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 A few bad games, a few good games, and the cycle repeats.
But Carter-Williams was at his best Friday, especially down the
stretch, making big plays at both ends of the floor to lead the
Milwaukee Bucks to a 108-101 overtime victory over the Atlanta Hawks
at the Bradley Center.
Carter-Williams finished with 15 points, nine rebounds and seven
assists. He also added three steals and two blocks, one of which
prevented a possible game-winner at the end of regulation.
"He was very good, really solid," Bucks interim head coach Joe
Prunty said. "We had a lot of big plays like that. Several guys out
there making gutty efforts and playing big minutes."
Most impressive to Prunty, though, was the fact that Carter-Wilson
played the entire extra session with five fouls, and still managed
to stay aggressive and on the attack.
"He was in foul trouble," Prunty said. "But learning to play with
fouls was important because we needed him out there on the floor
playing with that confidence and playing at that level."
He put Milwaukee ahead for with a 3-pointer that made it 101-99 with
3:04 left in overtime. Then, intercepted a pass by Atlanta point
guard Denis Schroder and blocked a Kyle Korver 3-point attempt which
set the stage for Giannis Antetokounmpo to break the game open with
a 3-pointer from the corner with 1:06 left.
"He's a great defender," Bucks guard Khris Middleton said.
"Especially for a point guard, how tall and long he is. We really
needed that stop."
Antetokounmpo's 3-pointer was the exclamation point on a 28-point,
16-rebound effort; his third consecutive double-double.
"It was a great play," said Antetokounmpo, who played 50 minutes.
"My coaches and my teammates want me to shoot the ball when I was
open. I was open and I shot the ball without even thinking about
it."
The long balls from Carter-Williams and Antetokounmpo represented
two-thirds of Milwaukee's 3-pointers for the game. The Bucks were
3-for-10 from beyond the arc and shot 41.7 percent for the game.
Atlanta, meanwhile, made 7 of its first 10 from distance but
finished the game 9-for-30 and missed all seven attempts in
overtime, while going 3-for-12 from the field.
The Hawks also were at a considerable disadvantage from the
free-throw line, where they had only six attempts compared to
Milwaukee's 37.
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"They're an aggressive team," Korver said. "They're a big team,
they're scrappy around the basket. I didn't realize they shot that
many free throws until I came in and looked at the box score. We
just didn't get it done."
Forward Paul Milsap led the Hawkks with 23 points but wasn't a
factor down the stretch after fouling out late in the fourth
quarter.
"You'd like to have Paul out there to finish the game," Atlanta
coach Mike Budenholzer said. "But Paul fouled out and that put us in
a tough spot."
Millsap had spent much of the game matched up with Antetokounmpo,
who scored two free throws on the play and eight with Millsap out of
the game.
"I thought Millsap made some really tough shots," Prunty said. "But
I thought Giannis was aggressive. It was two guys playing hard on
every position. A good battle."
Center Al Horford finished with 18 points and eight rebounds while
Schroder added 16 off the bench for the Hawks, who gave up 25 points
on 18 turnovers and had 13 of their shots blocked -- six of them by
Bucks forward John Henson.
"Our defense was very good," Prunty said. "There were a few
situations that we were scrambling but I thought the guys made the
extra effort to get to wherever the problem was and kept working."
NOTES: Bucks SG O.J. Mayo sat out because of a sore left hamstring.
Milwaukee was also without reserve G Jerryd Bayless, who has been
sidelined since Jan. 4 with a sprained left ankle. ... Atlanta came
into the game third in the NBA with 25.3 assists per game. The Hawks
have finished with at least 21 assists in all but three of their 39
games this season. ... Milwaukee C Greg Monroe is averaging a
double-double (15.7 points, 10.9 rebounds) in his last seven games.
... The Hawks have lost nine of their last 15 road games but have
won their last six games in Milwaukee. Atlanta has taken eight of
the last 10 meetings and 13 of the last 15 overall with Milwaukee.
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