ATLANTA – For all the machinations of the Sixers’ 103-95 loss to the Hawks Monday, nothing jumped out like their inability to slow Atlanta at the end of the third and fourth quarters while largely failing to score themselves (see Instant Replay).
The 76ers led by nine late in the third quarter only to see the Hawks close the period on a 13-2 run for a 75-73 lead. Then after the Sixers took a three-point lead with just over three minutes left in the game, Atlanta closed 14-3 for the win.
The knife cut both ways: The Sixers came up short offensively and defensively down the stretch of both money quarters.
After playing for two-plus quarters like the team that whipped Detroit Saturday to end a 26-game losing streak, the Sixers went back to playing like the NBA’s youngest squad.
The Sixers (16-58) missed their final six shots of the third quarter and turned the ball over twice in that span, while Atlanta (32-41) made 5 of 9 shots in that time.
And after Thaddeus Young sank his fifth three-pointer for a 92-89 lead with 3:08 left in the game, the Sixers missed four of their final five shots and turned the ball over two more times.
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“I thought [the Hawks’] defensive intensity lifted [late in the third quarter] ten-fold,” Sixers head coach Brett Brown said. “I don’t think we handled it well . . . as a team, we just didn’t handle them overplaying a lot of our stuff.”
As the Hawks began sinking into passing lanes and almost daring the Sixers to continue shooting three-pointers (they made 11 of 30), the Sixers played into the trap.
Jeff Teague’s three-point play with 2:55 left tied the game at 92, and moments later rookie Michael Carter-Williams threw a poor pass that Atlanta forward Paul Millsap easily picked off.
The Sixers’ 19th turnover led to a runner in the lane by former Sixer Lou Williams with 2:26 remaining. That gave Atlanta a 94-92 lead that the Hawks never lost.
“It’s 92-92 and we come out of a timeout and do a poor job executing,” Brown said. “They go down and score and from that point forward we were playing catch-up.
“Just trying to take a young team and say, ‘Here it is; it’s tied at 92 and you’re playing against a team that is scratching and clawing trying to get into the playoffs. It’s a fantastic opportunity to bring a game home. How do we execute?’”
Henry Sims missed a 13-foot jumper at the other end, and after Atlanta rebounded, Williams made the first of back-to-back treys.
Williams scored eight straight points on the way to 22 overall to put way the game. He rang up rare highlights in a mostly forgettable season in which Atlanta head coach Mike Budenholzer recently opted not to play him at all in several games.
“He’s been having a rough season. You know, playing well in spurts,” Young said. “When Lou was with us, the Philadelphia 76ers (from 2005-12), he was able to do same thing: Light it up real quick, come off the bench and be one of the key guys.”
The Sixers were hurt on the boards, where Atlanta had a 49-40 edge as Millsap damaged the visitors with a game-high 27 points and a season-high 17 rebounds.
The Sixers’ only points in the final 3:07 came on a three-pointer by James Anderson with 1:30 left.
That cut Atlanta’s lead to 97-95, but the Hawks scored the game’s final six points while also tightening the screws defensively. As Budenholzer said, “Our aggressiveness, our pressure, and our physicality served us well.”
Young sensed that, but the 76ers couldn’t do much about it.
“They kind of got into us and rolled us out of our execution,” he said after shooting 7 for 10 for 23 points with four assists, four steals and three blocked shots. “They were just more aggressive. They pushed tempo and ... they were being more aggressive [defensively]. We just didn’t execute towards the end.”