How Familiar Trends Haunted the Sixers in an Ugly Loss to the Atlanta Hawks

With Joel Embiid once again out, the Sixers looked extremely groggy coming back from the All-Star break and short on answers in an ugly loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

Here's what happened.

One reliable creator away

Many of the Sixers' losses should leave you feeling as if the trouble is they're one reliable engine on offense short of unlocking so much. No, not an offensive force of the caliber of Embiid or Paul George. We're talking one more piece who you can practically lock in for 16-18 points just by nature of his own creativity. This game left that same odor.

Atlanta is not very good, but they have one thing going for them that can really hurt Philadelphia's entire operation on offense: Dyson Daniels. The Hawks put Daniels, a painfully limited offensive player but an all-world defensive player, on Tyrese Maxey and made his job extremely difficult all night long.

At first, VJ Edgecombe represented a fine counter to the Hawks' defensive game plan. He was incredibly aggressive early in the game, attacking and feeling confident enough to trigger four shots in the game's first four minutes. But eventually, even that dissipates. You expect that out of a rookie.

The problem at hand then became finding someone to cobble together stretches of reliable offense. For a short burst, it was Quentin Grimes. He drilled a pair of threes and laced a baseline mid-range jumper out of a crossover. For another burst, it was newcomer Cameron Payne, who notched four assists in his first four minutes of action in the game.

But those were short bursts, some of which even occur without Maxey in the game to break up the monotony of the offense. The additional chess piece would be able to use Maxey as a decoy, drawing the best defender away from the ball if they're singularly focused on the Sixers' star guard. Alternatively, if that defender switches off Maxey to put out the fire elsewhere, you get the ball back to where you want it in the first place.

But none of that matters because the Sixers are without a paddle. They've put themselves in this situation with their inactivity at the trade deadline. So if it's not Edgecombe there to put on a clinic with the ball in his hands, it's Maxey's ball. And when it's Maxey's ball, he's engulfed by a point-of-attack defender, encountering multiple opponents in his way because they're bent on making anyone else beat them or both.

That was the problem all night long, the Sixers dragging themselves through extended bouts of incoherence on that end of the floor.

To Atlanta's credit, the made Maxey play uncharacteristically wild with the ball. He committed a travel by getting caught in the air and catching his own shot or pass. It was difficult to tell what decision he was trying to actually make. He also under-rimmed a number of layups and inexplicably flung the ball out of bounds on more than one drive. The Hawks kept him off balance all night long, and that was enough to dictate the entire game.

What is this offense?

But maybe the biggest concern of all is that there's just no answer without Embiid and George there to apply their star skills. If there was one play that summarized the Sixers' incoherent, sleepy offense throughout this game, it was Maxey tossing up a step-back 28-footer with Daniels draped all over him as Philadelphia trailed by seven with 75 seconds to play.

It was a low-quality shot on several fronts. Maxey didn't let anything develop and rushed the shot, settling for a very difficult look with ample time left on the clock. But the other side of it is that there was nothing happening elsewhere. No one moved. There was no screening. There was nothing creative happening away from the ball. The four other Sixers on the court stood there and stared, failing to create any options for Maxey besides dancing with Daniels in isolation.

There was another, less egregrious example from the first half. Trendon Watford caught the ball at the top of the key and just stood there aimlessly. He eventually motioned for his teammates to come do something, and Grimes eventually came over and set a pick for him. But where is the purpose? Where is the intention? Why are you letting seconds tick off the clock? Why aren't these intuitive things snappier?

These are fundamentals that should be in place by now. The Sixers have spent all season together. This team was mostly kept in place during the league-wide transaction period. A little grogginess is expected coming off a week-long break. But this was just continuation of what transpired leading up to the All-Star break. And when that's the case, it calls into question where the players' minds are and how they're being prepared in practice settings.

The center minutes

Andre Drummond and Adem Bona were not perfect in this game, but they were quite proficient in the things they each do well. Philadelphia did not get beat over the head with offensive rebounds in this game despite the Hawks not setting the world on fire. But there were a ton of opportunities to retrieve loose balls that were volleyed in the air coming off the rim.

Drummond was there to put an end to a number of Atlanta possessions. I'd also credit him for playing with poise on the offensive glass. He didn't try to go back up with wild shots, but rather collected misses off the rim and then calmly looked for open teammates to reset the possession.

Bona, on the other hand, helped himself by keeping his fouling under control. Just by nature of being disciplined, he was able to stay in the game for longer. His shot-blocking was tremendous, Bona flying into plays at the right time to spike shots at the rim into the crowd. Four blocks in under 10 minutes will do.

Spare thoughts

A fan got ejected in the final minutes of the game because he stood on his seat to try and hype the crowd up as the Sixers went on a run. Who knew that was an automatic ejection?