Embiid's return not enough, Sixers blown out by Hawks

It’s difficult to find positives to take away from some games. Occasionally, a team produces an effort that is uniformly poor, and the best thing to do is just put it behind you as soon as the final buzzer sounds and move on to the next one.

The Sixers dispiriting 112-94 road loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night certainly falls into that category. It was their third consecutive loss following five straight wins, and dropped them to 7-4.

Philadelphia welcomed the return of Mike Scott and Joel Embiid to the active roster which bumped the rotation up to nine healthy bodies, but the team was still without numerous significant contributors due to injuries and COVID-19 healthy and safety protocols. Among those still absent were Seth Curry, Tobias Harris and Shake Milton, their second, third and fourth leading scorers, as well as Ben Simmons, their lead playmaker. The lack of offensive punch showed.

Initially, it appeared that Embiid reentering the starting lineup might be enough to carry the Sixers past a slumping Hawks team that came into the contest on a 4-game losing streak. He was a force from the opening tipoff, scoring 16 points and grabbing 6 rebounds in nine minutes of action in the first frame alone, which ended with the Sixers on top 32-28.

But the franchise center wasn’t capable of carrying the load by himself. Danny Green and Scott totaled all of 4 points in the game and misfired on every one of their 12 combined 3-point attempts. As a team, the Sixers shot just 8 for 36 from beyond the arc, or 22.2%. The cramped spacing clearly affected Embiid as the game wore on—after making 5 of his first eight attempts from the field in that scorching first quarter, he made just 3 of nine the rest of the way. He scored only 8 more points to finish the evening with 24. The Sixers were a team-worst -27 in his 22 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Hawks took full advantage of the struggling and depleted Sixers. Trae Young in particular seemed to find himself. After averaging just 18 points on 33.3% from the field including 22.2% from deep over his previous five games, the 22-year-old point guard poured in 26 points on 19 shots. He also picked the Philadelphia defense apart with his passing, dishing out 8 assists without a single turnover.

Young’s energetic play rubbed off on his teammates, who constantly seemed a half step ahead of the Sixers. Atlanta’s hustle showed up in the box score, as they won the rebounding battle 58-50, and dominated in both second chance (23-8) and fast break points (21-2). They were also the much more aggressive team offensively, more than doubling Philadelphia’s 13 free throw attempts with 27.

Atlanta was shorthanded in its own right, missing five key rotation members including prized offseason free agent signings Danillo Gallinari and Bogdan Bogdanovic, who figured to be significant sources of secondary offense. They weren’t missed in this one, however, as five other Hawks joined Young in double figures scoring. Between the second and third quarters, Atlanta outscored the Sixers 69-33. A Solomon Hill 3-pointer made the lead at 100-65 in the opening moments of the fourth, their largest lead of the night.

Fortunately for Philadelphia, moving on to the next one should be very easy. They travel back home to host the Miami Heat on Tuesday night at 7p.m. to finish off a back-to-back. The Heat are in a similar boat with the Sixers—several of their best players, including Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, are out due to COVID-19 protocols. On Sunday, their roster was so diminished the league was forced to postpone their matchup with the Boston Celtics.