'Big Three' of Giannis, Holiday and Lopez withstand rally by Trae Young, Hawks to win fifth straight

The Milwaukee Bucks and the Atlanta Hawks played Saturday evening at Fiserv Forum, with the Bucks coming off a home win over the Knicks and the Hawks traveling in from Detroit after beating the Pistons on Friday. It was the first back-to-back for both teams, and the Bucks held off a late Hawks rally to win 123-115.

The Bucks improved to 5-0 while the Hawks dropped to 4-2.

Here are some takeaways from the game:

Brook Lopez, Jrue Holiday, Giannis Antetokounmpo lead the Bucks offense

Brook Lopez said that he worked on his three-point shot more over the summer, and there was more of an emphasis on his part to once again begin putting up the deep ball – to the tune of a career-high 7.3 attempts per game through the first four. He kept up that pace Saturday night against Atlanta with eight, but unlike the first four games (27.6%) Lopez was dropping them in from near everywhere.

Lopez made 5 of his 8 three-point attempts and scored 21 points – an offensive effort that was needed as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Grayson Allen struggled to find their rhythm on that end of the floor.

“Oh, he was torchin’ that thing," Jrue Holiday said of his center. "Its good to see Brook do that.

"I know sometimes he goes to the wayside and we kind of talked about it yesterday where he doesn’t get a lot of credit, but again, for somebody who ‘back in the day’ was a scorer and kind of the head of the snake of his team, I think to come here and sometimes get shots, sometimes not get shots, but to see him succeed and knock down shots like that – (five) threes in the first half – is good to see.”

Box score:Bucks 123, Hawks 115

Lopez had six rebounds, but one loose ball he wasn’t credited for was important as he tapped a Bobby Portis missed three to Antetokounmpo for a dunk and a 114-111 lead with 1 minute, 15 seconds left in the game.

Overall, Antetokounmpo had an “off” night shooting and dealt with some foul trouble, making 11 of his 22 shots. But, he went to the free throw line 19 times and made 11 of those for 34 points. He hit two key free throws and had an emphatic dunk in the final seconds to close it out. He also had 17 rebounds. Allen was just 1 for 5 for two points.

“’Don’t get embarrassed. Don’t have a bad game,’” Antetokounmpo joked about his mindset coming out of a first half in which he scored four points. “No, I’ll be serious for a moment. I just try to play within my strengths as much as I can. Obviously back-to-back, did not have the best half possible. I do not remember the last time I had four points in a half, but I think it comes with maturity, not trying to force anything, try to play the right way, find my teammate as much as I can, but at the end of the day I knew I had four points at the half and I wanted to come out aggressive for the team.”

Four of Lopez’s baskets were assisted by Holiday, who handed 12 dimes to record his second double-double of the season. Holiday’s shot started off erratically, but he found a groove and finished 13 of 22 for 34 points. That included a floater with 23.2 seconds left that gave the Bucks a 118-115 lead. He added a free throw to provide additional breathing room 2 seconds later.

“That’s just part of the beauty of Jrue – he’s so unselfish, he’s always thinking of others and we have to sometimes encourage him to be aggressive,” Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Tonight he found that honey spot. I mean, he’s got 12 assists, too. It’s not just 34, but he’s got 12 assists and defensively I thought he was really good. This was a very, very kind of one of his special nights.”

Bucks defense had hands full with Hawks star Trae Young

This isn’t meant to discount all-star Dejounte Murray or the other players on the core of a Hawks team that remains from the 2021 Eastern Conference finals, but Trae Young is the engine of that team. The 24-year-old two-time all-star is off to a strong start in the counting stats averaging a league-leading 10.6 assists and just under 30 points, but he was shooting just 29.3% from behind the three-point line and 39.3% from the floor.

That said, he caught a rhythm Friday night in Detroit in making 4 of 6 from deep.

To try and prevent that from snowballing, the Bucks set out to throw waves of defenders and looks at a player who stretches a defense well out to 30 feet from the rim. Assistant coach Mike Dunlap likened the pressure needed to that which is required to slow a top-tier NFL quarterback.

Unfortunately for the Bucks, Young got going early in making his first five shots and scoring 13 points. He hit just 1 for 5 shots the rest of the first half, however, as the Bucks were able to build a double-digit lead.

Clearly, the all-star wasn’t going to settle there and he scored 16 points in the third quarter to keep his team connected before finishing with a game-high 42 and helping his team tie the game at 104-104 after trailing by as many as 12.

No back-to-back rest

With the first set of games on consecutive nights coming just over a week into the season, the Bucks ran out their regular starting lineup of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday, Brook Lopez, Grayson Allen and Jevon Carter. More than the back-to-back, however, the Bucks are in the heart of stretch where they play four games in six days.

Budenholzer said he was going to play his guys, but that there would be subtle adjustments:

Wesley Matthews: Played four minutes on Friday against the Knicks and put in 17 against the Hawks. He drew a key offensive foul on Atlanta's De'Andre Hunter with 23.2 seconds left to set up a Holiday free throw, and then tipped out Holiday's missed second one for an additional two free throws by Antetokounmpo to seal the victory.

“To me, that’s just part of the game,” Matthews said. “That was instilled in me as a youngin’ by my mom. There’s a lot of ways to impact the basketball game and people call it a 50-50 ball – that’s not the way I look at it. I look at it as its mine. Whatever way I can go help impact the game, impact the team, encourage winning, promote winning, impact winning, that’s what I’ma go do.”

Serge Ibaka: Played six minutes against New York and had 11 minutes against Atlanta.

MarJon Beauchamp: Did not play vs. the Knicks but started the second quarter and played seven minutes.

“Trying to just give guys opportunities, give ‘em a chance,” Budenhozler said. “He’s been great in practice. We’re very excited about him so tonight was a good night to throw him out there. I thought he did well.

"He had kind of a turnover early in one of his possessions and the next time he got the ball he just steps up and makes a big corner three on a kickout from Giannis. I thought he did some things defensively. We think we see a good player in practice. It’s just we’ve got a lot of wings and a lot of good players. He’s fighting to earn his place and I was happy for him to get some rotation minutes tonight. I thought he did well.”

If there was a silver lining, however, it’s that the back-to-back games came while the team was at home as opposed to having to hop cities – like they will in early November when they play three games in five days across Atlanta, Oklahoma City and San Antonio.

More:Jevon Carter’s feverish offseason work put him into Milwaukee Bucks starting lineup

More:Forbes list says Bucks are 15th-most valuable NBA franchise, a huge jump in 8 years

Holiday brothers play together again

At this point in their respective careers, it’s not a unique instance for Justin, Jrue and Aaron Holiday to play against one another – in fact, the three shared the court a couple of times already this season when the Hawks and Bucks played two preseason games in the United Arab Emirates.

The first time it happened, though, was in 2019 when Jrue was with New Orleans and Justin and Aaron were with Indiana – and it was the first time such an occurrence happened in NBA history.

“It’s a dream come true, honestly, that we play at the same time,” Aaron said. “There’s not many that can say they can do that. It’s a blessing for sure.”

Once he joined the Bucks in 2020, Jrue and his brothers squared off three more times.

Justin said if there’s trash talk among the three it’s usually outside of basketball, but there’s no denying the highly competitive spirit once the ball goes up.

“These games are always special – but we want to win,” Justin said. “We’re trying to come in and make sure we do win this game, but for us to be on the floor together, every time we can do it there’s nothing like it.”

“We obviously want to win,” Aaron added, “but at the end of the day it’s probably the most fun game we’re going to play.”

Jrue's teams are now 6-0 in the head-to-head matchups after Saturday night's Bucks victory.

“It’s really special,” Jrue said. “I know that it’s a blessing and we don’t take it for granted. I think to be able to be on the court at the same time, and for me not having too many more years left, I think that it’s good to see and I always want to be out there and cherish those moments.”

Thanasis, Giannis and Kostas Antetokounmpo joined the Holidays in making brotherly history when the Bucks played the Los Angeles Lakers in 2021 and the trio shared the court.

5 numbers

1: Unbeaten teams in the NBA – the Bucks.

5-7: Consecutive made three-pointers and shots overall for Brook Lopez to open the game.

11-15: Points and minutes for Bucks guard Jordan Nwora off the bench, giving the Bucks a much-needed boost with starters Grayson Allen and Jevon Carter combining for four points.

44.8: Field goal percentage for the Hawks. The Bucks came in allowing a league-best 40.3% from the floor. Atlanta had come in making 48.5% of its shots.

32: Fourth-quarter points by the Bucks. The Hawks came in with a league-best 21.6 points per game allowed in the final quarter.

Plays of the game: Giannis Antetokounmpo and Trae Young go head-to-head

There couldn’t be more different players than the 7-foot Antetokounmpo and the 6-1 Young, but the two turned up the star power in the fourth quarter with signature plays. Young used his quickness and touch to hit consecutive floaters and then hit a 33-foot three-pointer to give his team the lead. Antetokounmpo then promptly went downcourt and dunked strongly on the Atlanta defense to take it back.

Video of the game is Jevon Carter’s behind-the-back pass to Brook Lopez

Giannis Antetokounmpo drew the Atlanta defense up into the paint early in the first quarter, and then he dumped the ball off to Jevon Carter along the baseline. But with two Hawks quickly closing, Carter zipped the ball behind his back to a wide-open Brook Lopez for an open corner three. It was one of five straight threes Lopez made to start the game.

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Jevon Carter's behind-the-back pass sets up Brook Lopez's 3 - ESPN Video

Who do the Bucks play next?

Milwaukee’s season-long homestand continues on Monday against the Detroit Pistons. Detroit is led by 2021 No. 1 pick Cade Cunningham and this year’s No. 5 pick Jaden Ivey. The team also acquired veteran Bojan Bogdanović from Utah.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks withstand rally by Trae Young, Hawks to win fifth straight