76ers Avoid Collapse vs. Hawks in Saturday Night Rematch
After one of their most impressive wins during the 2022-2023 NBA season against the Western Conference-contending Phoenix Suns, the Philadelphia 76ers struggled to keep the momentum going two nights later on the road.
Facing the Atlanta Hawks for the first of two matchups, the Sixers fell flat on their one-game road trip. As they struggled on the offensive end and lacked energy, for the most part, the Sixers dropped to seven losses by falling short to the Hawks.
On Saturday, they had an opportunity to bounce back on their home court. Opening up the first of back-to-back matchups, the Sixers started Saturday’s game off much better than they did on Thursday night.
As the Sixers drained over 60 percent of their shots on the offensive end, they fired off 37 points in the first quarter while keeping the Hawks shooting below 40 percent and scoring fewer than 25 points.
The Hawks punched back in the second quarter as expected. With an impressive showing from Dejounte Murray throughout the entire quarter, he helped keep the Hawks from letting the game get out of reach. However, it was clear the Sixers were in total control going into halftime.
In the third quarter, the Sixers continued building on their lead and led by as many as 27 points. As they’ve found out in the past, they can’t get too comfortable when playing the Hawks, though.
An attempted comeback was in store for Atlanta. Although they trailed 99-84 going into the fourth quarter, they started to tease a comeback as the game approached crunch time.
“We gave up a lot of threes,” said Sixers center Joel Embiid. “At one point, we fouled about five times in a row when in the penalty, and they just kept going to the free throw line. Then offensively, the ball started sticking a little too much. It was really defensively. We just kept fouling play after play. They hit a couple of threes. We just got to stay locked in.”
Throughout the start of the season, the Sixers’ struggles to get stops on the defensive end in critical game situations have been a constant issue. As they attempt to work through their defensive troubles, the same issues came about on Saturday night.
“We stopped getting stops,” said Sixers assistant coach Sam Cassell, who filled in for Doc Rivers during the Sixers’ postgame press conference. “They scored ten consecutive points against us, and most of them were layups. We decided to take the easy points away and gather some offense for ourselves, and that’s how we were successful at the end of the game.”
Fortunately for the Sixers, they didn’t allow Atlanta to complete the attempted comeback. On Saturday night, the Sixers managed to turn the tables and prevent a second-half collapse by putting the Hawks away once and for all with a 121-109 victory.
With that win, the Sixers move to 6-7 on the year. After battling in two-straight games against the Hawks, the 76ers will have a quick turnaround and will host the Utah Jazz on Sunday night.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.
