853 BUCKS at 854 HAWKS
Take: BUCKS +3
Milwaukee continues to impress with the Greek Freak leading the way. Both teams are in good form right now, but Atlanta did have its winning streak snapped in a tough loss to the Celtics. When a mid-level team goes on a tear, it’s not the worst idea in the world to go against them once the run ends, and that’s what I’m looking to do here.
I also like the revenge angle in place in this game. That’s generally not something I’ll play a great deal of attention to at the professional level, but there are exceptions.
In the prior meeting at Milwaukee last month, the Bucks suffered their worst melt of the season. Milwaukee was up 20 at the half in that game. But GA got into foul trouble, the team lost its flow and Atlanta got red hot in pulling off a pretty spectacular rally. Greg Monroe talked after the game about the team having “a total letdown at both ends” adding it “just can’t happen”.
In the lengthy NBA regular season, I like to look for spots where I am pretty well convinced I’ll get a big effort, especially if I can grab points to boot. That’s the case here, so I’ll take the Bucks with the points.