February 03, 2016
Chris Szagola/AP
Philadelphia 76ers center Jahlil Okafor guarded by Atlanta Hawks power forward Paul Millsap.
On Wednesday night, the Philadelphia 76ers played their first game since falling to the NBA's best team, the Golden State Warriors, on the final shot of the night. And although the result (a loss) was the same, the process that led to the final score -- and the point differential -- was quite different.
The Sixers got off to a slow start against the Atlanta Hawks and were never able to catch up after falling behind by as many as 19 points in the first half. That lead grew to as large as 43 points in the second half, and in the end, it was a 124-86 loss for the home team, who fell to 7-42 on the year. The 38-point loss was their second-worst of the season, with the other coming back on Dec. 7th when they lost to the Spurs by 51 points.
With the loss, the Sixers have now lost 10 of their last 11 games against the Hawks dating back to the 2012-13 season, with their lone win coming last March. This season alone, their three losses to the have been by a combined 87 points (29 points/game). Clearly, this is not a good matchup for Brett Brown's team.
Here's what you need to know about the game:
• This was likely a game Jahlil Okafor will want to forget. It didn't get off to a good start as he committed his first turnover -- an offensive foul -- on the first play of the game. The Sixers rookie finished with just 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting, five rebounds and three assists, but that only tells part of the story. Okafor looked out of it, especially in the early going, and was responsible for five of the team's eight first quarter turnovers. He also picked up three fouls in the first quarter and a half of the game.
• The turnover problems were not singular to Okafor. As a whole, the team turned the ball over 23 times -- 15 in the first half alone. Their season high (31) came against the Pacers back on November 18th.
• The Sixers had an interesting strategy on defense -- they had Okafor, their center, matched up on the Hawks' power forward, Paul Millsap, and Nerlens Noel matched up on center Al Horford. And at least in part, the gameplan seemed to work -- with the exception of the Sixers' starting big men playing much of the game some sort of foul trouble.
Not for nothing, looks like Paul Millsap has only hit 1 field goal in stretches of the game when he and Jahlil Okafor have matched up.
— Brian Seltzer (@brianseltzer) February 4, 2016
Millsap finished with 10 points on just 3-of-11 shooting and Horford finished with seven points (3-4 FGs). The Sixers' front court troubles Tuesday night seemed to come more on the offensive end, especially in regards to Okafor -- although they did allow 62 points in the paint and surrendered 46 points to Hawks big men (PF/C). But if Brown didn't like the matchup on either end, perhaps that's why he decided to put Okafor on Millsap and Noel on Horford; at least that way he could limit some of the damage.
• The Hawks, as you may have expected, got contributions from their entire team. As of the 2:30 mark in the third quarter, here's a look at just how balanced their attack was:
Hawks have 8 players with 3+ rebounds and 8 with multiple assists. And all 10 players that have entered game have scored 4+ points.
— Matt Mullin (@matt_mullin) February 4, 2016
When it was all said and done, the Hawks' stat sheet looked a little something like this:
• 8 players with at least 10 (and 12 with at least 5) points
• 9 players with at least 3 rebounds
• 9 players with at least 2 assists
• 10 players with at least one steal
• 5 players with at least one block
• 8 players with at least one three-point make
Oh, and every Atlanta player that got in the game -- all 13 that were dressed -- scored at least four points...
• Nik Stauskas led all scorers with 17 points, but that was largely due to the above numbers. The Sixers next closest was Isaiah Canaan with 11 points. The Hawks, meanwhile, finished with six players scoring at least 12 points.
• There wasn't as big a disparity in field goal percentage as you might expect based on the score. The Hawks (52.2 pct.) outshot the Sixers (41.7 pct.) by a little over 10 percent, but a large percentage of that difference was built late in the game, once the final outcome was all but guaranteed. The real difference, for much of the night, at least, came from beyond the arc and at the free-throw line. The Hawks finished 10-of-20 (50 pct.) from three while the Sixers were just 6-of-27 (22.2 pct.). As for free throws, both teams shot right around 70 percent, but Atlanta had nearly twice as many attempts (18-25) as the Sixers did (10-14).
The Sixers next game is on the road, as they visit the Washington Wizards (21-25) at 7:30 p.m. on Friday night. That’ll be the first of back-to-back games for Brett Brown’s team, who will host the 12-37 Brooklyn Nets -- the Eastern Conference's second-worst team -- on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.
Follow Matt on Twitter: @matt_mullin
