How Jalen Johnson Manipulated the Sixers' Defense in Loss to Hawks

The Sixers have gotten quite familiar with Jalen Johnson this season. He has routinely appeared in their nightmares.

The first-time All-Star slashed the Sixers' defense for 85 points across their first three matchups against the Atlanta Hawks. Down three starters on Saturday night, the Sixers desperately hoped to contain him.

Instead, Johnson waltzed to 35 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in Philadelphia’s 125-116 loss, which put the Sixers in play-in tournament range.

Johnson exposes Sixers' roster flaws

Johnson's dominance reflects the Sixers' inadequate personnel to conceal toolsy forwards and faults in its turnover-heavy scheme. These struggles could haunt the Sixers in a rematch against Atlanta or a different foe in the postseason.

The Sixers sat in a zone defense for most of the game even though the Hawks rank sixth leaguewide in three-point percentage. But Nick Nurse’s strategy worked early on, as the Sixers forced Atlanta into eight turnovers in the first quarter to take a 10-point lead.

But the Hawks—namely Johnson—adjusted as the game went on, which proved to be critical. He scored and assisted on 19 of Atlanta’s 28 fourth-quarter points, manipulating the Sixers’ defense as a downhill force.

Johnson found gaps in the Sixers' zone with his rim gravity, which put the defense into rotation. That included a play with 50 seconds left where Johnson found Dyson Daniels toasting Tyrese Maxey with a backdoor cut. Maxey couldn’t recover and committed a goaltend, giving the Hawks a seven-point lead that helped seal the game.

The Sixers relied on their zone for seemingly two reasons—to force turnovers and limit Atlanta’s paint touches. Yet Johnson routinely tormented anyone that Philadelphia assigned to him, from Dominick Barlow to Kelly Oubre Jr. Barlow is best as a help defender, while Oubre struggled to deal with Johnson’s physicality.

Johnson repeatedly turned the corner off the dribble and leveraged his speed and strength to create advantages for himself and others. Philadelphia struggled to find a balance between knowing when to help and when to stay home. All three of his fourth-quarter assists came from the Sixers watching the ball in no-man’s land—a trend that has plagued them all season.

Jalen Johnson exploited the #Sixers lackadaisical off-ball defense at crucial moments in the fourth quarter: pic.twitter.com/Rt8Eu1WoHF
— Jacob Moreno (@jacob_moreno_) March 8, 2026

Philadelphia’s backline couldn’t provide relief either, as Johnson got by Andre Drummond in drop coverage. The Sixers also botched several zone coverages, which put them out of position to help on his drives.

Johnson averaged 30 points, 11 rebounds and 7.8 assists in four meetings against the Sixers this season. The Sixers may find defensive success with their turnover-predicated style versus other teams. But when they face a do-it-all forward like Johnson who can expose their structural flaws, they find themselves in trouble.

It is no coincidence that Philadelphia lost all four of its games against Atlanta this season.

The Sixers (34-29) have fallen to eighth place in the Eastern Conference and might have to face the Hawks (33-31) again in the play-in tournament. Even if they avoid Atlanta, they're 2-5 versus the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers, both of whom boast top-six offensive ratings and are in the bottom half of the NBA in turnovers per game.

In other words, it's looking increasingly likely that the Sixers won't last long in the postseason—assuming they make it there at all.

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