Following an impressive home win over the Steph Curry-less Golden State Warriors on Saturday evening, the Atlanta Hawks entered Sunday in a favorable situation. The Hawks were on the second night of a back-to-back, but the Philadelphia 76ers were on the other side of the floor on this evening. In short, Philadelphia's roster situation is rather dire, with players like Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Paul George, and Kelly Oubre unavailable, and that led to the reality that Atlanta was a bigger betting favorite (10.5 points) in Sunday's game than the team had been all season.
Still, nothing is ever assured in the NBA, as double-digit favorites can (and will) lose on occasion, and the Hawks are a walking example of that, having beaten both Cleveland and Boston in similar circumstances this season. However, Atlanta avoided any desolatory fate with a 132-119 victory over Philadelphia on Sunday, and the team did it with lights-out shooting.
The Hawks finished the night shooting 55.2 percent from the field, 45.9 percent from 3-point range, and 86.4 percent from the free throw line in the game. That amounted to a 68.3 percent true shooting mark, which was the second-highest shooting efficiency performance for the team this season. While some of that can be attributed to facing a shaky 76ers defense, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder was pleased with the process behind Atlanta's approach.
Quin Snyder is happy the Hawks offense right now
"I think we've started to shoot the ball better," Snyder said after the win. "We were getting open shots earlier in the season. I think we led the league in qSQ (Quantified Shot Quality) rating. We were getting good looks. But it's affirming, I think, when the ball goes in and the guys can understand some of things we're doing. There is a purpose to it, and they have been embracing that."
Atlanta also performed well on the offensive glass, producing 17 second-chance points even on a night when there were not a ton of second-chance opportunities due to elite first-shot performance. However, the Hawks did have one rather glaring offensive weakness, and it came in the form of ball security. Atlanta finished with 17 turnovers that led directly to 27 points for Philadelphia, and that hiccup played a part in the team's 27-point second half lead being trimmed to 10 in the fourth quarter. While it did not cause a disastrous loss, Snyder and Trae Young both pointed to turnover issues that need to be cleaned up for the Hawks.
Young led the way individually, as he often does, with 28 points on 17 shooting possessions to go along with a game-best 12 assists. Young now has more total assists (753) this season than in any other season of his career, and the 26-year-old holds a comfortable lead for the NBA assist title, averaging 11.4 per game this season.
Elsewhere, No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher exploded for 16 points in a seven-minute span during the third quarter. He singlehandedly out-scored the 76ers over that stretch, and Risacher is averaging 14.7 points on 52.2 percent shooting and 45.0 percent from three-point range over the last 24 games.
Efficient offense was certainly the lead story for the Hawks on this night, but Atlanta did enough to bother the Zombie Sixers on defense for most of the night. Dyson Daniels captains the Hawks on that side of the ball, and he produced five steals in the game. Daniels became the youngest player in the NBA since at least the 1973-74 season to rack up 200 total steals in a season, and he has 11 more games to increase that whopping total.
In the grand scheme, Sunday's performance was not uber-elite from the Hawks, and it is fair to wonder how comfortable of a win it would have been against a better opponent. With that said, Atlanta simply took care of business against a team it should beat, and the Hawks improved to 35-36 on the season with this win. That places the Hawks two games ahead of the Orlando Magic for the Southeast Division lead. As April nears, Atlanta is the favorite to enter the Play-In Tournament as the No. 7 seed, and that is no small feat given the season-ending injury to the team's second-best player, Jalen Johnson.