Atlanta Hawks use second-half surge to top Sixers, 104-95, and exploit Joel Embiid’s foul trouble

ATLANTA — Dejounte Murray had nobody blocking his path to the basket. Yet the Hawks guard still opted for the highlight play and flipped the ball back to trailing teammate Onyeka Okongwu for the rim-rocking two-handed slam.

That sequence epitomized how the Hawks built an ultimately insurmountable lead against the 76ers, who lost 104-95 at State Farm Arena, falling to 5-7 in what remains a clunky start to the 2022-23 season.

“With each miss, the frustration, you could literally see it,” coach Doc Rivers said. “It led to no passing, and then it really leaked in on the defensive end.”

The final minutes did feature some unexpected drama, however.

The Sixers got within 100-94 when, after Rivers had emptied his bench, Shake Milton went 1-of-2 from the free-throw line with about two minutes to play. But Murray answered with a bucket and, after Rivers re-inserted starters Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris, John Collins followed an Embiid free throw with high-flying alley-oop dunk with less than a minute remaining.

The Hawks used a 25-11 run to close the third quarter — capped by a falling, high-arcing jumper by superstar nemesis Trae Young — to turn a 55-55 tie into a 14-point advantage going into the final period. After a brief spurt by the Sixers to get within eight, at 82-74, the Hawks answered with seven consecutive points to prompt a Rivers timeout to try to quell the run.

The Sixers coach was forced to call another about a minute later, after Justin Holiday knocked down a three-pointer before Okongwu’s authoritative finish pushed Atlanta’s advantage to a game-high 20 points at 94-74 with less than eight minutes to play.

The Hawks’ burst began with Embiid on the bench with four fouls. Following the game, the two-time MVP runner-up said, “in those situations, I feel like I really don’t have anything to lose. I should be on the floor.

“I think I’m smart enough to not foul,” he added. “But I thought that’s probably when the game changed. They went on that run, and we could never get it back. ...

“I trust whatever my teammates and my coaches say. Tonight, it just happened to be, at the time, probably the wrong decision.”

The teams shot an ugly combined 12-of-56 from three-point range — including a 4-for-32 start — and hovered around 40% from the floor until the Atlanta’s late surge. Rivers, though, was more upset that the Sixers had more turnovers (17) than assists (15) and that the “lack of point guard play I think was really clear tonight” with James Harden missing his third consecutive game with a strained foot tendon.

Seven of those turnovers came from Embiid, who finished with 26 points and 13 rebounds. Maxey totaled 15 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds but shot 5-of-17 from the floor in what is now a three-game shooting slump. Clint Capela had 18 points and 20 rebounds for the Hawks.

Rivers played a 10-man rotation Thursday, clearly mindful of attempting to slow down Young. Matisse Thybulle was the first sub, relieving fellow defensive standout De’Anthony Melton about midway through the first quarter. Paul Reed was the backup center over Montrezl Harrell for the second consecutive game, entering later in the first with Georges Niang.

Milton then came into the game with less than two minutes to go the first, before Danuel House started the second quarter in his return from a non-COVID illness that kept him out of the previous two games. Embiid played stretch at the top of the second quarter with Melton, Milton, House and Niang.

In the second half, however, House re-entered the game before Thybulle. Niang also shifted to center when Embiid came out in the third, before Reed entered late in the quarter.

Young finished with 26 points, continuing to catapult himself up the Hawks’ all-time scoring list in his fifth NBA season.

Coincidentally, he was on the same floor as the former Atlanta player he passed for 16th on those rankings Thursday: Rivers. The Sixers coach scored 7,357 points during his Hawks career from 1983-91, a mark Young tied with a floater early in the first quarter and then eclipsed with a free throw about a minute later.

For the third time in their first 13 games, the Sixers will play the same opponent in consecutive contests when they face the Hawks at the Wells Fargo Center.

They split the first two instances. The Sixers lost at the Toronto Raptors on Oct. 26 before winning (without Embiid) two nights later. They then beat the Wizards in Washington on Halloween, before falling at home two nights later.

Rivers said before Thursday’s game that he had mixed feelings on the scheduling quirk, especially when it’s a home-and-home and does not eliminate travel for either team.

“I don’t think two good teams want to play the same team back-to-back, because it’s hard to win both,” Rivers said. " … I like the competitive part of it [when you’re the team that loses the first game].”