Official Game Thread: Hawks at 76ers

[lethalweapon3]

“DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES???”

 

What day does, like, winter get here?

My seasonal-snowbird family members and I are getting fewer and fewer calls asking, jealously, how the weather is down here in the Balmy South. In my case, it’s been hard to tell the difference. My hometown has gotten this deep into the so-called winter season without having to scrape off more than half and inch of snow, total. Zero-point-three inches, to be precise, the fewest flakes since 1972-73 (do not remind Philadelphia 76ers fans about 1972-73). By comparison, Raleigh has had eight times as much of the legal white stuff.

Scientists are being pressed for answers, but I’ve got my couch-based theories. Perhaps it’s because, in Philly, the 76ers have been blazing hot at home. Or, perhaps, they’ve been holding out all this time for an Ice Trae storm to blow through. The humans on the Atlanta Hawks arrive in Philly today (7 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, NBC Sports Philadelphia) hoping to induce just a little more climate change.

Philadelphia’s sterling 26-2 mark at The Center (still fussing with Wells Fargo over naming rights?) is the NBA’s best. The overall record (35-22) is decidedly not. Blowing road games, like the 127-117 flop against a 12-36 team in Atlanta back on January 30, has the Sixers wrangling with fourth-seeded Miami just to claim first-round homecourt in the Eastern Conference. Being almost Hawks-bad on the road (NBA-high 24 away-game losses for ATL, entering today’s action), Philly has their home crowds in an ornery mood, and that’s saying something.

Atlanta’s second-year coach Lloyd Pierce, who has his rightful share of skeptics, learned the tricks of the NBA media-relations trade as an understudy for a variety of head coaches. None more effective, I’d argue, than Brett Brown, who has outlasted the entirety of The Process by mastering the mannerisms of the manager you’d like to speak to.

Brown followed up a 19-63 season with a 18-64 campaign in his second go-round, back in 2014-15 when he added Pierce to his sideline as an assistant. The Sixers plunged even further to 10-72 the next season, but Brown was able to play victim-of-circumstance well enough to salvage his and his assistants’ jobs. A 28-54 run in 2016-17, with rookie Joel Embiid offering a 31-game glimpse of his boundless potential, was comforting enough to keep Brown and his staff around for the 52-30, playoff-bound breakthrough that followed.

With that as a backdrop, you can forgive Pierce if he’s not sweating the follow-up of 29-53, in his maiden voyage rebuilding the Hawks, with a 17-41 setback-filled season that, suddenly, doesn’t have 30 wins beyond the realm of possibility. Unlike Brown’s tenure with Bryan Colangelo, Pierce works with a patient GM that isn’t undercutting the emerging young stars behind his back. Unlike Brown’s run under Sam Hinkie, Pierce knows his GM doesn’t need to write theses to keep ownership from getting too hasty.

Superheating “The Process” runs the risk of a disquieting recess. Philadelphia is facing not only a slide in regular-season results for the second-straight year, but an early playoff exit after narrowly missing the Eastern Conference Finals in 2019. Yes, they’ve won 12 straight at home. But, can a team that’s 9-20 in road games, one that hasn’t beaten an opponent that’s above .500 in their building since December 12, turn it up and advance in the NBA Playoffs as a 5- or 6-seed (as bad as Indiana has been, they’re still just two games behind Philly)? Even if we don’t have doubts, Philly fans sure do.

If you feel bad for certain fans who shelled out the big bucks for a titanic “Trae versus Luka” deathmatch over the weekend at State Farm Arena, and are now screeching over the local airwaves about the unfairness of it all, imagine how poor Al Horford must have felt last month when nobody showed up to see him.

Two days after playing at home against Pepperidge Farm Goldfish State, Brown decided he could afford to load-manage Al, saving him up for a nationally televised Saturday night game in Boston. Not only did his Sixers drop both games, but nobody in his old stomping grounds stomped and stammered afterwards about his absence from the floor at the Hawks game. There were plenty of Sixers fans at The Farm that evening, yes, but fans occasionally come to see teams win, not just individual players. And, sorry Al, but you’re no Luka. You’re no Trae, either.

Things were not supposed to be this way for our dear friend Al. He wanted to be on a respected championship contender. He wanted fans who would appreciate his unique skillset as a big man. He wanted teams to show appreciation with not just vocal praise, but as much of The Bag as they could possibly dish out ($26.5 million-plus over four years isn’t Tobias Harris money, but it’ll do fine). Most importantly, most endearingly, he wanted to stop being penciled in as a fulltime center.

I don’t wish to question any of Al’s moves up and down the Eastern seaboard. But Horford Hindsight seems to be filled with miscalculations, second-guesses and regrets. He left Mike Budenholzer for Brad Stevens, and now he has latched back onto a Coach Pop disciple in Brown.

Fearing a future with Dennis Schröder, he thought Isaiah Thomas was going to be a sure shot. With I.T. and then Kyrie on the move, he decided to keep it moving himself, tying his point guard hopes to Ben Simmons (31 points on 10-for-15 2FGs @ ATL in January; out today with back pain), the near 6-foot-10, 240-pound All-Star whose shot beyond 3 feet (36.7 FG% on jumpers) is anything other than sure. Now featuring another All-Star in Kemba, Boston (4.5 games ahead of Philly) seems to be doing fine without Al.

But the most attractive rationale for the 13-year veteran, by bailing Boston in favor of their longtime Atlantic Division rival, was finally being able to man the power forward spot full-time, wedged between Harris (upgraded to questionable, knee bruise) and All-Star Embiid, while playing his GM Elton Brand’s former role as a trusty backup, in very limited minutes, at the five-spot.

Solving the Sixers’ spacing issues was supposed to involve Horford’s pick-and-pop. Instead, it’s been pick-and-ick. Al is shooting 32.0 percent on threes, the worst since he started shooting them in earnest under Coach Bud’s watch, on a career-high 4.4 attempts per game. The 51.5 2FG% is threatening to be the worst since his rookie season with the Hawks.

Throw in 1.1 free throw attempts per game, and Horford’s 13.8 points per-36 is the lowest scoring rate since his second NBA season. You won’t be surprised to find that Al’s defensive rebounding remains at a low simmer, and his shot-blocking instincts have regressed. So have his assist-making exploits, although a lack of healthy three-point shooting recipients for his passes plays a big role.

The five-time All-Star, the second-highest-paid Sixer, Horford is now coming off Brown’s bench, as a backup center, behind Embiid. It’s his first time not starting in an NBA game since filling in for Zaza as a Hawks rookie in November 2007. And, yes, since you’re wondering, the fans that have watched their Sixers win 12 straight at home have resorted to booing him, as he futilely jab-steps in the name of brotherly love.

Nobody in top-seeded Milwaukee was jeering Al Jefe on Saturday night, when he entered as a reserve. He took seven shots, six of them from three-point range, and made just one for his game total of three points in 24 minutes as the Sixers lost by 21. In his last road start, also in Milwaukee, Al went 5-for-12 on threes but 0-for-5 inside as Philly fell by 11, concluding a road trip with all four losses by double digits.

The first two games of Philadelphia’s four-game, two-week homestand bifurcated by the All-Star Break, Horford shot 4-for-10 and 0-for-6 in 60 combined minutes before Brown gave him his new backup Bawse role. In the home finale against Brooklyn, six points, three boards in 18.5 minutes. He watched most of the fourth quarter and overtime from a chair.

Brand has cut loose the developmental Jonah Bolden, while doghoused veteran Kyle O’Quinn has been politicking for a buyout. Norvel Pelle was upgraded from his two-way contract to a full-time deal, but Brown has been left with limited choices upfront when giving Embiid (23.2 PPG, 12.0 RPG) a breather.

Playing together, the Horford-Embiid duo’s O-Rating (98.9 as per NBA.com stats; 10^th-worst in NBA among 506 duos w/ as many as their 499 minutes on-floor together) has been O-MFG, so Al is left with no choice but to return to his least favorite position, and not as a starter. As one might expect, Brown is babbling as best he can to put a positive spin on the downturn of his team’s 2019 free agent prize.

“He’s a prideful man,” Brown told local reporters after a team film session this past weekend. “He has been rewarded with the contract that he has, and (I am) just keeping (coaching critique) very straight, very clean, very quick… I want to help him help us. Somewhere in the middle of that, I am aware of it all. He knows that I am aware of it all. And I believe that things will settle.” It’s okay, I’m not sure what I just read, either.

Brown softened the shoe further. “We have seen the history of Al Horford, and all of us would be very naïve to think some of his signing wasn’t driven to where we want to be in April, May and, we hope, June.” It is wise of Brown to keep everyone forward-thinking. But with the $69 million of cash guaranteed in the seasons to follow for the 33-year-old frontcourt player seemingly in decline, Sixer fans may not want to peer much beyond the forthcoming postseason.

In this modern age of blurring frontcourt lines, it is nice to have a young player who isn’t grousing about his ideal or desired position on the floor. Similar in height to Horford, John Collins knows his limitations as a small-ball center, but he takes pride in learning to how to excel while playing and guarding multiple positions on the floor. With a load-managed Kristaps Porzingis watching from the sideline, Collins did exactly what he was supposed to do against Dallas and then some, adding 17 rebounds and a pair of blocks to go with his career-high-matching 35 points in Saturday’s 111-107 comeback win down on The Farm.

While Atlanta’s former star big man, Horford, watched from the pine back in January, Collins wasn’t just putting up with the imposing Embiid (21 points, 3-for-6 3FGs, 14 rebounds). The Baptist rang up 20 rebounds to go along with 17 points (8-for-10 2FGs), helping Atlanta ace Trae Young (39 points, 18-for-20 FTs, 18 assists) to flatten Philly.

The Hawks’ starting frontline was aided on that day by a productive Damian Jones (6-for-8 FGs, 2 blocks in 26 minutes), and Jones’ upgrades have since arrived in the form of momentary ex-Sixer Dewayne Dedmon (12 rebounds, 4-for-6 FGs vs. DAL) and the injured Clint Capela. But Collins (NBA-high six 20-and-10 point-rebound games this month) is in no mood to wait on the returns of Capela (heel) or Skal Labissiere (knee) before figuring out how to get his Hawks up off the mat.

With the return of De’Andre Hunter (out for personal reasons vs. DAL; no one demanded their money back) to the starting lineup, Atlanta may have a legitimate advantage in the depth department tonight, if nothing else. Assuming both of Philadelphia’s top-two minute-loggers, Simmons and Harris, are no-goes today, Brown will need to rely heavily upon his whack-a-mole crew of reserves. More than one backup 76er must pop up so that Josh Richardson (DNP @ ATL in January; 16 points on 22 shots in past two games) and Embiid don’t have to carry an unfair burden tonight.

In January, the supporting-role star was Shake Milton, who had 27 points (5-for-9 3FGs, 8-for-10 FTs) and 6 assists in 35 minutes as a replacement starter while trying to keep up with Young, his fellow Oklahoma state prep-school standout. Milton was hardly heard from again until Saturday, when he sank 5 of 7 triple-shots in the losing effort against the Bucks, and Brown would love to see another good game Sooner rather than later.

Mike Scott (39.6 FG%) has been sporadic, scoring no more than three points in his past five appearances as his playing time has cratered. If the Sixers could put the occasionally hot perimeter shooting of Furkan Korkmaz (17 points, 3-for-4 3FGs vs. MIL) and the intermittent defensive wizardry of Matisse Thybulle (1.4 SPG, but just 7 thefts in his last ten appearances, incl. 2 @ ATL) together, they’d have quite a MyPlayer on their hands.

Depth and chemistry remain challenges for the 76ers (4^th-lowest bench points, 3^rd-lowest bench boards, 3^rd-lowest bench dimes per-48 in NBA), who added a pair of ex-Warriors in Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson at the Trade Deadline for the stretch run while jettisoning Trey Burke and James Ennis. It is another reason why demoting Horford in hopes of a spark doesn’t sound like such a horrible idea. Philly has two more lottery squads (at Cleveland, vs. the Knicks) to contend with before putting their revamped rotation to a truer test. A three-day visit to STAPLES Center will kick off a four-game road swing at the beginning of March.

The Hawks are gaining familiarity and late-game confidence amidst a home-friendly schedule that extends well into next month. If Atlanta can find ways to take that more competitive show on the road, too, opponents may continue load-managing stars at their own risk, but they’d need more than Zamboni drivers as subs if they expect to comfortably win the games. You all remember Zamboni machines and snowplows, don’t you, Philly?

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[Thomas]

7 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

If you feel bad for certain fans who shelled out the big bucks for a titanic “Trae versus Luka” deathmatch over the weekend at State Farm Arena, and are now screeching over the local airwaves about the unfairness of it all, imagine how poor Al Horford must have felt last month when nobody showed up to see him.

As they say "Karma is a bitch".

[gHost83]

"But but but, Al's not a center, he's a power forward..." 

[enrique]

Glad Hunter is back! Really hope all is well for his family. Really would love to take it to the sizers and whoreford tonight. Hoping Dedmon and Collins go off. Eager to see Trae continue his rise and Cam continue his coming-out-eat-your-words party!!!

[lethalweapon3]

These will be the Delaware Valley debuts for both Cam and De'Andre. They oughta have more than a few fans in the arena to see them today.

Tobias Harris (knee) has been upgraded to Available for the Sixers.

~lw3

[Spud2nique]

Great stuff as always lw3 but extra special when we going up against your home town it seems . 
 

Welcome back Hunter! Welcome home Cam and Hunter! 
 

Simmons our but the line is still..

Sixers -9 o/u 227.5

 

GO HAWKS!!!

[cam1218]

Man, I had no idea until today they were 26-2 at home this year. I believe in home court advantage, but that is pretty crazy. 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[RedDawg#8]

48 minutes ago, cam1218 said:

Man, I had no idea until today they were 26-2 at home this year. I believe in home court advantage, but that is pretty crazy. 

They are Jekyll and Hyde w/ their Home/Away splits.

At home they’re every bit the elite contender  they were projected to be before the season 

[benhillboy]

Stinger murdered the Cam analysis.  Sound like Supes lol.

[Bonkers]

Huerter already starting off terribly as usual

 

When is LP gonna learn

Edited February 25, 2020 by Bonkers

[Atlantaholic]

Should have called a timeout on the play before lol. We are discombobulated. Please put Reddish in the game and take out Heurter or Hunter.

[Vol4ever]

We seem to start slow but finish strong.  

[Bonkers]

Man LP takes out Ded instead of Huerter who takes another horrible shot smh

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Ummm . . . please put Bruno in to slow Embiid down.

[Atlantaholic]

Just now, Bonkers said:

Man LP takes out Ded instead of Huerter who takes another horrible shot smh

Why are we going small?! It's so dumb lol

[Vol4ever]

Wth is Pierce doing.  Smdh

[Bonkers]

Just now, Atlantaholic said:

Why are we going small?! It's so dumb lol

It makes no sense

 

And why does LP have such a love affair with Huerter

[Cwell]

both of those fouls on Cam were suspect as hell

[Vol4ever]

Cam too small to handle Harris.