Trae Young And The Hawks Torched The Sixers Early And Held On Late To Steal Homecourt In Game 1

Prior to Game 1 of the Hawks-Sixers series, the injury update from both teams seemed to indicate good news for Philadelphia. The 76ers announced Joel Embiid would start and play after missing a game with a small tear in his right meniscus, while the Hawks would be without De’Andre Hunter due to right knee soreness.

The scene in Philadelphia was lively as expected, with Joel Embiid emerging pregame with Triple H to throw crotch chops at the crowd and ring the bell, but the excitement for the Sixers faithful quickly turned to despair after one quarter of play as the Hawks jumped out to a 42-27 lead thanks to the continued sensational play from Trae Young. The Hawks superstar had 25 points and eight assists in the first half, carving up the Philly defense, who started the game with Danny Green on him who simply could not keep Young in front of him.

Around Young, the Hawks role players were doing there job, which is to hit the open threes that Young creates when he collapses the defense. Bogdan Bogdanovic, John Collins, Lou Williams, Kevin Huerter, and Solomon Hill all hit two or more threes on the night to help Young, as Atlanta went 20-for-47 from deep on the afternoon, doing what was needed to keep the Sixers at arms length for most of the day.

The Hawks led by 20 at the half and extended that further at points in the third, but in general, the second half was much better from the Sixers, who steadily chipped away at the Atlanta lead with a much improved two-way effort, headlined by this sequence in the third quarter from Ben Simmons.

But in impressive fashion, the Hawks were able to answer most of the Sixers’ second half runs with a timely bucket of their own.

However, things got very dicey late as Philly cut the Hawks lead to as few as three on a pair of occasions as Atlanta melted down with five second calls, turnovers, and other mistakes that showed their youth and inexperience in the worst possible situations, as Philly finally got going from deep and Embiid had some big baskets.

Despite going cold for much of the fourth, Bogdan Bogdanovic was the one able to hit the big three the Hawks needed after the Sixers got it down to three after Atlanta nearly turned it over once again at midcourt but Bogi got the three off in the scramble drill to push the lead back to six.

The Sixers would again cut it to three, but a clear path foul effectively ended the game, giving John Collins a pair of free throws and then he got an and-1 on this lob after Philly tried to steal/foul Young but didn’t get the whistle.

The Sixers somehow got it to all the way back down to two points with a late steal on an inbound, but Bogdanovic was able to convert both free throws with just inside 10 seconds to go and Tobias Harris’ late, leaning three went begging to give the Hawks a 128-124 Game 1 win. It was a valiant comeback effort from the Sixers, but their early mistakes were just too much to overcome. Young was sensational, finishing the game with 35 points and 10 assists, with most of his damage coming in the first half. Bogdanovic and Collins each had 21 points and Huerter had 15 off the bench in a key performance.

Philly will be kicking themselves for their pitiful first quarter showing, and now has to regroup going into Game 2. If there were a silver lining for the Sixers it’s that Embiid looked like his usual self with 39 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and three blocks in his first game off of injury. The recipe for the Sixers disastrous afternoon was a combination of mediocre shooting (10-of-29 from three), far too many turnovers (19 including nine in the first quarter), and a dismal game-plan against the Trae Young pick-and-roll to start the game. There may be some confidence built off of what they did late, but the game was lost early, particularly with the bench unit to end the first quarter and open the second.

It’ll be interesting to see if Doc Rivers makes some major adjustments for Game 2 to his rotation, because the minutes without any of his Big 3 on the floor were dreadful. On the other side, the fourth quarter gave Atlanta plenty of film to watch themselves on how to better handle a lead and handle the pressure Philly is capable of turning up on defense, because in games where the shooting discrepancy isn’t as large, that’s going to be a deciding factor.