The Eastern Conference Finals between the Atlanta Hawks and the Milwaukee Bucks is tied 2-2, but right now things seem far from even.
Both teams are facing the prospects of playing games without their superstars.
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The Hawks were hopeful Trae Young would be able to play after his ankle injury, but he was ruled out of Game 4 during pregame warmups, and Giannis Antentokounmpo left Game 4 in the second half with a knee injury.
Even before Giannis left the court, the Trae-less Hawks had complete control of the game.
The Hawks jumped out to a 10-2 lead and never looked back. Giannis left the game with 7:14 remaining in the third quarter and the Bucks were down by 10.
There's no doubt that the Bucks were a bit shell-shocked when Giannis went down. And what was a 10-point lead (62-52) bubbled up to 25 by the end of the third quarter (87-62).
The Bucks looked like a team that thought they could lollygag their way to a win. With Trae sidelined Milwaukee had no response to the Hawks' fast start and an even worse response to losing Giannis.
While the betting line on Game 5 isn't available yet and probably won't be until the availability of Trae and Giannis is known, there's a good chance that the Hawks will open as road favorites based on how the Bucks looked without Antetokounmpo.
While the status of each team's superstar for the remainder of the series isn't official, the general opinion seems to be initially that it is more likely Trae Young returns for the Hawks than Giannis returns for the Bucks.
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So can the Bucks be better than they were in Game 4? Can Milwaukee's role-players step up the way that the Hawks reserves did in Game 4?
The Bucks have a day to gather themselves and develop a game plan for life without Giannis in this series, but based on what we saw initially, they froze up just like a deer in headlights.