NOW moving on to Philly, I see Philly fans already moving to the ECF like Knicks fans to the 2nd round (UPDATED)

[thecampster]

1 hour ago, Diesel said:

I think our new found defense makes a difference in this series.   Philly is more score in the paint than NY was.  But they also have better shooters.   Our thing is to stay disciplined.     We won't stop them.  But we can out hustle and outscore them.   We got to turn up the tempo and make them play defense. 

With no Embiid, this is the series JC earns his max. He'll have a mismatch 90% of the possessions on the floor. He needs to abuse people.

[HawkingAwesome]

 

[HawkingAwesome]

I really enjoy listening to coach McMillan 

[Bonkers]

 

[Bonkers]

22 minutes ago, Bonkers said:

 

If we do get by the Sixers we gonna need him in the ECF for sure

[AtLaS]

5 hours ago, Atlantaholic said:

Yes, though that's not the most encouraging reality to me. Milwaukee and Brooklyn are insane teams and I don't really think we would have a shot in hell against either, Philly is up there but definitely a rungh in the ladder down from a healthy Nets and Bucks. Still Philly is easily a much, much better team than New York. We won't be able to survive playing like we did games 1,2 and 5 on the road against Philly. We need to play a lot better.

I feel like we played well, we just need to make our open shots. Trae will get our players great looks, if we shoot like we did post all-star break it will be tough for anyone to beat us.  I'm sure it was just nerves and being in front of a hostile crowd for the first time in a while, but hopefully now that we've won a series and moving on we can start draining again.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

6 hours ago, Dejay said:

I think Philly will be very tough to beat because Doc won't let them go out like suckers unlike their former coach. If Brown was still calling the shots, the Hawks might even be favored going in. And looking at the schedule and how far they're stretching things out in hopes that he recover (NBA execs are banking on it), he just might become a factor if the series goes 6 or 7 games. Keeping that in mind, if Embiid is as least 75% and playing 35+ minutes a night (I have my doubts on that), the Sixers win in 6. But if not, well...

The key is the first two games of the series; can the Hawks win one of these games? If so, Philly is in trouble. Big trouble...

 

Doc won't let them go out like suckers?

You talking about the Doc Rivers that coached the Clippers with future Hall of Famers throughout his tenure?

That Doc?

[REHawksFan]

Preview from the Sixer side of the Athletic...

https://theathletic.com/2634545/2021/06/05/sixers-hawks-predictions-the-joel-embiid-factor-defending-trae-young/

By Rich Hofmann and Derek Bodner 3h ago 14 

Prior to the postseason, falling short of the conference finals would have been considered a failure for the Sixers. Even then, there was always the health caveat. The combination of Joel Embiid’s availability being a question mark and an Atlanta Hawks team that seems to be peaking at the right time has the potential to make this second-round series less of a formality than expected when the bracket shook out.

In some ways, this series feels reminiscent of the 2018 second-round series that the Sixers played against Boston. The difference is now that the roles are reversed: The Sixers are the experienced, playoff veterans dealing with significant injury issues, while Atlanta is the young up-and-comer coming off a triumphant playoff debut against an overmatched first-round opponent. The Sixers lost that series in five games, with Boston’s experience winning out in every close game. That doesn’t mean history is guaranteed to repeat itself.

As mentioned, the major variable hanging over this series is the uncertainty surrounding Embiid. So it’s only right that before we get to anything else involved in this matchup, we will start with him.

The uncertainty surrounding Embiid

On Friday, Doc Rivers gave an update on Embiid’s day at practice.

“He went through a lot of the stuff today,” Rivers said. “He didn’t do a lot of live stuff obviously, we’re not going to allow that yet. Nothing’s changed, he’s got to go through his treatment. But as far as the shooting and stuff like that, he looked great.”

This was a continuation of Wednesday night’s Game 5. Embiid sat out, but he more or less went through his normal pregame shooting drills. And for some, it’s tough to reconcile the injury’s diagnosis (torn meniscus) with Embiid’s status (day-to-day).

The medial and lateral meniscuses are cartilage in the knee that essentially act as shock absorbers and give the knee stability. Embiid’s tear in his lateral meniscus is described as small by the Sixers. A meniscus tear in the knee is not always something that people know they have until they look at an MRI, depending on the size and location of the tear. This could include Embiid.

“Many people are probably walking around with tears and don’t know they have a tear. And they’re going to be OK because the tear is very small and in an inconspicuous spot. Possibly the tear is in a location where it’s just not impacted as much with the forces coming down on it. For Joel’s situation, obviously his medical team feels strongly that this is not as big of a deal and something that Joel could possibly recover from without undergoing any big interventions,” Dr. Steve Yoon said.

Yoon is the Director of Clinical Regenerative Medicine at the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute as well as a team physician for the Los Angeles Clippers. He has not seen any of Embiid’s medical records.

The Sixers consulted with multiple orthopedic specialists and determined that surgery was not the best option moving forward. For Embiid, it turns into a situation where the level of pain and swelling in the knee will play a huge factor when he returns to the court.

“At that point in time, it becomes a well-being, physical thing,” Yoon said. “So Joel obviously has to feel good and not feel pain. Objectively, you don’t want to see excessive swelling. You want to see him perform at a level that he was at before. A lot of times you can tell: If a player says that he feels good but performance-wise you watch his movements — and you can analyze biomechanics really well these days, there’s a lot of intricate ways to measure biomechanics and load on the joint. But if the measurements don’t add up and he’s not performing to what he was performing before, there is something wrong.”

The pain Embiid is feeling his knee is not a small factor. He’s no stranger to returning to regular-season games after injury scares that looked much worse than the fall he took on Monday in Washington. For him to miss most of two playoff games gives you an indication of what he’s going through.

But the level of play that Embiid returns to is also a huge consideration when assessing the Sixers’ playoff fortunes. In Game 3 in Washington, prior to getting injured, Embiid looked to be at the absolute peak of his powers. Can he return to that level of play right away against Atlanta? If Embiid can play at a high level, his presence alone could very well swing the series in the Sixers’ favor by itself. Without him, they go from massive betting favorites to more of a toss-up series.

One important thing to note is that meniscus tears can worsen. That is now on the radar for Embiid.

“Obviously there’s no guarantee that it won’t become worse but you also play the odds,” Yoon said. “There’s a lot of data out on meniscus injuries and you can assess the probability of someone like Joel making his situation worse. This must be a situation where everyone feels at least initially the non-surgical route is definitely the way to go.”

There are two-day gaps in between Games 2 and 3 and Games 3 and 4 in this series. Rivers said that it’s too early to know if Embiid can play in Game 1, but could the extra rest play a factor? We will start to get some answers this week.

Hawks season at a glance

After replacing former Sixers assistant Lloyd Pierce with Nate McMillan, the Hawks went on to win 27 of their final 38 games, finishing with a 41-31 record which was good for fifth best in the Eastern Conference.

Atlanta’s 27 wins since March 1 were tied for the third-best record in the league over that span, and the exact same number that the 76ers won during the stretch. Atlanta improved on both sides of the ball under McMillan, with their offense going from a 112.7 offensive rating under Pierce to 115.9 under McMillan, and their defense from 112.9 to 111.3.

The Hawks had some pretty impressive wins over that stretch, too, including victories over the Heat (twice), Warriors (twice), Wizards (twice), Lakers, Pacers, Bucks and Suns. Some caveats apply for some of those wins, but that’s true for every team during this past regular season. And, of course, the Hawks dispatched the Knicks with ease in the first round, winning four games to one with Trae Young dropping nearly 30 per night.

Young is where any conversation starts with the Hawks, and rightfully so. The third-year guard averaged 25.3 points and 9.4 assists per game in the regular season, launching 6.3 3s per contest and getting to the free-throw line 8.7 times each night. That last part is an underrated part of the Trae Young experience, and something which gets overshadowed by his seemingly unlimited range and dazzling playmaking ability.

There are some similarities between the Hawks and the Washington team the Sixers just took care of in five games, namely that they’re offensive-oriented teams who struggle to compete on the other end of the court. But the Wizards weren’t actually a good offensive team, coming in at just 17th in the league with a 110.7 offensive rating during the regular season. Bradley Beal was dangerous, but the Wizards as a team were mediocre.

That’s not the case with the Hawks, who averaged nearly four points per 100 possessions more than the Wizards did. Unlike Beal, Young is an elite passer as well as an unstoppable scorer, able to make virtually every pass in the book despite his listed 6-foot-1 height. When you combine unlimited range on his jump shot, with creativity and court vision, along with really good roll targets like Clint Capela and John Collins, all mixed in with good off-ball shooters like Bogdan Bogdanovic and Kevin Huerter, and you have an offensive identity that’s far more established, and dangerous, than Washington’s subpar half-court offense was.

Reviewing the season series

Looking back at the regular season, Rivers said that “you could make the case this is maybe the first time we played each other.” And to differing degrees, you might be able to throw all three of those games in the trash. While the Sixers were 2-1 against Atlanta, all three games involved shorthanded teams.

In the Sixers’ first game of the season with Atlanta, back in January, they played on the road without almost their entire team. This was in the week following Seth Curry’s positive COVID-19 test, with many other Sixers in the league’s health and safety protocols. At one point in that game, the super shorthanded Sixers humorously played Dwight Howard and Joel Embiid in the frontcourt at the same time. It did not work. Rivers had a quick hook for Embiid in the third quarter of the Sixers’ 112-94 loss that night, a result that didn’t seem to bother him all that much considering the circumstances. After that game ended, Rivers seemed more concerned with catching up on the college football national championship game.

But the Sixers’ two blowout wins against Atlanta in late April also didn’t provide the teams with a particularly useful measuring stick. The Hawks’ guard depth was quite depleted at that time. Young didn’t play in the first game, while Huerter, De’Andre Hunter and Bogdanovic were out for both games of the two-game “series.” We are going out on a limb here but don’t expect the Sixers to win Games 1 and 2 by a combined 66 points with those players back in the lineup. Still, Rivers thought that the two-game series provided the coaches with at least some tactical and philosophical preview.

“I’m sure Nate (McMillan) just like I, we looked at the back-to-back,” Rivers said. “That’s the great thing about back-to-backs, because if you do play that team in the playoffs, you can see some of their thinking on the second game like they can see some of ours, some of our adjustments.”

Defending Trae Young

The Sixers were tasked with slowing down another All-NBA level guard in Beal last series. Beal’s efficiency numbers weren’t all that impressive — he averaged his normal 30 points on below-average 54 percent true shooting — but some of that is due to a rough 3-point shooting series from him. Ben Simmons and Matisse Thybulle made Beal work enough to allow the Sixers’ other advantages to overwhelm Washington, but there were stretches when Beal was in a scoring groove.

Young is a different type of player. While Beal’s 30 points feel like they can happen almost regardless of team context, Young is the conductor of Atlanta’s entire offense. And he does that via the pick-and-roll. Along with Luka Doncic and Damian Lillard, Young is one of the league’s three highest-usage pick-and-roll guards. Including assists, he used 1,640 possessions in the pick-and-roll this season and averaged an excellent 1.085 points per possession out of it according to Synergy Sports.

And like Young and Doncic, Young is well-rounded out of the pick-and-roll. If you play drop coverage and don’t get around the screen quickly enough, he can rain deep 3s and floaters in with equal skill. For a smaller guard, that floater is a key weapon: 34 percent of Young’s shots come from floater range and he makes 47 percent of those shots, per Cleaning The Glass.

The Sixers used a lot of aggressive pick-and-roll coverage to get the ball out of Beal’s hands. With Young, he is more adept at every read and pass you can think of. He can hit the big man on the short roll if you trap just as well as firing a cross-court bullet for a corner 3 if the help defender tags the roller. It also helps that Atlanta has more 3-point threats than Washington. The Hawks shot 37.3 percent from beyond the arc on a slightly below-average number of attempts, a shot profile not dissimilar from the Sixers.

And if the big man gets caught in no-man’s land, Young will throw the lob to Capela, Collins or even rookie Onyeka Okongwu.

 

The third matchup of the season, which the Sixers won 126-104, was the only time we saw Simmons and Young on the same court. The Sixers didn’t play Simmons on Young that night, preferring to use him as a roamer against Solomon Hill. Thybulle didn’t see a lot of Young either, instead playing against Danilo Gallinari as the Sixers second-unit had shifted to more of a small-ball approach. Instead, Danny Green got the bulk of the assignment as Young had an efficient 32-point night.

Hill isn’t in the starting lineup anymore, while Huerter and Bogdanovic especially aren’t players you can afford to leave. And with Embiid questionable, how the Sixers defend the Young pick-and-roll is a major subplot of the series. Do they have the personnel to defend it conventionally with a small-ball unit? Might Howard have to play even more minutes? Can they handle an elite rebounder in Capela on the offensive glass if they decide to play small? Sixers defensive coordinator Dan Burke has his work cut out this week.

That said, there is another way to help slow Young down.

Exploiting Trae Young

Standing 6-foot-1, with a 6-foot-2 wingspan, slender frame and a massive offensive workload, it’s no surprise that Young is a bad defender. But Young isn’t just bad, he’s terrible: 538’s RAPTOR had him rated as the second-worst defender among qualifying players.

While the woeful Knicks offense wasn’t able to exploit Young all that much in their first-round series, the Sixers should have no such trouble, especially if their big perimeter scorers like Tobias Harris and Simmons actively seek out the mismatches to exploit. Even Curry showed what he can do when he has a rare size mismatch, as he lit up Raul Neto in Game 5 of their series against the Wizards.

Young played two games against the Sixers this season, and one of them came when the Sixers were without all of Harris, Simmons and Curry. In the one remaining game, Rivers and the Sixers allowed the Hawks to stick Young on Green for most of the game, limiting the impact of his defensive shortcomings.

But the Sixers won that game easily anyway, and that was during the regular season. Rivers and his staff will surely make a much more concerted effort to run Young through a plethora of screens, not only to force him to chase shooters like Curry through those screens (which he’s terrible at doing), but also to try to force him to switch onto players like Harris and Simmons, who he should have no chance of holding up against.

For the most part, this is one area where the Sixers should be able to exploit with or without the services of Embiid. That being said, if the Sixers do have to spend some time without their star big man, and Rivers elects to get another defender in Thybulle on the floor, that would give Atlanta another place to hide Young defensively, forcing Rivers to get even more creative to get the mismatch he wants to attack.

Capela’s Impact

The Hawks actually had a positive plus-minus against the 76ers in the three meetings between the two teams when Capela was on the court — and that includes a 44-point thrashing the Sixers put on them back in April in a game that Young didn’t play in*.

*To be fair, Atlanta’s one win during the season series was when the Sixers were missing Harris, Simmons and Curry. It was a weird regular season.

Regardless of whether Embiid is or is not available, Capela will be a key for the Hawks in the series. Offensively, he forms a dynamic pick-and-roll partnership with Young. In fact, Capela scored the fifth-most points as a roll man during the regular season, and two of the players he was behind (Rudy Gobert and Nikola Jokic) played significantly more minutes on the season than Capela did.

Defensively, Capela is one of the better defenders left in the conference to bang against Embiid inside. In fact, Embiid shot just 13-of-33 in the three games against the Hawks when Capela was on the floor. I’m not sure that’s necessarily representative of what to expect going forward, and I don’t expect Capela to stop Embiid if Joel is healthy and able to play anywhere near his best, but he’s less overmatched than many of the other defenders Embiid could square off against in the playoffs.

But if Embiid does miss time, Capela’s impact could grow even more.

That is, in part, because Embiid wouldn’t be there to potentially put Capela into foul trouble. Capela is a key for Atlanta on both ends of the court, and Embiid being able to get Capela into foul trouble, and thus off the floor, will be something to watch out for if Embiid is able to play.

But it’s also because if Capela isn’t tasked with slowing Embiid down, McMillan might put him on Simmons. We saw this a little bit in the previous series, where Daniel Gafford checked Simmons at times after Embiid went down, with Gafford giving Simmons a ton of space on the perimeter to cut off driving lanes when Simmons had the ball, while being able to help off of Simmons when he’s off-ball. Capela has many of the same characteristics as Gafford, but he’s bigger, stronger and more experienced.

Predictions

I don’t even know where to begin with this one.

How many games does Embiid play in? How does he look when he’s on the floor? Does he take a game or two off at the beginning, then come back for the rest of the series? Or is he on-again, off-again the entire time, impacting how the Sixers prepare on a game-in, game-out basis?

If Embiid were available for all seven games, and still playing at an MVP level, he would be the difference maker that dominates the game on both ends, and I think the Sixers win this in a “competitive five,” that could stretch to six if a few balls bounce the Hawks’ way. If Embiid doesn’t play at all, I think the series is pretty close to a toss-up, with Atlanta being the better offensive team and the Sixers the more well-rounded, and experienced, one.

I suppose for a prediction I’ll split the difference, and say Sixers in six. In truth, I have absolutely no idea. — Derek Bodner

The uncertainty surrounding Embiid makes this such a difficult pick. If he were healthy and scheduled to play in every game, this one would be easy: Sixers in five, albeit a more competitive series than we saw against Washington. Embiid would overwhelm Atlanta because he overwhelms almost everyone. But he’s not certain to play in every game, which makes the Hawks a likelier upset pick. Teams typically don’t lose MVP finalists and pick up right where they left off in the second round of the playoffs.

After thinking about it for a few days, I still feel like the Sixers are going to get through here. They have more experience than Atlanta and we have seen that pay off when facing a team that reaches a new stage for the first time. And throughout the year, they have continually gotten better at adapting on the fly and holding the fort down without a key player. Regardless of Embiid’s availability and effectiveness, I think Rivers is going to put Young through the wringer on the defensive end defending Harris ball screens. So I’ll add one more loss from last series and say the Sixers win in six games. But again, Embiid’s health is an unknown, massive variable. — Rich Hofmann

[thecampster]

So I've waited to give my feelings on this one because I was looking for something to base those feelings on. Two possibilities, I'll separate them.

 

Option 1 (Embiid does not play)

In this scenario, the Hawks are huge compared to the 76er's. Capella is bigger than Simmons, JC is bigger than Harris, Hunter is bigger than Green, BB is bigger than Thybulle. These are the 4 that started with Curry in the last game. The Hawks have a massive advantage on the boards.

Off the bench, the only person that scares me is Howard vs OO. Dwight is a bull and can rebound.

In this scenario, I'm calling the Hawks in 6. I'd say 4 or 5 but I really don't think the NBA can afford or will allow a sweep.

 

Option 2 (Embiid does play).

In this scenario, it negates the Hawk's size difference but gives us an athleticism advantage (assuming Embiid plays below the rim). In this scenario, I'm really torn. I could see the Hawks in 6 (but a very different 6 than above) but could also see the 76ers in 7. I'd call it a pick em in this situation.

 

Matchups to watch.

Green/Curry vs (Hunter/Huerter/BB) - One of Philly's biggest strengths is the ability to hit the outside shot after the kick. What the Hawks offer that many teams do not is interchangeable parts at the 2/3. I feel as though how McMillan choose to defend Philly (personnel) is as important as how Philly tries to attack Atlanta. If I'm McMillan, I'm leaving Hunter or Collins on Simmons as much as possible and then playing big against everyone else, leaving Trae on Curry. I'm taking the ball out of Ben Simmons hand and forcing Curry/Green to be creators or iso. I'm letting Clint guard Harris and pushing John Hunter down to who's left. I'm disrupting Simmons with athletic size and forcing him to be a shooter.

Howard vs OO - Lets hope the young man is up to the challenge.

LouWill vs George Hill - Lou has got to be better this series and Hill is a challenge to play against.

Gallo vs whoever they throw at him.  Outside of Philly's centers, Gallo is gonna be the biggest mofo on the floor whenever he comes in. He needs to play bigger, shoot over everyone and do Gallo things. We cannot have a series like the last one.

 

I see the Hawks winning this series. If Embiid doesn't play, the Refs become 76ers. If Embiid does play, I see it being called more fair but the most important person on the floor will be Nate and how he plays Philly defensively.

Edited June 5, 2021 by thecampster

[REHawksFan]

8 minutes ago, thecampster said:

So I've waited to give my feelings on this one because I was looking for something to base those feelings on. Two possibilities, I'll separate them.

 

Option 1 (Embiid does not play)

In this scenario, the Hawks are huge compared to the 76er's. Capella is bigger than Simmons, JC is bigger than Harris, Hunter is bigger than Green, BB is bigger than Thybulle. These are the 4 that started with Curry in the last game. The Hawks have a massive advantage on the boards.

Off the bench, the only person that scares me is Howard vs OO. Dwight is a bull and can rebound.

In this scenario, I'm calling the Hawks in 6. I'd say 4 or 5 but I really don't think the NBA can afford or will allow a sweep.

 

Option 2 (Embiid does play).

In this scenario, it negates the Hawk's size difference but gives us an athleticism advantage (assuming Embiid plays below the rim). In this scenario, I'm really torn. I could see the Hawks in 6 (but a very different 6 than above) but could also see the 76ers in 7. I'd call it a pick em in this situation.

 

Matchups to watch.

Green/Curry vs (Hunter/Huerter/BB) - One of Philly's biggest strengths is the ability to hit the outside shot after the kick. What the Hawks offer that many teams do not is interchangeable parts at the 2/3. I feel as though how McMillan choose to defend Philly (personnel) is as important as how Philly tries to attack Atlanta. If I'm McMillan, I'm leaving Hunter or Collins on Simmons as much as possible and then playing big against everyone else, leaving Trae on Curry. I'm taking the ball out of Ben Simmons hand and forcing Curry/Green to be creators or iso. I'm letting Clint guard Harris and pushing John Hunter down to who's left. I'm disrupting Simmons with athletic size and forcing him to be a shooter.

Howard vs OO - Lets hope the young man is up to the challenge.

LouWill vs George Hill - Lou has got to be better this series and Hill is a challenge to play against.

Gallo vs whoever they throw at him.  Outside of Philly's centers, Gallo is gonna be the biggest mofo on the floor whenever he comes in. He needs to play bigger, shoot over everyone and do Gallo things. We cannot have a series like the last one.

 

I see the Hawks winning this series. If Embiid doesn't play, the Refs become 76ers. If Embiid does play, I see it being called more fair but the most important person on the floor will be Nate and how he plays Philly defensively.

One thing I find interesting that I've read on a few series previews now for the Sixers, everyone just seems to think it's going to be really easy to exploit Trae on the defensive end which will then soften his impact offensively.  The Athletic writers and the other Philly writer I read essentially say it's a given that it plays out that way. 

Am I crazy to think that Trae has played better defensively and with Nate's schemes and Clint playing a free safety role that it's not as simple and just exploiting Trae on every possession??  I guess I'll believe it when I see it.  The writers all said the same thing with the Knicks and they weren't able to do it even though they tried.  

Edited June 5, 2021 by REHawksFan

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[thecampster]

This day is taking forever

 

[kg01]

I'm confused.

I'm told the 6ers are the '85 Bears out there defensively.  Well, so were the Nix. 

Whaddo those numbers look like after round 1, or are we doing that thing where we use regular season results to predict postseason outcomes ...... even though the one thing we know about the postseason is that the regular season results are not predictors of postseason outcomes.

Dizzy yet?  Yeah, me too.

Are they expecting the Hawks to do the offensive my turn/your turn thing with "my" aka Westbrook shootin percentages that make you question if he's shooting with his eyes closed?

Are they anticipating the shooter to be gaggin' on protein powder like Julius Bertans did all series long?  (made myself laugh with that one)

6ers played 5-on-2 defense vs WAS.  Of course you look good on defense.  And one of the "2" was still droppin' 30-water almost every game.

And are the eggsperts forgetting what it looks like when Ben Simm_ns guards Trae Young?  Good defensive player, but quick guards give him trouble.

All these assumptions by the typical national guys are real funny.

[thecampster]

2 minutes ago, kg01 said:

I'm confused.

I'm told the 6ers are the '85 Bears out there defensively.  Well, so were the Nix. 

Whaddo those numbers look like after round 1, or are we doing that thing where we use regular season results to predict postseason outcomes ...... even though the one thing we know about the postseason is that the regular season results are not predictors of postseason outcomes.

Dizzy yet?  Yeah, me too.

Are they expecting the Hawks to do the offensive my turn/your turn thing with "my" aka Westbrook shootin percentages that make you question if he's shooting with his eyes closed?

Are they anticipating the shooter to be gaggin' on protein powder like Julius Bertans did all series long?  (made myself laugh with that one)

6ers played 5-on-2 defense vs WAS.  Of course you look good on defense.  And one of the "2" was still droppin' 30-water almost every game.

And are the eggsperts forgetting what it looks like when Ben Simm_ns guards Trae Young?  Good defensive player, but quick guards give him trouble.

All these assumptions by the typical national guys are real funny.

Philly lost 150 less man games to injury than the Hawks and won 8 more games. Lets not pretend they're world beaters. In a normal 82 game season they were on pace to win 56 games. Hardly unbeatable.

Philly gave up 108.1 points per game...Atlanta 111.4.

If we look post all-star break.  Philly's net point differential per game was +5.6, Atlanta +2.3 and Atlanta played an average of 4-5 men down nightly. Atlanta also played the tougher schedule post all star break. This series is very, very even if Embiid is healthy. The only question in my head is the officiating and how much does Embiid play, if any.

[Spud2nique]

49 minutes ago, kg01 said:

I'm confused.

 

49 minutes ago, kg01 said:

made myself laugh with that one)

[Spud2nique]

49 minutes ago, kg01 said:

All these assumptions by the typical national guys are real funny.

Not to mention Jammy Jam over on real. He was wanting to pair Ben with Trae.

 

Where do we post our series predictions? Anyone got threads going for those? Like leading scorer for Hawks? (Duh Trae, don’t rule out JC or Bogi doh), who wins in how many games? Anyone? Let’s gettem going!!!! 

[sturt]

What's this? A national media believer?

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

31 minutes ago, REHawksFan said:

One thing I find interesting that I've read on a few series previews now for the Sixers, everyone just seems to think it's going to be really easy to exploit Trae on the defensive end which will then soften his impact offensively.  The Athletic writers and the other Philly writer I read essentially say it's a given that it plays out that way. 

Am I crazy to think that Trae has played better defensively and with Nate's schemes and Clint playing a free safety role that it's not as simple and just exploiting Trae on every possession??  I guess I'll believe it when I see it.  The writers all said the same thing with the Knicks and they weren't able to do it even though they tried.  

 

Here's the issue with teams exploiting Trae on defense.  Very few rarely do it, because they don't have the players that CAN do it.

On most occasions, we're not going to put Trae on their best guard, for obvious reasons.  This means either the secondary guy has to be the one going at Trae. Or you have to run some sort of screen action to get Trae in a switch where the matchup is favorable.  This takes time to do and it requires teams to go at Trae with ISO heavy offensive sets.

It's not like Trae is going to be guarding Simmons, so Trae won't get caught in the post trying to defend him.  So what's the alternative to exploit Trae on the defensive end? 

The only guy who could possibly do it is Shake Milton.  And even he isn't the type that gets the ball in ISO and just takes people.  He uses pick and roll and off ball screens to get his shots.  Here are his play types during the season and the percentages he used them:

• P&R Ball handler:   40.5%
• Spot Up:                 22.2%
• Transition:              14.3%
• Hand Off:                 7.0%
• Off Screen:               4.3%
• Isolation:                  4.3%
• Put Backs:                1.9%

 

This was Shake last year vs us . . in a game he scored 27 points.  You see some of the action that they like to run, to free him up for shots.

 

 

Just to balance things out though, this was Trae in the same game

 

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

50 minutes ago, sturt said:

What's this? A national media believer?

 

 

The Hawks beat the mighty New York Knicks, so now all of the New York City media are on the bandwagon.

[kg01]

37 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

 

Video is completely misleading.  You cut out the bits where Simmons and thybulle "easily" shut Trae down.