ATLANTA -- Well, so much for that 6-0 start.

The Hawks dropped their third straight in impressively awful fashion on Wednesday night, converting a 13-point lead into a 30-point deficit with alarming speed before falling to Milwaukee 108-91.

Cosmetic scoring made this game seem close, but it wasn't. And if the scoreboard seemed lopsided, the difference in effort was even more noticeable.

"Very dispiriting," said Hawks coach Larry Drew.

Believe it or not, Atlanta led this game 22-9 with three minutes left in the first quarter. Just 27 minutes later, they were losing 88-58. Do the math and Milwaukee went on a mind-boggling 79-36 run, outscoring Atlanta by 43 points in that span. The Bucks could have made it worse, too, but called off the dogs to start the final period.

"The minute I started subbing we just went dead in the water," said Drew. "That's probably the third [straight] game that has happened."

It's a jarring change of affairs for the Hawks, because the past two seasons they were accustomed to extending leads in the second quarter when the bench entered. But injuries to Marvin Williams and Maurice Evans have left the team without a true small forward and thrown the entire rotation out of whack.

Nobody has been affected more than Josh Smith, who has slid down to small forward and is still adjusting to the new role, both offensively and defensively. Of particular note was a late first-quarter sequence when Smith conceded wide-open 20-footers to Corey Maggette on successive possessions, jump-starting Milwaukee's rally,

"Josh isn't used to playing guys like that," said Drew, who said it doubly hurt because he couldn't use Smith in a more natural matchup against Ersan Ilyasova. Those two Milwaukee bench players combined for 37 points, and each had more points than any of the Hawks.

Offensively, Smith couldn't space the floor for his teammates the way Williams or Evans can, a weakness exacerbated by the offensively inert Jason Collins starting at center. Collins went scoreless, with his one shot attempt a wide-open, straight-on 15-footer that barely grazed the side of the rim before skidding harmlessly out of bounds.

Unfortunately for the Hawks, they can't stay sound defensively with Smith in his natural 4 spot.

"We can't play too small," said Drew. "Then they'll post up my perimeter guys, so I have to be very careful how I match up at the 3. I played a few minutes with Jamal [Crawford] at 3 and they took him to the post right away."

Atlanta's effort level turned noticeably south once the bench entered late in the first quarter. Crawford made a lily-livered effort at giving up a hard foul to stop a 2-on-1 break, leading to a John Salmons 3-point play, while Smith became agitated by Maggette's buckets and pouted to the sideline.

"He got upset," said Drew. "He wasn't the only one, but the one thing I don't want him doing is displaying it. We don't want to show the whole world; we'll talk about it in the huddle or during halftime."

Believe it or not, the Bucks were the team on a back-to-back. Their league-high fourth, in fact. But they've made it to the other side after a 1-4 start, returning home a respectable 4-5 against a difficult early slate after back-to-back blowouts of the Knicks and Hawks. Atlanta finds itself in the opposite quandary -- looking good in the standings at 6-3, but finding its lack of depth exposed by injuries.

Yet most of what happened can be explained less by injuries and X's and O's, and more by the fact that the Hawks were simply out-competed -- embarrassed, I dare say -- on their home floor.

"We can't just stop playing when things aren't going right offensively," said Smith.

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