Game Recap: Philadelphia 76ers 96 Atlanta Hawks 117

Following their first win of the season, the Philadelphia 76ers took hopes and roster to Atlanta to face the Hawks, only to be denied in a huge way.

93. Final. 117. 125. 96

The Philadelphia 76ers entered the evening with a one game winning streak. The left the game with another spirited effort that fell short. It didn’t help the team to enter the contest without rookie and top scorer Joel Embiid.

The team was exhausted after a tough overtime victory over the Indiana Pacers last night, but started out with a spirited first quarter. By the end of the period, the 76ers were up by four powered by the scoring of Dario Saric with seven points.

However, the Atlanta Hawks were the more rested team, and opened up an eight point lead in the second quarter with fast break hustling. Tim Hardaway and Kent Bazemore enter the game and the Hawks began to pull away with their transition game. After a Dwight Howard pass to Tim Hardaway for a score, the Hawks extended their lead to ten points. The 76ers tried to answer with an Ersan Ilysova layup, but Bazemore dropped a three pointer to put the Hawks up by 11 points at the half.

Jahlil Okafor got into foul trouble, putting up three fouls in just eight minutes of play in the first half.

Okafor just picked up his third foul with 5:54 left in the second quarter.
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) November 13, 2016

That forced head coach Brett Brown to tap Richaun Holmes for 12 minutes of play in the first half after getting 24 minutes out of Holmes in last night’s victory. Despite more minutes, Holmes was virtually ineffective on the boards, as he was unable to pull down a rebound in the first half.

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In the second half, the Philadelphia 76ers emerged as a different team on the boards. With more rebounds, the opened up the third quarter with an eleven to two run. The resurgence was driving by the team scoring on five straight three point attempts as well as becoming far more aggressive on the boards, outrebounding the Hawks in that all important third quarter. But the Hawks managed to recover, closing out the period on an 11-4 run to restore the lead to nine points.

Despite the willingness to shoot from range, Philadelphia’s positioning fell apart in the fourth period. While the Atlanta shooters were left unchallenged, the team failed to place bodies near the hoop when the team shot from the perimeter. At one miss from the three, the ball rebounded into the arms of four Atlanta defenders with no 76ers player in the field of sight of the camera.

Jahlil Okafor was neutralized by Kris Humphries in his post game. In the final moments, the game became an obvious runaway freight train.

In the final period, the Atlanta Hawks simply outhustled a weary 76ers squad, jumping out with a five point spurt, and then simply coasting with their double digit lead to the victory. Philadelphia showed fatigue on both offense and defense in the closing minutes.

A resounding theme of poor bench performance continued in this game. This team needs players to return to health quickly.

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The Philadelphia 76ers will try to regroup against the Houston Rockets on Monday night, and will be led by the return of Joel Embiid to the lineup.