Official Game Thread: Hawks at 76ers (Hump Day)

[lethalweapon3]

“I told John Collins, there’s only one man who can go by the name, ‘Dr. J’… ME!”

 

**TAP TAP TAP** “This a stick-up! Get yo’ Dellavedova outta the car!”

**MEEK MILL BLARES AS WINDOW ROLLS DOWN AT TRAFFIC LIGHT** “Whassup, my man?” ((Gleam, from winning smile))

“…Oh, NO! It’s YOU! I can’t jack YOU! Man, listen, it’s Christmas Eve, I just got out The Joint, ain’t got nowhere to eat…”

“See them Golden Arches up the way? Meet me there, at Mickie D's, and I’ll hook you up with what you need.”

**THIRTEEN MINUTES LATER, OUTSIDE THE DRIVE-THRU**

“Nom nom nom… I’m Lovin’ It!”

“Yo, enjoy that Double Quarter Pounder meal, man. No pickles. Got you Super-Size Fries and a Hi-C, too! Just stay out of trouble, and do it for me, a’ight? ‘Cause this ain’t the way. Merry Christmas!”  **BENTLEY DRIVES OFF INTO THE SUNSET**

“Go Sixers Go!”

And, scene! Such is The Legend of Lou Williams in the City of Brotherly Shove. At least my skit, of how it probably went down.

Nearly a decade later, Lou’s lore has only grown in its enchantment among the locals. Philly's successful pick at #45 in the 2005 NBA Draft, Lou Will has hopefully shaken off the flu bug and will be warmly welcomed in his return this week to Wells Fargo Center as a member of the Atlanta Hawks (7 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, NBC Sports Philly). Sixer fans surely love him. And the Hawks could sorely use him.

Atlanta suffered its way through a SCRAP game… combo Trap Game and Schedule Loss… in Detroit on Monday, and along the way suffered injuries to both Kevin Huerter (doubtful, sprained shoulder) and Brandon Goodwin (questionable, impinged ankle), the latter filling in due to the rehabbing ankle of Hawks star Trae Young.

Cam Reddish (sore Achilles) has been formally shelved for the remainder of the regular season, at minimum, while Tony Snell (sprained ankle) remains out of action. Along with Williams, that leaves, at coach Nate McMillan’s disposal, the following backcourt options. Bogdan Bogdanovic, maybe (questionable, sore hammy). Two-way guard Skylar Mays. And, because irony has a snarky sense of humor, Kris Dunn, who appeared on Monday in live NBA action for the first time in 15 months, and four months after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery.

After appearing for 13 monitored minutes in the Hawks’ 100-86 loss to the Pistons, Dunn still awaits his first made bucket since January 2020, when he drew friendly fire from a Bull who fell on his leg while drawing a charge. Kris, who grabbed a steal and a block in his Hawk debut, was never known for his offense, but he was arguably undergoing his best flourish as an efficient scorer in the paint (24-for-33 2FGs in seven games w/ CHI) before going down with his season-ending MCL sprain. While he went 0-for-5 on Monday, the entire team (4-for-27 3FGs @ DET) looked rusty in setting up plays whenever Dunn brought the ball up in Detroit.

Dunn will need some layups to fall today to help the Hawks keep up with Philadelphia’s best interior scorer, with all apologies to Tobias Harris and Joel Embiid. Ben Simmons made his last three-pointer on St. Patty’s Day, and he has lofted a pair of long-distance shots over the course of 15 games since then. The All-Star point guard missed four games (all losses for Philly) with the flu, before returning to go 6-for-8 on twos in the Sixers’ easy-bake 121-90 win over the Al Horford-coached OKC Thunder.

Dunn and Bogdanovic can help coax Simmons (last game exceeding 20 points on March 23; last game w/ double-digit assists, March 25) into mid-range shots. But for depth reasons, they’ll have to stay out of foul trouble and keep Simmons, despite his 61.5 FT%, from piling up points at the free throw line.

When fronting Simmons with more size, perhaps in the form of John Collins or Solomon Hill, the Hawks’ active guards will want to be pesky in deflecting and cutting off passes, particularly to Philly’s array of willing perimeter shooters like Seth Curry (42.2 3FG%), Danny Green (team-high 6.2 3FGAs/game, 41.4 3FG%), Harris and Furkan Korkmaz. “Mathief” Thybulle, Harris and the Sixers (six players w/ at least 2 steals vs. OKC) had a field day taking candy away from the Thunder babies on Monday, and Bogdanovic (5 TOs @ DET) and Dunn will have to be more careful with their own movements while creating offense.

He’s an MVP front-runner, but the shoe was on the other foot for Joel Embiid in Atlanta back on January 11. With Harris, Curry and Simmons all shelved for that game, and a back-to-back in Philly with Miami awaiting, Sixers coach Doc Rivers handed out the most minutes, 39 of them, to Dakota Mathias, a two-way guard who was cut loose a week later in favor of Goodwin’s FGCU teammate Rayjon Tucker. Also unavailable that day were Thybulle, Korkmaz, and Shake Milton.

Mathias and the other default starters, including Green (0-for-9 FGs @ ATL) and Mike Scott (1-for-7 FGs @ ATL, questionable for today with a sore hip) were downright horrible. Embiid got his obligatory double-double (24-and-11 but on 8-for-17 FGs, 1 assist) but was overwhelmed in the presence of Clint Capela, Collins and wing defenders De’Andre Hunter and Reddish.

With no backcourt answers for Trae (8 assists, no TOs, 26 points) or Goodwin (15 bench points and 4 assists), Philly found themselves down by 39 points before then-coach Lloyd Pierce called off the dogs in the third quarter. Only a lucky three-pointer by snake-tank aficionado Dwight Howard and garbage-time scores from Isaiah Joe obscured the scale of the beatdown in the 112-94 win by Atlanta, the Hawks bouncing back from a four-game skid of their own.

Even without Hunter, Atlanta has some flexibility at the power forward and center positions to hope to contain Embiid and Harris, whether the talented Sixer duo attacks from inside or out. The Hawks will need full-court imprints from both Hill and Danilo Gallinari to take pressure off Collins and Capela. Whenever the Sixer star bigs catch a breather and Dwight, two-way forward Paul Reed and 10-day contractor Anthony Tolliver hit the floor, Onyeka Okongwu, Nathan Knight and Bruno Fernando will need to win rebounding battles and produce positive stints.

These days, you have to hang out at Chickie’s & Pete’s on road nights if you wish to enjoy the soothing sounds of Sixer fans belligerently booing. For starters, Brett Brown is gone. However, in fairness to Brown, the Sixers were perhaps the most unduly impacted by last season’s disruption. They began 2020-21 by winning 14 games in a row at The Stagecoach. They lost two in a row, in December, then won 15 more. 29-2 before the pandemic pause, but only 10-24 in road games. Then, the mojo was gone by the time the lights came back on in the Florida Bubble, stumbling into a lower seed and then swept away in the opening round by the Fighting Brad Stevenses.

Belying this year’s 23-7 home record, under Coach Doc, are three defeats without the services of Embiid, four, overlapping, without Simmons, four without Harris and two without Curry. Their home mark remains the second-best in the East and the third-best in the NBA overall. Moreover, this year’s postseason is likely to have a growing number of homebody fans in the building, maybe even the would-be Hamburglar, had he heeded Lou Will’s advice, enhancing the Sixers’ chances at reaching at least the Conference Finals for the first time since 2001.

The Hawks’ SCRAP-py loss in Motown was a downer, but they did get an awful lot of help over the past couple days. The Fabulous Thunderhorfords went up to Boston last night and knocked off the Celtics. Charlotte, Indiana and Toronto all caught Ls yesterday, too, as did Washington and the Knicks (finally!) and Miami the day before. That gave Atlanta (34-28) a useful two-game cushion (along with tiebreakers, if needed) over the Celts and the 7-seeded heat entering Wednesday’s and Friday’s games.

While Philadelphia (40-21, 1.5 games behind top-seed Brooklyn) is assured of at least a Top-7 finish with a victory today or Friday, a win for the Hawks would all but assure them of a chance to secure a Top-10 finish by the time the Bulls visit Atlanta on Saturday. Unlike Lou’s infamous thief back on Christmas Eve 2011, today, it sure would feel nice to steal one in Philly. To all, a good night!

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[JayBirdHawk]

Haven't seen the MRI results for Huerter as yet.

[lethalweapon3]

The Doc is in.

No status changes on the 5:30 boo-boo report. Mike Scott is the only Sixer on it, still questionable with his sore hip. Huerter's still doubtful, Bogi and B-Good still questionable.

 

~lw3

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[kg01]

Sheesh, hoping we don't play with the 'excuse' tonite.

Hoping it's not another peppa pig kind of a nite.

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

Nate should suit up and play, lol  But who the heck is Brandon Knight?

Brandon Goodwin or Nathan Knight. lololol.  I think Nathan Knight.

 

 

 

[RedDawg#8]

4 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Nate should suit up and play, lol  But who the heck is Brandon Knight?

Brandon Goodwin or Nathan Knight. lololol.  I think Nathan Knight.

 

 

 

I love coach, I love our team. But if this happens, we are going to get drubbed big time tonight.

I really need big games from Lou, JC, Clint and Gallo tonight....wait, that's actually a good bit of fire power.

Against the top 1 or 2 teams in the East though, it's not nearly enough.

[JayBirdHawk]

If no Bogi and Goodwin:

Starters - Mays, Lou, Solo, Collins, Capela

Bench - Dunn, Knight, Gallo, Okongwu, Bruno

OR

Starters - Mays, Solo, Knight, Collins, Capela

Bench - Lou, Dunn, Gallo, Okongwu, Bruno (keep Lou with Gallo and Gwu).

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

5 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

If no Bogi and Goodwin:

Starters - Mays, Lou, Solo, Collins, Capela

Bench - Dunn, Knight, Gallo, Okongwu, Bruno

OR

Starters - Mays, Solo, Knight, Collins, Capela

Bench - Lou, Dunn, Gallo, Okongwu, Bruno (keep Lou with Gallo and Gwu).

So:

Starters - Goodwin, Lou, Solo, Collins, Capela

Bench - Dunn, Mays, Gallo, Knight Okongwu, Bruno

[ATLHawks3]

I don't want to speculate, but this doesn't sound good AT ALL.

 

 

[RedDawg#8]

14 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

Yikes. 

Throwing in the towel on tonight.

I usually rush home for tip off but I think I will just play this in the background and stay finishing up this pile of work on my desk

[hawkman]

Zero expectations for this one. Strictly a development game at this point. 

[JayBirdHawk]

1 minute ago, RedDawg#8 said:

Yikes. 

Throwing in the towel on tonight.

I usually rush home for tip off but I think I will just play this in the background and stay finishing up this pile of work on my desk

Somewhere, deep down...VERY DEEP DOWN...I'm hoping and praying by some unknown miracle and the universe on it's head  for the Sixers.

 

I'm gonna settle in with a big GOBLET of wine!

[RedDawg#8]

1 minute ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Somewhere, deep down...VERY DEEP DOWN...I'm hoping and praying by some unknown miracle and the universe on it's head  for the Sixers.

 

I'm gonna settle in with a big GOBLET of wine!

Wine sounds nice, I think I may have to crack open a bottle too lol

[TheNorthCydeRises]

I was very tempted to pick the Hawks to win straight out tonight.  $25 to win 118.75

But I chickened out, and chose them in a long odds 4 team parlay.

 

Hawks +350

Hornets +195

Bulls +145

Spurs +165

 

Basically taking the Hawks, and all of those teams close to us to lose.

$3.50 to win $318

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Despite the lack of offense, this is one of the better defensive lineups we can put out on the floor.

Muck up this game, keep Simmons out of the paint, and frustrate Embiid.

 

Win this game 95 - 91.

[bleachkit]

Props to BG for playing. Guess those injury protocols aren't as strict when you're at the end of the bench. 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Collins, you have a golden chance to shut all of your haters up with an inspired game without our top 3 guards.

Just put in work.