The Hawks lost the front end of their back-to-back at home,106-98, to the Miami Heat. Philadelphia’s 133 points Sunday marked their new season-high. Then you’ll know the Hawks are on to something.Following a 133-103 road win over the Orlando Magic on Sunday night, the 76ers (11-9) return home to play the Atlanta Hawks (11-9) on Monday in the second half of a back-to-back for both teams. One day, likely not this season but hopefully soon, such a loss might sting and blister. It was an instructive kind of loss for a very young, far from fully formed team. You could hear that from court-side, where a certified winner, one-time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, said afterward, “Best team we’ve had here in a long while.” It was as encouraging as an “L” could be. Look, nothing about this one narrow October loss changed a general air of good feeling about where these Hawks are headed. Finishing with 14 points and nine rebounds, his 3-pointer to close out a particularly chaotic possession gave the Hawks an eight-point lead with five minutes to play That was the biggest cushion of the second half, a cushion not quite big enough.Ībout that manner of his contribution, Pierce said, “I keep raving about (Hunter) because I think he’s a guy when we drafted him I didn’t know that was something he’d be capable of doing this early in his career.” On Monday, he led all Hawks with a plus-minus of plus-10, indicating his value while on the floor. They’re going to try to punish us,” Pierce said.Īt the same time, the Hawks' top draft pick this year, De'Andre Hunter, continued to reveal an ability to crank up the offense sometimes in lieu of Young. The same Young who averaged 38.5 points for the season’s first two games. The slight Young felt that in the second half, over which he scored only six points, none in the third quarter. One of the hard lessons of this little October get-together was that the mass of the Sixers, and the blunt way they tend to deploy it doesn’t play to the Hawks strength. In the last quarter, do we communicate well, are we on the same page, can we execute? For a young team that doesn’t have collective experience, that’s going to be a focal point for us.” More from the coach: “We can play with anybody for three quarters. “Not a lot of big growth, but some growth for sure.” “You can try to watch film and get what you can out of it,” Collins said. We’ll get better from it, that’s the beauty of it.” “They say the best way to help a young team grow is to put them in these situations. “It came down to a possession, which is all you can ask for,” Pierce said. The Sixers denied him the inbounds pass, leaving it to Vince Carter to hustle up the floor and launch the kind of flailing 3-pointer he might have made while constructing a legend, but not now while he’s writing the afterword. The Hawks’ best chance for a winning heave in the few seconds left was, of course, Young, whose range extends anywhere from beneath the basket to Marietta’s Big Chicken. He was called for his sixth foul, and Embiid broke the tie with two free throws. Collins might as well have been trying to deny the incoming tide. A mere three seconds later, Collins found himself with a face full of Joel Embiid, the brawny Philly center backing his way toward the goal. With eight seconds left, the Hawks’ John Collins rose between a skyline of 76ers to tip in a missed Trae Young free throw and tie the score at 103-103.
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