The Atlanta Hawks beat the Sixers 126-98 Thursday night in a game that was decided early in the second quarter. While the Sixers were only down by one point at the end of the first, the Hawks went on a 19-0 run to take a commanding lead they would never relinquish. Coming off of a great win against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday, the Sixers hoped to continue on their improvement.
The Sixers came out strong in the first quarter, eventually taking a 21-15 lead with 1:39 left. Early in the quarter they looked extremely energetic, if not a little frantic. Once the game calmed down the Sixers were able to string together possessions, especially on defense, to take their early leads. The Hawks only had three baskets in their "half court" offense in the first quarter, a testament to Philly's defensive effort.
Unfortunately that's where most of the good news ends. Starting at the end of the first quarter and continuing through almost four minutes of the second, the Hawks went on a 19-0 run to put them up by 13. While there were some highlight plays, including beautiful big to big passing:
Nerlens ➡️ Ish ➡️ Nerlens ➡️ Jah (CSN) https://t.co/hbGn5a8Rj8
— Philadelphia 76ers (@Sixers) January 8, 2016
the Hawks were able to increase their lead for a quarter high of 18 before a couple baskets from Carl Landry and Ish Smith brought the score to 61-44 at the half.
The third quarter started just as poorly as the second ended, with the Hawks building on an already substantial lead. Poor defense lead to the Hawks up by 24 in a matter of three minutes. Brett Brown was clearly upset with his players, calling two timeouts in the span of thirty seconds. However something in the second timeout rejuvenated the players, sparking a run that brought the Sixers to within 11. Unfortunately that comeback was short lived with the Hawks fueled by Sixer turnovers (7 out of 8 possessions at one point) and closing out the quarter leading by 21. Kent Bazemore, Atlanta's leading scorer, would not play in the fourth quarter sitting with 22 points.
Even for die hard fans the fourth quarter was difficult to watch, never getting closer than 15 and eventually down by more than 30. Reserve players for both teams came in and it seemed the crowd energy from earlier in the game was sucked out of the room.
A few Sixers had notable individual games, including Jahlil Okafor leading the team with 21 points and Nerlens Noel just short of a double-double with 9 points and 13 rebounds to go along with two steals, two assists, and a block.
Some interesting +/- notes: All Sixers were negative except JaKarr Sampson, who was +6 in 24 minutes of action, though some were in garbage time. Isaiah Canaan and Jerami Grant were both worse than -30 in significant minutes while Atlanta's Al Horford and Dennis Schroder were better than +30.
The Sixers continue their season long six-game homestand with game three against the Toronto Raptors on Saturday at 7:30pm.
