March 07, 2026
Dale Zanine/Imagn Images
Sixers-Hawks on Saturday night in Atlanta featured a whole lot of scoring.
The Sixers got Kelly Oubre Jr. back on Saturday night, but as they remained without Joel Embiid (oblique) and VJ Edgecombe (lower back) on Saturday night, just one returning starter was not enough. And once things had gone haywire for them, they might have lost their most dependable player.
Following their 125-116 loss in Atlanta, the Sixers have officially been swept this season by a surging Hawks team, which has officially announced itself as a contender for the Eastern Conference's final playoff spot. In failing to land the knockout blow after putting the Hawks on the ropes early, the Sixers have allowed another team to become a serious threat to their standing.
Offensively, the Sixers were outstanding on Saturday. They were able to play from in front early and often. But Atlanta's inevitable surge came, and the Sixers failed to match the Hawks' intensity. Eventually, the entire game played into the hosts' hands, and the Sixers were unexpectedly the ones tasked with making a desperate late-game push. More predictably, they could not do so. The Sixers wasted one of their more well-rounded offensive performances of the last few months while undermanned.
Takeaways from a wild night of basketball, which ominously ended with Tyrese Maxey grabbing his right hand in pain and going into the locker room:
The standings in the middle of the Eastern Conference looked incredibly jumbled. The Sixers entered Saturday's game in the sixth and final playoff spot thanks to a tiebreaker. An updated look at the standings after the Sixers and Hawks' final game of the year:
| Seed | Team | Record | Games Back |
| 5 | Toronto Raptors | 35-27 | 10.5 |
| 6 | Orlando Magic | 34-28 | 11.5 |
| 7 | Philadelphia 76ers | 34-29 | 12 |
| 8 | Miami Heat | 35-29 | 11.5 |
| 9 | Atlanta Hawks | 33-31 | 13.5 |
| 10 | Charlotte Hornets | 32-32 | 14.5 |
The Hawks, who entered Saturday's contest on a five-game winning streak, firmly put themselves back in the race to jostle for a top-six seed and surefire entry into the playoffs even before beating the Sixers yet again. Atlanta already secured the tiebreaker over the Sixers by clinching a victory in the season series, and now have trimmed the Sixers' lead over them in the standings to just 1.5 games. It is a significant development in a crowded field, particularly when a Sixers win would have meant a 3.5-game lead over the Hawks. They have officially dropped into Play-In Tournament territory for now.
While the Sixers do not own the tiebreaker victory over Atlanta, they have already clinched tiebreakers over the Toronto Raptors and Orlando Magic. They will face the Heat in Miami on March 30; the winner of that game will own the tiebreaker between the two teams.
Instead of putting themselves within half a game of Toronto – effectively a tie, given that any actual tie would result in the Sixers being the higher seed – the Sixers continue to trail the Raptors and have also certified Atlanta's push back into the mix for a playoff spot. While that Miami matchup at the end of the month looms as a critical contest, every win the Sixers can bank in their final 19 games of the season will be meaningful. Two years ago, a three-way tiebreaker forced the Sixers into the NBA Play-In Tournament, where a Nic Batum masterclass bailed them out of having to play an elimination game to earn the No. 8 seed.
The difference between No. 5 and No. 6 is minuscule; the difference between No. 6 and No. 7 is massive (even the difference between No. 7 and No. 8 is quite significant). Dodging any extra work and going straight to a best-of-seven series would be a big deal.
"Didn't they do the Play-In recently?" first-year Sixers forward Trendon Watford asked after Friday's practice. "I don't think they want to do that again. I think they want to rest. I don't think they want to do the extra games and stuff. So it's big for us... We control our own destiny."
Maxey has very much become the face of the Sixers' Embiid-less struggles – perhaps it is only fair considering he was the face of their early-season success without the former NBA MVP – but it would be an oversimplification of the team context to blame Maxey and Maxey alone when the Sixers stagnate sans Embiid.
With more than half of the team's 2025-26 salary wrapped up in Embiid and Paul George – plus a smaller max contract given to Maxey – the sixth-year star is often leading the Sixers into battle with a rookie as his highest-paid teammate (on Saturday, his highest-paid teammates were Oubre and Quentin Grimes).
The Sixers simply do not have the infrastructure in terms of offensive firepower to withstand those sorts of absences routinely, and it is not about Maxey as much as it about the players he is teaming with. But on Saturday, Maxey was outstanding from the start, and his 15-point first quarter set a great tone for the Sixers. But so did nine points on five shots in a quick burst from Oubre, returning from a two-game absence due to an illness and playing like the best version of himself. Grimes, whose minutes have been improving over the last week and change, had an outstanding night, including a few dazzling rim finishes in the third quarter:
WHAT A BUCKET. 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/TrXdNpa0tD
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) March 8, 2026
When the Sixers had their strongest run of the game late in the opening frame and early in the second quarter, they got huge lifts from Watford and Cam Payne. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse continues to try playing Watford in three-big lineups, and it finally looked like a clean fit in this one, as Watford was able to assert his will on the game as a post scorer matched up with smaller players. Payne, tabbed by Nurse a "creator of offense" in his first stint with the team two years ago, broke out of his prolonged struggles since returning to the organization and provided scoring, facilitating and defensive playmaking all in one.
It is obviously not going to look like this on offensive – or even close to it – every night. But it speaks to the sort of team the Sixers can resemble, even without Embiid and George. They are not devoid of players capable of making a difference. If Maxey is to miss any time at all, everyone else on the Sixers will be far underqualified for their roles on offense. It is going to take a village.
Tyrese Maxey injured his hand on this collision late game, doesn’t look good.
— SM Highlights (@SMHighlights1) March 8, 2026
🙏 🙏 pic.twitter.com/jsq6QW7KrI
Some additional notes:
• Edgecombe, who has now missed the last eight quarters of Sixers basketball due to a lumbar contusion, was initially listed as doubtful for Saturday's game, then was ruled out five hours before it started. Edgecombe took a hard fall on his lower back right before halftime of the Sixers' loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday.
• The Sixers will be thrilled to not have any games against Hawks star Jalen Johnson on their schedule. The first-time All-Star completely torched them all season long; they do not have a good matchup for him given his rare combination of size, athleticism and on-ball chops.
Up next: The Sixers will conclude their road trip on Monday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers in a matchup which will serve as the first leg of a road-home back-to-back.
