By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly editor 
15 straight wins. 51 on the year. The Sixers (51-30) made all that possible with a 121-113 win over the Atlanta Hawks (24-58) on Tuesday night.
It wasn't a pretty win. In fact, the Hawks kept it agonizingly close for most of the game, until a few JJ Redick shots late in the game pulled the Sixers further from Atlanta and got the victory.
Redick had a team-high 28 points on 9-of-17 shooting, 6-of-9 from beyond the arc.
The Sixers had three players with 20 or more points. Redick, of course, started the game. Ersan Ilyasova (26) and Marco Belinelli (20) came off the bench. Ilyasova got extended minutes due to a lacerated lip injury to Dario Saric early in the game. He ended up playing 31 minutes.
The Sixers as a team shot the 3-ball impressively well, shooting 17-of-37 (45.9%) from downtown. Redick, Ilyasova, and Belinelli got most of their points shooting threes. Ilyasova ended up draining four of them.
It was unclear how much of an impact Ben Simmons would make in the 81st game of the season, after Keith Pompey of the Inquirer reported that the Sixers' point guard came down with a case of gastroenteritis earlier in the day.
While it wasn't the flashiest of games for Simmons, it was a productive one nonetheless. Simmons finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, two steals, and a block. He fouled out at the end of the game and finished with a team-high six turnovers. It was obvious the sickness had affected him during the game, as he just wasn't his dominant self for the duration of the contest.
Amir Johnson finally came to life in his starting center role in Joel Embiid's absence. He scored a quiet 15 points with eight rebounds, and five assists. He shot the ball well, going 7-of-9 from the field.
Along with the Saric injury, the Sixers had another brief injury scare to TJ McConnell in the second half, but he remained in the game and looked fine for the rest of the game.
With the injuries, the sicknesses, and the flat-out fatigue for players, the Sixers almost dropped a sure-win to the lowly Hawks in the closing games of the season.
The Hawks really tried to make it a game late, but lacked the firepower needed to pull off the upset. Taurean Prince led the way for Atlanta with 27 points. But he shot 9-of-25 from the field, including 6-of-18 from beyond the arc. Dewayne Dedmon finished with 14 points, John Collins had 13, Tyler Dorsey had 17 points off the bench.
The Sixers have now won 15 straight games, a single-season franchise record. A win on Wednesday over the Milwaukee Bucks will seal up the No. 3 seed officially.
