuck
in a shooting slump for much of the series but was better Friday,
hitting 8-of-17 from the field. His late layup helped the Hawks take the
air out of the Bucks' late rally.

Milwaukee's Jerry Stackhouse — who
brought down the house by singing a soulful rendition of the national
anthem before the game — made a 3-pointer, and the Bucks turned it into a
four-point play when Kurt Thomas was fouled and hit a free throw.

Two more free throws by Stackhouse
cut the lead to seven with 5:14 left, but Johnson hit a jumper and
Crawford drove for a layup to put the Hawks back up by 11. Jennings
answered with a layup, and Johnson missed a layup.

Jennings then missed a 3-pointer and
Salmons got the rebound, but Smith forcefully blocked Salmons' shot and
the Hawks couldn't rally from there.

Milwaukee led by three at the half,
and Delfino hit a driving layup to begin the third quarter.

But the Bucks went silent for nearly
eight minutes from there, allowing the Hawks to go on a 19-0 run that
included a steal and fast-break slam dunk by Smith, who fired up the
crowd by posing and holding his hand to his ear.

Smith has been booed relentlessly by
Bucks fans after joking early in the series that there wasn't anything
to do in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee wasn't expected to do much
in this series, having lost its best all-around player, center Andrew
Bogut
, to a gruesome arm injury near the end of the regular season.

Atlanta took a 2-0 series lead, and
the Bucks weren't particularly competitive in either game. But then the
series shifted back to Milwaukee, the Bucks asserted themselves on
defense and won both games — then stole Game 5 in Atlanta with a late
run.

Notes
Stackhouse surprised the crowd
by grabbing the microphone before the game and singing the national
anthem to raucous applause — so much so that whatever he yelled to fire
up the crowd afterward couldn't be heard. … Smith had 10 points, nine
rebounds and four blocks. … Friday was the 39th anniversary of
Milwaukee's 1971 NBA championship.

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