ATLANTA — Georges Niang had a statement to make.
While lacing up his sneakers for shootaround, eight hours before Friday night’s game at Atlanta, the 76ers power forward yelled to a reporter “We’re about to get rolling here. Just make sure you tune in!”
He suggested that the reporter be locked in when the Sixers turn things up. Niang knew the reporter was fully aware of Sixers losing nine of their last 12 games. But with most of their players back, including franchise cornerstone Joel Embiid, Niang had plenty of reason to be optimistic.
“It’s a work in progress,” he said. “We’re getting everybody back and figuring things out. I think we have a good stretch coming out for us.”
Well, that stretch is starting with a 98-96 victory over the Hawks.
The Sixers improved to 12-11 heading into their two-game series against the Charlotte Hornets at the Spectrum Center on Monday and Wednesday. Philly was without power forward Tobias Harris, who was out with an illness.
Embiid paced the Sixers with 28 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Trae Young had 25 points and 10 assists for the Hawks (12-11).
And Niang, who had 13 points while starting in place of Harris, was a prophet.
The comeback
For a while, the Sixers looked like a team that couldn’t get over the hump.
They trailed by 11 points early in the third quarter, but managed to close the gap to one point. Atlanta responded with timely free throws, and that became the theme the rest of the way: Sixers attempt a comeback only to have it halted by a timely play by Atlanta.
Philly pulled within one again on Seth Curry’s layup (92-91) with 4 minutes, 27 seconds remaining. But Young responded with a jumper to put the Hawks up three on the ensuing possession. Then, after John Collins blocked Tyrese Maxey’s layup attempt, Young made another shot to make it a 96-91 game with 3:38 to play.
But the Sixers knotted the score at 96 after a Curry 3 and an Embiid basket. Then Embiid gave the Sixers a 98-96 lead with 42.8 seconds left, marking their first lead of the second half. Curry came up with a steal on the baseline the following possession.
However, Embiid went on to miss a basket with 10 seconds to play. Kevin Huerter grabbed the defensive rebound and Matisse Thybulle later fouled Young with 2.4 seconds left. After a timeout, Danilo Gallinari missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer, and the Sixers escaped.
Streaky night for Curry
Curry was greeted to "Seth Curry sucks” chants the first couple of times he touched the ball. It didn’t take long before the Hawks fans realized it was a bad time for that.
The shooting guard made all five of his first-quarter shot attempts en route to scoring 11 points. However, he couldn’t keep them quiet for long. Curry followed up his perfect first quarter by missing his next six attempts before a layup with 4:27 to play.
He ended up shooting 7 for 14 while scoring 18 points.
Sixers’ stingy defense
Young came into this matchup as one of the league’s hottest players, scoring 30 or more points in five straight games.
If that’s not daunting enough, Young had a career-scoring average of 25.7 points against Sixers entering Friday night, and he averaged 29 points while knocking the Sixers out of the playoffs last season. But on this night, the Sixers were able to hold him to four points on 2 of 5 shots in the fourth quarter. That helped them escape with the victory.
The Hawks made just 3 of 20 shots (15%) in the quarter, including all seven of their three-point attempts.
Maxey’s role
Doc Rivers was a standout point guard before joining the coaching ranks.
So one can assume that he could be hard on the young point guards who play for him. Like he’s done all season, Rivers stayed in Maxey’s eyes throughout the game.
“Every coach is, whether he plays the position or not, if you have a point guard-oriented offense,” Rivers said. “In my 20 years, half my teams have been point guard-oriented offense and half have been motion offense. It really depends on the type of team you have.
“With Tyrese we really don’t have a point guard-oriented offense. He’s not a point guard. He’s a scorer at the point position. We don’t want him coming down and orchestrating like Chris Paul. [Rajon] Rondo ran a point guard offense because they could call the game and orchestrate everything. When you don’t have that you need more of a motion offense.”
Maxey continued his shooting woes, finishing with 11 points on 4-for-10 shooting.
Injuries
Friday marked the ninth game that Harris has missed this season. He missed six other games due to testing positive for COVID-19. Harris also missed two with a strained left hip. Teammate Ben Simmons (mentally not ready to play) has yet to play this season.
The Hawks were also without key players. Bogdan Bogdanovic (right ankle sprain), De’Andre Hunter (right wrist tendon surgery), Cam Reddish (left wrist sprain) and Onyeka Okongwu (right shoulder injury recover) were all out.
