The Hawks held on after giving up a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter to down the 76ers 104-95 Thursday night at State Farm Arena.
Here are five observations.
1. The Hawks needed a good start and Clint Capela delivered one. The 28-year-old held Sixers center Joel Embiid to four points early in the matchup on 1-of-3 shooting overall. He also forced him to make extra passes that kept the Hawks’ defense in front of their men.
Capela had seven rebounds by the end of the first half and pulled down another 11 in the third, the second-most in his career in a single quarter.
Capela proved equally as effective on the offensive end, scoring a quick five points in his first five minutes of action. It helped the Hawks establish offensive presence inside the paint, as they continued to struggle from long range.
The 2021 league rebounding leader ended the night with 18 points and a season-high 20 rebounds. He became the first player in the NBA this season with back-to-back 19-plus rebound games.
“I’m just trying to stay active and do what I do, challenge every shot, be the best defender I can be and the best in the league and then from there, I feel like it fuels our offense, our speed and shots by being able to translate from defense to offense and that’s what I love, the pace,” Capela said.
2. With Capela holding firm in the paint to limit Embiid, the rest of the Hawks made sure to challenge every single shot attempt by the Sixers. The Hawks held the Sixers to 38.6% overall shooting.
So the Hawks forced the Sixers to take their shots from outside. Heading into Thursday, Philadelphia was the third-most efficient team from long distance, knocking down 39.2% of its attempts.
But the Hawks held the 76ers to 6-of-20 shooting from 3 as the team moved quickly to get back outside after sealing off the paint.
3. Though the night was not Trae Young’s most efficient, the Hawks’ star guard continued to find ways to impact the game early. He scored 15 points in the first quarter, initiating contact and getting to the line nine times.
Young ended the night with 26 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor and 10-of-10 from the free-throw line.
His start to the season has not been the most efficient from the floor. Young is shooting a career-low 37.8% on a career-high 23.3 attempts per game.
Young has had slow starts to the season in his career but even he has admitted that this hasn’t been his best.
“I’ve tried too hard to just stop and not stick to my routine and stick to what’s gotten me here,” Young said. “I’ve been through slumps and I mean not like this probably since my rookie year but I guess it’s happened before. It’s probably, it’s sad to say, it is probably not gonna be my last time I go through a slump like this. I just got to get out of it.
“But I don’t focus on my stats and my shots and I’m really just trying to take what the defense is giving me and I just gotta be ready to knock my shots down when I get them. So yeah, it’ll be better.”
4. The Hawks have struggled so far this season when it comes to maintaining significant leads through the full 48 minutes. On Thursday, the Hawks had a 96-76 lead with just under seven minutes remaining in the game.
But the 76ers clawed back by taking advantage of the Hawks’ heavy legs. The Sixers went on a 17-4 run in the final six minutes of play and brought the game within six points with a little over two minutes left to play.
This is the second time in four games that the Hawks have allowed an opponent to get back into games. The Hawks nearly lost to a Pelicans team which was on the second night of a back-to-back, after blowing a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter. On Wednesday, the Hawks gave up a 10-point lead but were unable to right the ship and lost to the Jazz by six.
Going forward, Hawks coach Nate McMillan said the team has to remember it can’t relax until the final whistle.
“You can never relax,” McMillan said. “A lot of times teams will sub in their guys, their young guys, who are their reserves early and you can’t fall for that, you can’t relax because momentum can shift quickly. And you just have to learn from that. As I tell my guys, we never play with the game because the basketball gods will come out in situations like that.”
5. Heading into the game, the Hawks averaged the fewest turnovers per game in the league. After Thursday they dropped to the third-fewest but their ability to take care of the ball has been what has helped keep them in games.
Eventually that won’t be enough to sustain them and they’ll need to find ways to knock shots down from 3-point distance. The Hawks rank 22nd in the lead in 3-point shooting percentage, making on average 33.4% of their attempts.
Stat to know
Trae Young passed 76ers coach Doc Rivers for 16th on the Hawks’ all-time points list with 7,358.
Quotable
“We just got to keep playing the same way we were doing the first three quarters especially when we’re up like that. So we’ve just got to finish the game and just be better at the end of it.” -- Trae Young on how the Hawks can maintain leads.
Up Next
The Hawks head to Philadelphia to face the 76ers Saturday.
