So, who forgot to tell the Sixers the All-Star break ended?
Philadelphia dropped their first game after the break 117-107 to the Atlanta Hawks Thursday night.
Tyrese Maxey had some flashy highlights amidst a sluggish shooting night, leading the Sixers with 28 shooting 8-of-23 from the floor. VJ Edgecombe, off of strong first and fourth quarters, finished with 20 points and nine rebounds going 7-of-15 from the field.
Kelly Oubre Jr. also struggled from the field but did what he could from the line putting up 17 points shooting 4-of-13 from the floor and 9-of-11 on free throws. Jalen Johnson led all scorers with 32.
Joel Embiid missed his third straight game, this time with right shin soreness while the Hawks were without Jonathan Kuminga with a bone bruise in his knee.
Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.
First Quarter
- Maxey opened the game by darting to the rim, spinning around a defender to finish a layup, but cooled off missing his next four shots. Edgecombe made his first three shots of the night attacking off the dribble, but also had the ball ripped away from him on multiple drives as well.
- Despite the aggression from the Sixers’ backcourt, it was not the prettiest start with a stoppage in the game seemingly happening every 10 seconds. Edgecombe was the only player on the floor who looked remotely comfortable offensively with both teams hovering below 40% from the field.
- After going nearly five minutes without a field goal the Sixers’ offense was able to string a couple half decent possessions together. Trendon Watford was a big reason, getting himself on the board with a drive before collapsing the defense on another, leading to an open Maxey three. Giving up seven second-chance points had the Sixers in a hole, but Edgecombe closed the gap with a long buzzer beater that trimmed the Hawks lead to two.
Second Quarter
- Cam Payne checked in for his first Sixers minutes since the 2024 playoffs at the start of the quarter. He missed his first shot of the night but picked up three quick assists, all of which were setting up Quentin Grimes jumpers. He did a fine job of table setting while also avoiding being dunked through the rim by Corey Kispert on the other end.
- A big reason this game had an ugly feel to it was that the Sixers were not able to defend without fouling — they put the Hawks at the line 25 times in the half. Some of those were definitely “make him earn it” fouls by Sixers defenders who had gotten beat, which wasn’t the worst idea in the world given the Hawks missed five of their free-throw attempts.
- It was from the line that Atlanta did most of their damage, but Johnson did get going as the half closed. His length gave him an advantage over basically any Sixer that wasn’t Dominick Barlow as he put up 17 in the half. The Sixers’ offense looked rudderless, struggling to create any space off the dribble. On top of cold shooting, Maxey was making some uncharacteristically poor decisions with the basketball, lucky to only have one turnover. They went into the break trailing by seven.
Third Quarter
- Unfortunately for the Sixers, not much looked different to start the second half either. The Hawks continued to push their way to the basket while Maxey continued to throw the ball over the backboard. He did finish a potential momentum-swinging play when he got a give-and-go and slammed it hard over Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
- He was able to momentarily capitalize on that, hitting a stepback three on the following possession. The offense would stall again, going another four minutes without a field goal, but with Oubre continually getting to the line the Sixers were able to slowly chip away at the lead.
- Now on a standard contract, Jabari Walker was able to play in his first game since Feb. 3. He gave the Sixers a much needed shot in the arm when he picked off an errant pass right after burying a corner three, finishing the fast break by throwing a no-look pass to Adem Bona. They could just never string enough quality possessions together though. Maxey hit a quick three to give them a shot at a 2-for-1, but Grimes and Payne did their best to give the ball away on the following possession. That left the Sixers down by four heading into the fourth.
Fourth Quarter
- It makes sense why the Sixers struggled with Johnson from a physical standpoint, but their inability to stop CJ McCollum was much more concerning. They just bit on every single one of his fakes, helping the seasoned vet get to the line time after time while hardly breaking a sweat.
- He had really gone passive for the middle stretch of the game, but the Sixers were again at a point where Edgecombe was the only one who could buy a jumper to fall. A big problem, especially when he picked up his fifth foul with over five minutes remaining in the game. So many Sixers drives were just dead on arrival, driving into too many defenders that were too set and too tall to get around.
- Another thing the Sixers weren’t able to do all night was get out and run. They had just 13 fast break points on the Hawks’ first 12 turnovers. Two straight blocked shots allowed them to do so, the first by Andre Drummond and the second by Maxey. It wasn’t much, but with the Hawks not putting the game away those two fast break baskets got the Sixers and crowd right back into the game.
- Up by four, McCollum seemed to get away with a travel, nailing a floater to get the lead back up to six. Grimes followed that up with a bad midrange jumper, one that was heavily contested. After Johnson split a pair at the line, Maxey also took an ill-advised pull-up, which essentially put the game away for the night. This game was there for them to grab all night, they just couldn’t take it .
