The Philadelphia 76ers were on the comeback trail. They had trailed the Atlanta Hawks for a good portion of the first half, but double-digits, but big shots by Shake Milton pulled Philadelphia to within 69-67.
Then, the officials made a mind-boggling foul call on Tobias Harris to end the half as Trae Young went up for a triple which then had both he and coach Brett Brown irate. The officials called a technical foul on Harris, then called one on Brown for attempting to challenge the call, but he did not get the challenge in on time, and Young drilled all five free throws to give Atlanta a 74-67 lead et the half.
“It certainly didn’t help,” said a subdued Brown postgame.
Despite what felt like a huge momentum shift in the Hawks favor, Harris did not believe it did so. He believed the Sixers still should have been able to recover and get a win.
“Not too much,” he explained. “We still, in the third quarter, got to where we wanted. It was a foul. They called it whatnot. I didn’t agree with it at the time but it was what they called. They told me after halftime that it was a foul so I ran with that. I said OK, but I don’t think that’s the reason why we lost the game.”
Still, it was still an absolutely terrible call.
I’ve bit my tongue all half, but can’t do it any longer…
This was called a foul. THIS.
Tobias Harris gets out of the way & mini, balding Harden jumps into him at halfcourt with 0.5 left in the half.
PLEASE DO BETTER @NBAOfficial pic.twitter.com/B421RTQbvn
— Josh Reynolds (@JoshReynolds24) January 31, 2020
The Sixers did have four players score 20+ points on the night led by 31 from Ben Simmons, but they still were not able to come up with enough offensive production to match Atlanta.
“We didn’t have a balance tonight,” Harris added. “We didn’t get enough stops, No. 1, to get out in transition. In the half-court, we struggled to get to our spots where we wanted to punish them in different areas. We didn’t have any balance offensively in my opinion.”
Philadelphia will now have to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and then head up to Beantown to take on the rival Boston Celtics on Saturday. They will be looking to complete the season sweep of the C’s on the road. [lawrence-related id=24602,24595,24585]