The Bucks did what they could.

They tried to pump life into a meaningless home finale against Atlanta, which was played before a smaller-than-announced Bradley Center crowd that will forever go into the box score as 15,613.

During pre-game introductions, announcer Eric Jensen introduced injured stars Michael Redd, Andrew Bogut and Charlie Villanueva.

When the game started, the Bucks moved the ball with gusto and got some easy shots.

During timeouts, they had perky, scantily-clad dancers toss T-shirts and perky team attendants throw autographed mini-basketballs into the stands.

Center Dan Gadzuric left the floor with a dislocated right ring finger with 7:39 left in the second quarter, then returned a little more than 3 minutes later to finish out the half.

At halftime, Bucks players handed their shoes to long-time season ticketholders.

Throughout the night, the Bucks hustled for loose balls. They tried -- sometimes successfully -- to play fundamentally sound team defense.

They raffled off prizes during timeouts.

They pushed their lead to 21 points against a team whose coach, former Bucks assistant Mike Woodson, didn't attend the game because of food poisoning.

The t-shirts? Did we mention the T-shirts? 

When the final horn sounded, and a 102-96 victory was in the books, Bucks players gave fans the shirts off their backs and allowed fans to shoot free throws. While the action continued on the court, coach Larry Krystkowiak and his players seemed like they were looking for something with a deeper meaning than ping-pong balls, lottery status and off-season tee times and fishing plans.

"Next year is going to be different," said Mo Williams, who led the Bucks with 26 points in what may have been his final home game for Milwaukee.

"Larry is a good coach. He's a different coach. He demands that you play hard every day."

Asked if the team had enough time to get used to Krystkowiak, Charlie Bell said: "I think so. It's difficult because everybody's not getting the full effect. Everybody's doing their own rehab and treatment and not at the road games. You're not around them all the time, but I think the guys out there on the court, when you watch us, there's a certain toughness about us. I think next year, once things get a little different over the summer and we get everybody healthy, I think next year is going to be a lot different."

While admitting that the team has "had a rough go" and has a long way to go, Krystkowiak found a few positives in the game.

"What was so encouraging about it was how we shared the ball," he said. "Early on we had, I think, 18 or 19 assists out of 23 field goals in the first half. That's fun. The guys enjoyed playing that way. There were a number of times where Ruben (Patterson) would pass it out to Mo (Williams), he would pass it to Charlie (Bell), Charlie would pass it to Mo, Mo would pass it to somebody else and Ruben ended up getting it back under the basket - the guy that started it. It was very contagious. I think it's winning basketball."

With a 28-54 record, the Bucks have a long list of things to address in the off-season.

"We need to look at a lot of things," Krystkowiak said. "Something is not working here. We've got a lot of work to do."

Notebook: The Bucks finished with a 18-23 record at home, their worst mark since 1995-'96 (14-27) ... Atlanta was 1-8 against the Central Division on the road this season ... The Bucks went all season with only 1 victory over their Central Division rivals (they beat Detroit in the first game of the season) ... The Hawks are 17-39 when trailing after the first quarter... Atlanta guard Tyronn Lue on his team's play in the first half. "We didn't play with any pride. We just came out and went through the motions. In the second half, we just took it upon ourselves to come out and play hard, play the right way and just see what happens."