Atlanta Hawks Explain 76ers' Successful Adjustment on Monday

Doc Rivers' second-half adjustment on Monday night helped the 76ers issue a common tough test for the Atlanta Hawks.

The Philadelphia 76ers found out rather quickly on Monday night that there was a big difference in their strength of opponent compared to their last two outings.

Although the Sixers have been shorthanded recently, their two wins against the undermanned 5-16 Orlando Magic didn’t guarantee the same success against a playoff-caliber squad such as the Atlanta Hawks.

The jokes were flying around on NBA Twitter Monday night. As the Sixers looked out of sorts going against the Hawks in the first half, many claimed the shorthanded Sixers didn’t look great when they matched up against a more competitive squad.

In the first quarter, the Sixers trailed by as many as 14 points. At a point in the second quarter, Atlanta’s lead extended to 16 points. However, the Sixers made it a fight as they outscored the Hawks 28-21 in the second quarter, knocking down the once-16-point lead to four by halftime.

Doc Rivers and the 76ers wanted to make a familiar adjustment in the second half of Monday’s game. Lately, when they run their zone defense, the Sixers have gotten their opponents out of their groove. Ironically, the Hawks have found themselves struggling against the zone offensively, which made Philadelphia’s second-half adjustment make even more sense on Monday night.

“Teams have been using a zone defense to slow us down,” said Hawks center Clint Capela. “They did it tonight. They slowed us down and made us hesitate a little bit. Tonight, we could have done a better job of attacking their zone to keep up with our speed.”

The Hawks found success shooting on Monday night, as they drained 50 percent of their field goals and knocked down 44 percent of their threes. Unfortunately for Atlanta, taking care of the ball — especially down the stretch — was a significant issue on their part. So was getting a bucket when they needed to the most.

“They’re making us shoot perimeter shots, making us make tough shots,” said Hawks star Trae Young. “I think that’s really what it is. They’re just making us take perimeter shots. They’ve just been running zone, and we just got to find a way to beat that.”

After turning the ball over nine times in the first half, the Sixers scored just six points off Atlanta’s mistakes in the first 24 minutes of action. Once they made their key adjustment, Atlanta coughed the ball up 11 times, allowing Philadelphia to generate 13 points in transition. 

Overall, the Hawks lost a lopsided turnover battle to the Sixers 12-20. 

“They were killing our man defense early, and you just need to go to [zone] to get them out of rhythm,” said Doc Rivers. “On back-to-backs, zones are great because guys can get some rest and still be out on the floor and play some offense. So we talked about it. Miami, I think yesterday, played 80 percent of the game in zone. So, we got a chance to look at [Atlanta’s] zone offense. It’s funny, when you look at it, teams have one or two zone offenses. They have 30 to 40 man plays, so we just felt like it was easier to scout their zone offense than it was to guard them in man.”

Clearly, the Sixers made the right call on Monday night as they found success after struggling early on in the matchup. Despite trailing by 16 points, the Sixers’ biggest lead of the night came in the final seconds of the game. In the end, they took down the Hawks for the second time this season, moving to 12-9 on the year. 

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.