Hawks Soar Past Sloppy Sixers

By Sean Kennedy

I’m tempted to just throw this recap away like the Sixers threw oh-so-many balls away last night, but here goes anyway. The Sixers have played some games this season with higher turnover totals but Friday night just felt like the sloppiest, most careless performance the team has had to date. Philadelphia committed 10 turnovers in the first quarter (9 in the first 5 minutes), as there was a point halfway through the period when they had turned it over on 64% of their possessions. Maybe facing a number of former Sixers, the guys were confused and that’s why they kept throwing it to the other team, I don’t know. Anyway, tt was a season-high for turnovers in a quarter and they tied a season-high for a half. You might look at the final tally and say that the Hawks only had one fewer turnover than the Sixers, but many of Atlanta’s came after the game was already decided; that was the undoing for the Sixers tonight in a 125-99 defeat.

The Hawks were happy to have the game handed to them on a silver platter as they didn’t have need huge performances from some of their bigger names. Reserve Mike Scott scored 10 of 12 points for Atlanta during one stretch in the second quarter when they extended their lead to double-digits, finishing with 16 points in the first half and tying a season-high with 18 on the game. Atlanta also had three threes a piece from Kyle Korver and DeMarre Carroll, which was about as assured as hearing that Sunday’s Super Bowl is a matchup between the #1 and #1 defense in any every lead-up to the game. A 17-2 run by the Hawks in the third quarter made this game a laugher and Philadelphia just looked listless on the court in one of the more painful-to-watch performances of the sesaon.

The carelessness was really a shame because it wasted an excellent effort from Thad Young. Young had a solid outing with 16 points, 3 threes, and 3 steals for the game. Oh I’m sorry, those were his stats in the first quarter. Thaddeus was an absolute monster last night, on fire from the perimeter, finishing a dirty alley-oop and having a number of hammer dunks while lurking along the baseline. He finished with 29 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 steals, while sitting the entire fourth quarter. Young could have made a legitimate run at 40 points if the team had been anywhere within striking distance.

Unfortunately, that was not the case as Young had almost literally zero help from his teammates. The starters aside from Thad combined for just 4 points in the first half with James Anderson shooting 0-6 on the game and Evan Turner, coming off his game-winner, finishing 2-10 and having a number of his lay-up attempts comically blocked by the underside of the rim. Don’t be fooled by 17 points for Michael Carter-Williams. Almost all of his numbers were against the deep subs of the Hawks late in the fourth quarter when Brett Brown had him in the game to try to get his confidence up. MCW was a non-factor in this game. Hopefully that won’t be the case when the team takes on the Pistons tonight.

 Box Score

• For some reason, there were a fair amount of boos when former Sixer Elton Brand came into the game. I can’t imagine why anyone would boo Elton, he played through injury and always gave his all for the team. He didn’t have leave of his own volition as the Sixers used the amnesty clause on him. Just because he didn’t live up to the ‘Philly Max’ free agent signing with the team, it wasn’t due to a lot of effort. Pretty classless move by the crowd in attendance last night and part of me was happy to see Brand score a season-high 18 points and 8 rebounds.
• Elliot Williams scored a season-high 15 points on the night, many of which came in the first half when the game was still in question. Williams has shown some signs of life in recent weeks, making me look foolish for so quickly dismissing him early on. He does a nice job getting to the rim, and is a little more selective about it than Wroten (who was an awful 1-13 this game). There’s a reason he’s been soaking up more and more minutes from Wroten and Hollis Thompson.
• I have to acknowledge the Marc Zumoff masks which were given out as part of the Zoo’s crew promotion last night. The game became such a laugher that the announcers started a running bit of Malik Rose wearing the mask and trying to rattle off some of Zumoff’s catch phrases and talking about the relative merits of not having to get haircuts anymore. It was nice of them to try to inject some spirit into a lifeless game for the audience at home.

Tanking Implications:

This loss was one of the few games it actually felt like the Sixers were tanking rather than just being a bad team. Thad was the only one of the starters showing any signs of life out there, and aside from decent games from Williams and Lavoy Allen, no one else really did much on the court. You have to look toward next season and tell yourself the organization is looking toward the future but Friday night was zero fun as a fan. 3/5 tanks