“We talkin’ bout PRACTICE???”
Yes, it could get this bad! The Atlanta Hawks are simply striving to remain above .500, before the calendar turns to April. Yet, tonight, there is one man who could stand in their way… Tiago Splitter?
The Brazilian Blah has been legitimately moving his limbs in recent days. And the former Hawks apparition-slash-center may very well suit up tonight for the Philadelphia 76ers (7:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, CSN Philly).
Why, just last weekend, T-Split hung 8 points and 8 rebounds on the Bulls. The Windy City Bulls, that is. Called back from his G-League assignment, Splitter appeared for seven minutes (one field goal, three rebounds) in last night’s 106-101 win in Brooklyn, his first semblance of NBA action since January of last year.
His newest team, the Sixers (28-46) have been swimming upstream without would-be Rookie of the Year candidate Joel Embiid and should-have-been RoY candidate Ben Simmons. Now, center Jahlil Okafor is also bubble-wrapped, dealing with soreness in his perpetually bothersome knee.
Richaun Holmes has soldiered on admirably (last ten games: 14.0 PPG, 57.3 FG%) for Brett Brown’s lottery-bound club. But even he needs a little help, especially on defense, and recent G-League call-up Shawn Long (last 4 games: 12.0 PPG, 6.5 RPG) is a bit of a reach. So, don’t be surprised to find Tiago living up to his surname, splitting duties while staring Dwight Howard eye-to-eye for awkwardly long stretches tonight.
Philly returns home from a 2-3 road trip, defeating Chicago last week and then Brooklyn last night, and they’ll head back out after this game to visit Toronto and Cleveland. But Coach Brown has a chance to grant the Philly Phaithful, already looking toward next season, cause for added optimism in the present time.
Having also won their past two home games, including the Isaiah-less Celtics’ last defeat, the 76ers would have to go 4-1 at the Wells Fargo Center to sew up a winning home record for the first time since 2013. With later games coming against Chicago, Milwaukee, and Indiana, the Hawks will certainly pull for Philly to get this done in the coming weeks, Atlanta being their sole loss on the ledger.
Many ardent Tankadelphians are nervous about the prospects of missing out on the bonanza of top-flight rookie point guards on the docket this summer, with a few more victories dampening the Sixers’ playoff odds. Yet Brown understands that their Point Guard of the Future was already drafted #1 overall last year.
Further, Mike Budenholzer’s fellow ex-Spurs acolyte recognizes that puffing up his own record, in easily his best coaching work to date, obviates any notions by Sixer management to eat his contract in the offseason. For Brown, the next 76ers’ win this season exceeds his combined total (28-136) from the prior two Hinkie-fied campaigns.
Much like Earl Watson with Devin Booker, there’s little wonder why Brown is granting Dario Saric (post-All-Star-Break: 19.2 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 3.3 APG) carte blanche when it comes to leading the offense. Beyond scoring and board work (32 points and 10 rebounds @ CHI last week), the 6-foot-10 forward can also be an exceptional post passer, when he puts his mind to it.
The probable leader in the RoY race, Saric (last 23 games: 19.7 PPG, 7.7 RPG) has struggled mightily this season against the Hawks (8-for-32 FGs and four assists through three games), most recently shooting 1-for-10 from the field in a 110-93 loss at Philips Arena on January 21. He’ll be eager to shed the shackles tonight, especially without Paul Millsap (knee) or Thabo Sefolosha (groin) around to pester him.
Saric hasn’t been left to carry the team on his own. Since the trade-deadline dealing of Ersan Ilyasova (39.3 3FG% in ATL, but 28.0 3FG% in road games as a Hawk) to Atlanta, Robert Covington has picked up the scoring slack, going just 1-for-6 on threes but still contributing 21 points and 13 rebounds to help cut down the Nets yesterday. Unfortunately, knee soreness will have RoCo sitting out the back end of this back-to-back, and Brown hopes Gerald Henderson (hip) will help pick up the defensive slack in his return to action.
To heck with overweight and little people’s reality shows; the TLC worth watching is in Philly right now. French rookie Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (4-for-10 3FGs, season-highs of 9 rebounds and 3 assists @ BKN) had arguably his best all-around game to date last night and, much like Atlanta’s Taurean Prince, is beginning to get acclimated with NBA tempos.
Defensively, the wing duo’s production has helped offset the loss of Embiid, to injury, plus another trade-deadline departure, that of Nerlens Noel, shipped to Dallas for wing Justin Anderson (career-high 44.8 FG% w/ PHI) and a 2017 first-rounder. Starting together, since March 11, Covington (1.9 SPG) and TLC, plus point guard T.J. McConnell (1.6 SPG) have improved the team’s defensive efficiency (100.4 D-Rating over past 18 days) to a level just ahead of Atlanta’s (100.9) and second-best in the East, behind the reconfigured Raptors’ 98.9 opponent points per 100 possessions.
Atlanta’s bench put up yet another dud (4-for-16 FGs) versus the Suns’ skeleton crew last night, extending their collective woefulness to league-lows of 29.2 FG%, 17.6 3FG%, and minus-35 plus/minus, in the 11 days since Millsap was sidelined. The Suns ultimately bailed out the Hawks on Tuesday, not simply by sitting Devin Booker (and Tyson Chandler and Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight and…), but by bricking ten of their 24 free throws in an otherwise competitive 95-91 loss.
Mike Dunleavy’s inability to play tonight (ankle soreness), and the continued wayward shooting by starters Junior Hardaway (6-for-25 FGs last 2 games) and Ilyasova (14-for-46 FGs last 4 games) aren’t helping matters. But have no fear, Kent Bazemore is here!
“The spirit is willing…” has rarely been as apt a descriptor as it has been for Baze’s erratic play this season. His atrocious perimeter jumper (27.2 3FG% through December) was beginning to make a significant turnaround (40.0 3FG% first ten games post-Break) before knee problems began to wear him down. Now, fans will get to see whether he can be a net-positive influence on the floor for the Hawks, with his body stronger after the time off to recuperate his ailing knee.
Coming off the bench tonight, Kent can aid Atlanta if he can finish plays quickly inside, in the halfcourt and on the break, while avoiding costly turnovers. The league’s two sloppiest teams since the All-Star Break have been Dennis Schröder’s Hawks (16.7 TOs per 100 possessions) and the 76ers (16.2 TOs per-100). The lack of reliable shooting around Schröder continues to have him pressing (team-high 27 points, 2-for-8 3FGs, 9 assists, 8 TOs vs. PHX), for better or worse.
Having Jose Calderon closing the game, in lieu of the off-target Hardaway, seemed to have a calming effect on the Hawks offense yesterday, with Dennis able to play more off-ball. Together with the other starters, Atlanta flipped a 78-71 fourth-quarter deficit into a 92-83 advantage in just over six minutes, two Phoenix steals leading to just a single Suns point during that critical run.
Bazemore’s return allows Coach Bud to go back on occasion to the dual small-guard lineup, while it’s supported with an array of options at the 3-spot, even without Dunleavy available. Prince (15 points, two swats) was particularly solid at the start and close of the Phoenix game, and deserves more time to sort things out as the regular season draws to a close.
The Hawks and Sixers are also among the top of the East in steals, an indication that another ugly-fest is in store tonight. Whichever team is superior at converting live-ball errors into points at the other end is likely to be the team in front by the end of the game. In their last meeting on January 21, the host Hawks outscored Philly (led in scoring, coincidentally, by Ilyasova’s 21 points) 20-4 off turnovers, along the way to what became an easy-breezy 110-93 victory.
Howard can also help his team’s cause by not trying to dribble the ball in transition past halfcourt, and instead finding his playmakers to ignite the fastbreaks. Philadelphia’s 15.9 fastbreak PPG (post-All-Star-Break) allowed are by far the most in the East. Beyond exploiting size advantages along the way to his obligatory double-double, Dwight continued seeking ways to move the ball yesterday, raising the Hawks’ record to a modest 3-0 when he gets his season-high of four assists in any game. If he’s the most effective passing big on the floor tonight, Advantage, Atlanta.
Last night, a recent trade acquisition, center Jusuf Nurkic, helped his new team put a dent into his old team’s chances for a coveted playoff spot. Let’s not see any facsimile of that storyline today.
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
