The Philadelphia 76ers had a prime opportunity to come out and get a win on Thursday back at home against an undermanned Atlanta Hawks team. Despite the Sixers missing some key bench pieces, the Hawks were down Trae Young, Clint Capela, and De’Andre Hunter among others.
The Sixers then found themselves down by 19 points despite the Hawks missing so many guys and it resulted in a 98-96 loss to Atlanta at home. Philadelphia was able to rally, but their flat start doomed them in this one.
“It’s the nature of the game, the nature of life,” said Tyrese Maxey. “You get complacent when you see other guys are not playing or top guys not playing, you become complacent and become content. We can’t do that. We gotta approach every single game the same way. It’s gonna be a lot more games like this because of COVID-19 so no matter if we have guys out or the other team has guys out, or both teams have guys out right now, these games count on the record so we gotta go out there and fight come out with wins.”
While the Sixers were missing guys like Andre Drummond, Shake Milton, and Georges Niang, the Hawks were missing their top players. The losses for Philadelphia do not compare to the losses for Atlanta. This is just one of those games where it should have been an easy win for the Sixers.
“I didn’t think we played with great—we have guys out too, by the way—but tonight was our best advantage as far as guys being out,” said coach Doc Rivers. “You gotta win tonight, honestly, but we didn’t because I thought we approached the game very casual and we played that way. I thought they did whatever they wanted offensively. I thought they were they were the aggressor defensively. It’s disappointing.”
The Hawks hit the Sixers with an avalanche in the first quarter. They shot 52% from the floor to build the 19-point lead and while the Sixers couldn’t find an answer.
“I think we definitely came out casual,” said Tobias Harris. “They got off to a good start, we weren’t able to score the basketball, especially in the first quarter, but we still rallied our way back. We were up four with two minutes and we should’ve been able to close out the game.”
Atlanta got a big lift from Bogdan Bogdanovic who had 10 points in the final quarter on 4-for-7 shooting. He missed his first 13 shots on the night before catching fire late and the Sixers again just could not respond.
“Even with a flat start, I think fourth-quarter execution, we have to be better on both ends of the floor, especially defensively,” Harris added. “You give them credit, they made tough shots, but a couple of those, we could’ve really helped ourselves out.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=56169]
[lawrence-related id=56250,56247,56244]