Late third-quarter run dooms the Sixers in loss to Hawks: Likes and dislikes

The Sixers (5-6) visited the Atlanta Hawks (7-4) on Thursday. Philadelphia wanted to build on Monday’s win over the Phoenix Suns. Atlanta wanted to right its wrongs from Wednesday’s loss to the Utah Jazz. A late third-quarter run from the Hawks doomed the Sixers, who were stuck in an abysmal offensive night, in a 104-95 defeat.

Before we get to the game, some context is due.

Contextual Notes

The Sixers were without James Harden, who is recovering from a strained tendon in his right foot.

Jaden Springer is on a G-League assignment with the Delaware Blue Coats and was not available. Michael Foster Jr. and Julian Champagnie are on Two-Way assignments with the Blue Coats and were unavailable.

Doc Rivers started Tyrese Maxey, De’Anthony Melton, PJ Tucker, Tobias Harris, and Joel Embiid.

The Hawks were without Bogdan Bogdanovic, who is recovering from a right knee injury.

Nate McMillan started Trae Young, Dejounte Murray, De’Andre Hunter, John Collins, and Clint Capela.

Likes

Embiid made a concerted effort to play a more traditional game under the basket in the opening quarter, using his size to attack the basket and establish himself inside for shots at the rim and fouls. He’s vacillated away from three-point shots in his first two games back from the flu, playing a 15-feet-and-in game. And his early aggression and physicality was rewarded, Embiid getting to the charity stripe a handful of times in the first frame. 

Aside from a nice wing triple at the third quarter buzzer a few games ago, it’s been a brutal start to the season for Shake Milton. He telegraphed a cross-court pass that was picked off for a live-ball turnover and then was completely dusted by Young on a drive to the rim in his first few minutes of this game. But, Milton responded well. While not exactly lighting it up in the scoring column, Milton pulled down 7 rebounds in 17 minutes of action. Good to see him use his physical traits to find ways to help the team when struggling elsewhere.

I was pretty unsure of what to make of Georges Niang becoming more of a driver out of the shot fake. Probably mostly because I didn’t buy it. But, he had Hunter jumping out of his shoes on the shot fake on Thursday. Better than that, he was comfortable trying to take him to the basket for finishes. I guess if Hunter, one of the better-regarded 3-and-D wings in the league, is falling for it and actually unable to…