The Philadelphia 76ers are one of the elite defensive teams in the league and they offer a lot of challenges for any team trying to score on them. The Atlanta Hawks were able to pick them apart and score 128 points as they knocked off the Sixers in Game 1 of their Round 2 series.
One reason for Atlanta’s success was the play of their star guard, Trae Young. The third-year guard out of Oklahoma continues to make history in these playoffs as he had 35 points and 10 assists to lead the Hawks in this one. He joined Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only two players to score 30+ points in each of his first four career playoff road games.
Coach Doc Rivers started veteran Danny Green on Young as he tried to save Ben Simmons for later in the game. The Sixers also played a lot of drop coverage in the pick-and-roll and have Joel Embiid guard against Young’s lobs to Clint Capela. He had 25 points on 8-for-13 shooting at halftime.
“Overall it was our coverages as much as it was Danny,” said Rivers. “The rejects were on Danny, the coverages on the double drag and that’s basically what they hurt us with. That one double-drag play. That was more on us.”
In the second half, Philadelphia had Simmons defend Young as well as change their defensive scheme in the pick-and-roll and the Hawks star had 10 points on 3-for-10 shooting in the second half.
“It was way too late,” said Simmons. “We weren’t physical or aggressive enough. I started the second half on him and used my size. I feel like that disrupted him a little bit, but we got it we got started like that. From the first quarter to the last. We waited way too long.”
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The Hawks knocked down 20 triples as that was a big reason why Young was able to have success. He was able to find open shooters such as Bogdan Bogdanovic, Kevin Huerter, and John Collins who hurt Philadelphia all day long. Those three combined to make 11 3-pointers and combined with Young’s hot start, it makes life tough for anybody on defense.
“He made a few shots,” said Embiid. “He got hot early. He came in off a few pick-and-rolls. Right after that, we made adjustments, which kinda slowed him down a little bit with small guards setting the screen, trapping it, and getting the ball out of his hands. It worked out better than it did the first half so that’s something that we can look at…They made 20 3s. It’s tough to beat that.”
As far as adjustments for Game 2, Simmons does want the challenge of taking on Young from the beginning.
“I probably will do that,” said Simmons succinctly. “I want to. If the refs aren’t going to call so many fouls and I can be physical and be 6-foot-10, then I’ll be 6-foot-10. We’ll have to see.”
Game 2 will be back in Philadelphia on Tuesday as the Sixers look to avoid going down 0-2.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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