3 76ers most to blame for Game 5 collapse against Hawks

Ben Simmons

Ben Simmons’ shooting woes have been well-documented throughout his young NBA career. But after four years of playing, you would expect some improvement, especially in an important playoff game to give your team a 3-2 lead in the second round.

Simmons spent more time shooting from the free-throw line than he did from the field, where he went 2-for-4 on the night. The guard approached the charity stripe 14 times on Wednesday night, and he only converted four of them. Out of a possible 14 easy points for Simmons, he walked away with just four.

Playoff games can be won and lost at the free-throw line. For the 76ers, they lost mightily thanks in part to Simmons’ dreadful performance.

Tobias Harris

Tobias Harris had a great regular-season in terms of shooting from the field. Through 62 games played, Harris shot 51.2 percent. Surely the 76ers could count on him in an important playoff game!

Yeah, about that.

Harris had 11 shot attempts in 38 minutes of playing time, where he only made two of them for just 2 points. Things only got worse for Harris, and it had nothing to do with his stat line.

With the 76ers holding a slim lead of 104-98 with more than three minutes remaining in regulation, Harris made a bad pass, resulting in a steal from Atlanta’s Lou Williams. Embiid took a personal foul and Hawks star Trae Young hit a 18-foot pull-up jump shot to cut the deficit to 104-100. He also got his potential go-ahead shot blocked by John Collins at the 1:13 mark.

The 76ers have a chance to redeem themselves on Friday night to try and force Game 7. If they fail to do so, the team and fanbase will be unable to escape people discussing this epic, historic collapse.