It was a good win. I did not get to see the whole game but I know what people are saying. It never felt like we had it in hand. We would be up say 15, MIL would get an easy bucket, and I would find myself thinking the game was slipping away. Then we would get a couple of buckets and be back up 18 and I still didn't feel we had the game in hand.
MIL played really good defense in the parts that I saw. They were forcing us to do the pick and roles way too far out. But our ball movement was enough, we were getting some open shots, and in the end, it was never really close (even if it felt close).
Historically, it has seemed to me that the second game is more representative of the rest of a series than the first game. I have no stats to prove this, just my impression from years of watching. A game 1 can be an outlier but things have settled in by game 2. We shall see. We are going to need Smart and Brown so I hope they heal up in this extended layoff.
Our lack of depth has been really exposed. White in for Smart is a big drop off. Pritchard gets hot what, once every 4 games. Theis is not even playing. Grant was great last game but he is not going to do that every game, teams adjust. I didn't understand not playing Theis. Horford and RWill both had 5 fouls. If Theis is on the floor, he would be getting a couple of these fouls. Theis has not looked good, but I think we need to put him out there some to protect Horford and RWill.