Philadelphia 76ers: You don’t beat the Atlanta Hawks by playing their way
Joel Embiid is the most dominant paint scorer in the NBA.
He’s a beast in the post-up, a crafty offensive mind with more moves than a bowl of Jello, and one of the few players league-wide who can call himself a plus-percentage shooter from every zone across the halfcourt with a straight face. Embiid has been so good that, according to FiveThirtyEight, he comes in as the second-best offensive center in the NBA and has the 16th best overall offensive Raptor score in the league.
Surely containing the NBA’s greatest “Troel” is not an easy task, but it does become a whole lot easier when you have a pair of dynamic paint performers who rank within the top-40 in defensive plus/minus, according to ESPN.
The Atlanta Hawks, unfortunately, fall into that category.
Boasting the second-best defensive center in the NBA according to FiveThirtyEight in Clint Capela, and a dynamic two-way power forward by the name of John Collins who can get things done at either end of the court, the Hawks have the pieces in place to at least make Embiid’s life a whole lot harder in the paint over a seven-game series, even if he still gets his like he often does.
The only problem? The Philadelphia 76ers might not have Joel Embiid for all of their second-round series against the Atlanta Hawks, and he might not be 100 percent when he does see the court. Why is this particularly important? Because the Sixers are not a team that scores a lot of points in a variety of different ways.
The Philadelphia 76ers have to attack the Atlanta Hawks on the wings.
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In the 2020-21 regular season, the Philadelphia 76ers scored 41.6 percent of their offensive points in any given game from the paint.
While that may not seem like a lot, as 16 other teams across the NBA scored more points on average from the restricted area, when you consider the team’s top three offensive options make the majority of their bones from inside the arc – even Tobias Harris, who takes 4.2 of his 7.6 shots from inside the arc – it becomes a rather notable issue when facing off against a pair of dynamic rim protectors.
Sub out Embiid, who draws double-teams like few others in the paint, and makes 50 percent of his shots from the midrange, and you suddenly have a team with a low-volume shooting outside shooter as their number one option and a non-shooting fast-break specialist as your number two option and a handful of role players who operate best off of the team’s established stars.
Heck, even Tyrese Maxey, the Sixers’ playoff wunderkind who has increasingly become a focal point of the offense when Embiid is off the court, has only taken five 3 pointers during his first postseason run and has been by far at his most effective when allowed to take shots from within 12 feet of the basket.
So, you may ask, what are the Sixers to do? They rank 26th league-wide in 3 point shooting attempts and 23rd in 3 pointers made, and even if they continue to hit their shots from beyond the arc at 37.4 percent clip, which ranked 10th league-wide during the regular season, teams don’t often get into shooting matches with Trae Young and live to tell the tale.
Four words: Play to their strengths.
Don’t have Embiid to post up to every time the offense settles into the halfcourt? Don’t try to do the same thing with Dwight Howard; try something else? Get down a few points to Young and company because the deep balls aren’t dropping? Don’t keep shooting; pick up points in the midrange and play hard-nosed defense to tighten things up.
Heck II, why not play the way you want to play and make the Hawks do the adjusting? The Sixers are one of the most lethal teams in the league at scoring off a fastbreak and possess a trio of guards who can generate turnovers at an unusually potent clip. Play up to that. The Sixers got complacent versus the Wizards in Game 4 and rapidly watched their chances of recording a sweep come down to Ben Simmons’ free throw shooting.
If the Sixers want to come out hot and set the tone for a Semifinals series on their home court, they need to come correctly for their opponent – aka understand the Atlanta Hawks’ strengths at both ends of the court.
Next. The Philadelphia 76ers have the chess pieces to slow down Trae Young. dark
Can the Philadelphia 76ers score on Clint Capela and John Collins? Yes. It might be harder than it was against Washington and maybe harder still depending on Joel Embiid’s status, but even Rudy Gobert has been known to drop 42 to a non-shooting guard who is really more of a passer than a scorer. But why try to force it when there are much easier paths worth traveling? The worst way to beat any team is to cater to their strengths instead of exploiting their weaknesses.