Said this in the game thread, going to repost it here:
Nah. This is over next game. Atlanta played desperate tonight and Trae had himself a great offensive game. Tip your cap and move onto the next one.
Posters love to talk about this team's mentality, but the its the fans.
Hate to break it to you but Atlanta is going to play desperate in game 6 as well and it’s very likely Trae has another great game? Atlanta crowd will also be the loudest they’ve been all year if the hawks get off to a good start.
Really comes down to - will the Hawks shoot 46% from 3 again (they average 35%) and will we shoot 30% again (we average 38%). It was a 2 point game despite those metrics. Certainly not beyond the realms of possibility that those numbers repeat themselves.
It's a tough loss to be sure, but we were controlling the game till the last 6 minutes but then they started to try and play the "let's run the clock down" game instead of continuing to do what had been successful for them through the game which was playing fast and attacking the basket. Then it got close and Trae hit some logo shots. I think they should be able to clean up those mistakes next game. We won most of the key metrics - outrebounded them, won the transition points, turnovers were about the same 9 to 8, got off enough shots...unfortunately we only played 42 minutes instead of 48 and a lot of our turnovers were in that 6 minute period. That gives me some confidence that we only need to tweak a few things.
Of course, who knows with this Cs team - Atlanta will certainly have some confidence, and some desperation, it's still an elimination game for them and they will be pumped. I think the first quarter will be crucial in seeing what our team's mindset is and if they are really up for a scrap.
Bucks fans are saying the same thing...
When you give up open 3's, they're going to make.moat.of them on avg. So yes, it's very possible they shoot lights out again because I've no belief Joe will adjust. He'll just stand there saying f "ShOoT mOrE 3's"
They don't seem to have confidence in Timelord's ability to defend Trae on the perimeter. Every time Atlanta ran a high pick and roll to switch Timelord on to Trae they sent a help defender over to trap him. Just to compare the season 3FG% of the players they left open vs their % tonight:
Collins - 29% 1-3.4 3FGA (4-9 44% tonight)
Hunter - 35% 1.5-4.3 3FGA (3-5 60% tonight)
Bey - 40% 2-5 3FGA (2-3 66% tonight)
Bogdan - 40$ 2.7-6.7 3FGA (3-6 60% tonight)
Bey and Bogdan are good perimeter shooters but Collins and Hunter made us pay for leaving them open to trap Trae tonight. If the Cs think they will do it again they will have to make an adjustment to how they guard Trae, maybe they try not to switch those screens. They had Timelord in drop coverage to protect the drive but Trae just scored with his floater. They have to figure out how to guard him better.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if we look at the game on balance, we controlled it for the majority of the game and gave it away at the end. It's not like we were outplayed and without a hope for the whole game. No doubt the loss sucks, especially given it was self inflicted when we were cruising at the end. Just like Milwaukee was when they gave up a lead to lose to Buckets. Like Miami Atlanta needed some crazy shots from Trae to fall to win, and like Milwaukee we made some mental mistakes (turnovers, fouls, techs) at the worst possible time. That's what I'm hoping they should be able to clean up. I would still rather be in our shoes than Atlanta's. But I'm sure there will be plenty more heart attack moments and frustration on the way, that's just how this team rolls

There's definitely some flaws with the big guns on this team though. With JB it's more technical with his decisionmaking at times, with JT it's more a mindset of how to impact the game when he's not shooting well. When he's not shooting well he tends to drift in and out of the game and settle for stepback 3s to try and get himself out of his funk. With Smart it's his judgment, he's always going for home run plays. It remains to be seen whether these flaws get in the way of a championship.