MILWAUKEE—The Bulls may be gone from the NBA Playoffs and may still be waiting to decide when to dismiss Vinny Del Negro as Coach, but the Milwaukee Bucks, Coached by Scott Skiles and with John Salmons-both former Bulls, who were trying to close out the Atlanta Hawks who feature the NBA Sixth Man of the Year and another ex Bull Jamal Crawford.Milwaukee went ice cold at the wrong time(mostly the whole game)and Atlanta forced a seventh game at Phillips Arena Sunday afternoon with an 83-69 win. It was a close first half which was marred by miserable shooting.The Bucks,who led 34-31 at the break,shot just 36% and the Hawks only 32.5%. Carlos Delfino prevented Milwaukee’s shooting percentage from being worse since he was 5-10(including 3-5 from behind the three point line), and Joe Johnson was 4-10 for Atlanta. The Third quarter turned into a disaster for the Bucks as they went stoned cold(3-17 for 17.6%) and got outscored 29-11 to fall behind 60-45 heading into the fourth.In fact, the Hawks built a 58-38 lead before Brandon Jennings nailed a three pointer and Salmons hit four free throws.The fourth quarter was Atlanta’s in which to protect the lead and they did.Crawford led everyone with 24 points, and Johnson added 22 for the Hawks who had five players in double figures even though they only shot 38% for the game. Milwaukee was an awful 33% for the game and only had three in double digits led by Delfino with 20.

NOTES—The loud sold out crowd was 18,717….Milwaukee had 19,15 and 11 in each of the first three quarters.They ended with 24 in the final quarter,but only got over twenty due to garbage time.

LES