Hawks Glide Past Sixers in Blowout

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

Atlanta 126, Philadelphia 98 – Box Score

In yet another clash between these two Greg Popovich disciples, Mike Budenholzer and his Hawks did a pretty fair impression of the Spurs, while Brett Brown and the Sixers looked like, well, themselves. Atlanta was positively Spursian moving the ball around, recording 36 assists on their 49 made baskets. The Sixers, who struggle with discipline in their defensive rotations in the best of times, were helpless against a Hawks team consistently willing to make the extra pass on their way to a 53.3% shooting night.

After the Sixers held a 6-point lead toward the end of the first quarter, Atlanta went on a 17-0 surge to take control of the game early in the second quarter. The Sixers had one spurt in them in the third, going on a 13-0 run to cut the deficit back down to 11, but Philadelphia would go on to commit 10 of their 22 turnovers in that quarter to allow things to slide out of control.

Really, it was the Sixers bench that let them down during each of those Atlanta runs, particularly the bench backcourt of T.J. McConnell and Isaiah Canaan. Canaan finished with a -88.9 net rating for the game, while T.J. had one of -93.5 (as a reminder, the Sixers on the season are league-worst at only -12.4). As for McConnell, of the 6 possessions he had a hand in the end of it, he turned it over 3 times, recorded 2 assists, and missed a shot, all while getting lit up by Dennis Schroder (14 points, 6 assists) and others defensively.

Brett Brown inexplicably thought Canaan had a chance at defending the long-limbed 6’5″ Kent Bazemore. Bazemore had a field day once Canaan entered the game and finished with a game-high 22 points; meanwhile, whereas Canaan is supposed to at least bring three-point shooting to the table, he went 0-3.

The good news from a Sixers perspective is that despite the lopsided score, their starters really weren’t all that bad. Ish Smith had 12 points and 7 assists, while Nik Stauskas continues to regain his shooting stroke, going 2-4 from three. Stauskas’ defense remains atrocious, but like with Jahlil Okafor, we’ll take improvement on one side of the court at a time as progress.

Speaking of the big man, Okafor finished with a team-high 21 points on 9-16 shooting. Most promisingly, the pair of he and Nerlens Noel did not look too dysfunctional playing together. Noel was very active on the glass, with 6 of his game-high 13 rebounds coming on the offensive boards. In recent games, the Sixers big man tandem has looked usable when up against an opponent that plays two traditional big men together themselves. At times, they’ve even appeared sublime:

Nerlens ➡️ Ish ➡️ Nerlens ➡️ Jah (CSN) https://t.co/hbGn5a8Rj8

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) January 8, 2016

Thursday’s night contest against Atlanta was the beginning of a tough stretch of games against Eastern Conference playoff teams for the Sixers. Philadelphia showed they can play with them for about the first 10 minutes against the Hawks; hopefully, they’ll remain competitive for a bit longer when they host the Raptors Saturday night.

Other Game Notes:

• Shane Battier was spotted having coffee with Sam Hinkie in Philadelphia Saturday afternoon, generating speculation that he would be the next former Duke star to join the Sixers organization. Though Battier would later attend the game, it was confirmed he was just in town for a few days to bounce ideas off of, and would not be joining the team in an adviser capacity.
• Meanwhile, the veteran Duke alum who has joined the Sixers, Elton Brand, was once again in a suit for the game after practicing with the team on Wednesday. He’s said to be about a week or two away from being able to suit up for game action, presumably in a very limited role.