The Hawks are searching for momentum going into the playoffs but they are looking in all the wrong places.
The Hawks fell behind the 76ers by as many as 20 points, including a 15-point deficit in the first quarter, en route to a 101-90 loss Friday night at Philips Arena.
With five games remaining in the regular season, and playoff seeding to be gained, the Hawks fell flat against a team clinging to the faintest of playoff hopes and dropped their second straight home game.
The Hawks (42-35) dropped a game behind the Bulls for fifth in the Eastern Conference. They are two games behind the Nets for fourth place. Hosting a first-round playoff series is becoming a distant possibility.
“This feels very familiar at the end of the season when we’ve made postseason play,” coach Larry Drew said. “(As if to say) ‘OK, we are going to coast until the regular season and we are going to turn it up once the playoffs start.’ I told the team afterward that we are playing Russian roulette by doing that. I know the importance of momentum going into the postseason but us, as a team, we have not figured out who we are and who we have to remain. That is the disappointing part of the last couple weeks.”
The Sixers (31-44) won for only the ninth time on the road this season. They have won four of their past five to cling to slim playoff hopes of their own.
The Sixers had three players with double-doubles led by Evan Turner with a game-high 24 points and 11 rebounds. Spencer Hawes added 19 points and 12 rebounds and Thaddeus Young had 14 point and 13 rebounds. The Hawks did manage to hold All-Star Jrue Holiday to nine points.
“Here we are 77 games into our season and we don’t know who we are,” Drew said. “We go all the way back to training camp, with all the changes we made, one of the things we made it a point to the guys was who we had to be. We had to be a team that would be gritty. We have to bring a blue-collar mentality every night we step on the floor, particularly on the defensive end. Somewhere along the line we have forgotten who we have to be. We are not a team who can go out and outscore people. We are not a team who can rely on the 3-ball. … We are not grinding. We are not starting the game with that sense of urgency.”
The Hawks were led by Josh Smith with 19 points. Al Horford (18), Ivan Johnson (17), Jeff Teague (12) and Kyle Korver (11) rounded out the double-digit scorers.
“We have to figure it out right now, as of yesterday,” Smith said of the team identity. “We have to stick with what we know and play it to a T. … It’s too late in the season. This organization has been successful for six years. Right around this time we already know what the identity of the team is. It is kind of frustrating that we are still trying to find it.”
The Sixers stormed out early with season-high 40 first-quarter points. It easily surpassed their previous best of 33 points in the opening quarter. The Sixers shot an impressive 72.7 percent (16 of 22) from the floor and at one point made 13 straight shots.
The first quarter total was also the most the Hawks have allowed this season, six points more than the 34 they allowed the Mavericks in March.
“We were soft defensively,” Drew said of the first quarter. “We had no defensive presence. How you can come out and play like that, when that game has that type meaning, is beyond me.”
The Sixers led 40-26 after the first quarter and built a 19-point lead early in the second quarter. The Hawks answered with runs of 8-0 and 9-2 and cut their deficit to nine points. The Sixers scored the final five points of the half and went into intermission with a 58-45 lead. The first-half point total tied their season-high for the season. The Sixers came back down to earth in the second quarter, making just 6 of 20 shots and finished the half with a 52.4 percent shooting percentage. They had three double-digit scorers in Young (14), Hawes (11) and Turner (10).
The Sixers also hurt the Hawks with long-range shots by making 9 of 16 3-pointers.
The Sixers pushed their lead back to as many as 19 points in the third quarter and took an 83-65 lead into the final quarter.
Korver extended his 3-point streak to 70 games.
The teams will finish the season series next week in Philadelphia. The Hawks play at the Spurs on Saturday.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of identity,” Horford said. “It’s a matter of we are going through a slump right now as a team, for whatever reason, we can’t put it all together. I take some of that blame. I still feel like I’m getting back in rhythm after missing those games. I think that affected me. I think it’s a matter of getting out of this and start playing better. We know what we are about.”
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