"It was a disappointing finish to a sensational 2½ months for Milwaukee Bucks guard John Salmons.

He struggled to hit his shots in the final two games of the Eastern Conference playoff series as the Bucks squandered a 3-2 lead and fell to the Atlanta Hawks in seven games.

And nothing was going right for the 30-year-old Salmons on Sunday as he made just 5 of 18 shots and was limited to 11 points in the Bucks' 95-74 loss to the Hawks in the decisive seventh game at Philips Arena.

"It was just a long, grind-it-out series," Salmons said. "I think everybody was tired."

The Hawks focused their defense on stopping Salmons, who had averaged 30.7 points against them in three regular-season games.

In the hotly contested playoff series, Salmons averaged 17.0 points and shot 40.4%, including just 17.4% from three-point range (4 of 23). He was 1 for 8 on three-pointers in the last two games.

Now the million-dollar question to be answered is if Salmons will return to the Bucks next season. He has a $5.8 million player option for the 2010-'11 season and can choose to become a free agent. The option in his deal was the major reason the Chicago Bulls traded him to the Bucks at the February deadline as they sought to clear salary cap space for a run at an elite free agent this summer.

"Milwaukee has been great and the teammates have been great," Salmons said. "In my eight years in the league, this is probably the first team I felt like was 100% a team. I felt like we played as a team.

"I felt like the coaching staff was great, one of the best I've had. We played hard. I feel like this is one of the only teams where there wasn't a lot of agendas on the team; everybody played together. Everybody knew their role and did their job."