It came a little more than a minute after Trae Young walked off the Hawks bench and back into the game, stifling a grimace because of a sore right ankle from a freak tweak after he stepped on referee Sean Wright’s foot late in the third quarter.
Young answered it with a rainmaking 3 to give the Hawks back a lead, but Middleton responded 13 seconds later with an 18-footer.
By the end of Game 3, Middleton torched Atlanta for 38 points as the Bucks pulled away, 113-102 to grab a 2-1 series lead.
There’s moments we know when to set screens for him, we know when he wants the ball, and that was the moment.
Playoff games are often won in the half-court grind, with contested midrange pull-ups and isolation turnaround jumpers the deciding offense.
It’s not that the Bucks executed some kind of high-minded offense.
“He’s just a hell of a player,” Budenholzer said.
But this is the formula of the Bucks: to divide and conquer between their All-Stars, no traditional alpha-bravo hierarchy dictating who needs shots and who needs to decoy.
“I think our team is so unselfish, if anybody has it going, that ball goes to them.
Diversity in offense is a luxury of the Bucks, and one the Hawks struggled to replicate with Young limited after suffering his ankle sprain.
The Bucks can win in a variety of ways, leaning on swarming defense , a flurry of 3s or the ground-and-pound paint-scoring approach.
The Hawks’ Game 4 adjustment likely is the ice pack that sits on Young’s right ankle — and the hope that he can summon some of what’s made him the darling of the East playoffs.
The Bucks, though, are hitting a stride, particularly with Middleton hitting his.