The Atlanta Hawks survived a double overtime encounter with the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday night, securing the 142-134 victory at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Jalen Johnson posted a new-career high of 41 points to go with 14 rebounds and seven assists. Nickeil Alexander-Walker added 34 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists. For the Sixers, Tyrese Maxey scored 44 points, and Quentin Grimes added 28 points.
In a closely contested affair for three quarters when neither team led by more than nine points at any stage, the Hawks faced their biggest deficit of nine points towards the end of the third quarter. The reintroduction of Alexander-Walker — as it was in the first half — was key in the Hawks overturning this lead, and in the fourth quarter the Hawks open with a 11-0 run, producing multiple defensive stops over and over in the fourth quarter.
The Hawks did not shoot the ball well in the fourth quarter, shooting 33%, but they held the Sixers to a similar percentage (38.5%) and contested shots well on the perimeter, and defended the Sixers late into the shot clock often. Not to mention, the Hawks came up with five steals in the fourth quarter alone.
A number of these steals came to begin the fourth, such as this drive from Maxey, which is disrupted by Mo Gueye, leading to a turnover and a fastbreak basket by Alexander-Walker:
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On another drive by Justin Edwards, Onyeka Okongwu telegraphs the pass back out to the perimeter, setting up another fastbreak opportunity. This time Alexander-Walker finds Vit Krejci who is fouled at the rim for free throws:
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The Hawks did well to limit the Sixers to a number of perimeter shots, and contested those perimeter shots well.
On the Joel Embiid-Maxey give-and-give-back, Gueye doubles Embiid, and Krejci does well to adjust and fly out to Maxey on the return to contest the missed three:
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On a switch against Paul George, Okongwu does well to contest, getting a hand in George’s face, and the three is missed:
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Near the end of the clock, the Sixers shift the ball to Maxey, who turbos to the rim but is well challenged by Johnson, forcing the miss:
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Off the catch as the clock begins to wind down, Maxey gets Dyson Daniels off his feet but Johnson steps up to help Daniels, contesting the shot that Maxey has to let go, resulting in another miss from three:
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Free throws were…frequent in this game, and this was how the Hawks manage to extend their lead down the stretch in the fourth quarter. It was painful to watch all night long, but the upshot, eventually, was that — after a split pair of free throws from Daniels — the Hawks held a 114-108 lead with 39 seconds remaining. A strong position in which to be: a two-possession lead with 39 seconds left…the Hawks would have to work hard to let this one slip.
The Sixers spend 16 of those 39 remaining seconds missing a three from George in the corner before Embiid tips in the rebound to reduce the lead to four with 23 seconds remaining:
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A great scenario for the Hawks there; the three doesn’t fall, they’re still up by two possessions, the shot clock is off, and now they can extend the lead again. Johnson is fouled and, even after splitting the pair, the Hawks extend the lead to five points.
The Sixers push the ball up the floor, and George manages to turn the corner, drawing Johnson away from former Hawk Dominick Barlow. George wraps the pass for Barlow, who will score a certain two-pointer. This is fine, because the Hawks will still lead by three and can shoot more free throws, only needing one to push the lead back up to two possessions. Johnson, however, gets off his feet and ends up fouling Barlow on the made basket:
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This was a really poor decision from Johnson, especially in hindsight. The play was essentially decided when George turned the corner and drew Johnson’s attention, leaving Barlow with an easy two. Johnson ending up on Barlow’s back just compounds how silly this play was, and Snyder’s reaction on the sideline provides an accurate summary.
Off the free throw, Barlow misses, the Sixers grab the rebound and kick it out to Maxey, who finally connects on a three-pointer (shooting 2-of-13 from three in the game) to tie the game:
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Tough on Johnson, who is bodied by George underneath the rim to establish a better rebounding position, who grabs the all-important rebound, setting up the three. It also compounds the Hawks throwing away a strong, advantageous situation all caused by a pointless foul underneath the basket by Johnson, undoing a lot of the good work he had done up to this point because if the Hawks had lost this game this stretch would obviously have been defining.
“The last 30 seconds, what could go wrong did go wrong,” said Dyson Daniels. “I missed a free throw, I think JJ missed one, Quentin Grimes missed a three, they got an offensive rebound. We’ve got to be better, we’ve got to boxout, we’ve got to come back and crackdown on that boxout to help JJ down there. It was hard to defend the three-point line when they got the kick-out, Maxey made a big shot…”
“There was a lot of things in that last minute that could have been better that got us to double overtime,” added Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
The Hawks, however, had one more chance to win the game, and Daniels does well to maneuver his way beyond Embiid, but leaves his attempt offline, giving the Sixers a chance to now win the game. Nick Nurse’s calls for timeout go unheard, and George heaves from halfcourt, misses, and to overtime we go:
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Daniels did the hard part in shedding Embiid, but the finish eludes him. The Hawks could count themselves lucky the Sixers didn’t get their timeout — which they were unlucky not to get.
First overtime saw the Sixers take a two point lead in the final minute, and out of a timeout with 14 seconds remaining, Johnson drives to the rim but is contested, misses at the rim, and the Sixers now have control of this game: a chance to go up by four points with eight seconds remaining:
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Maxey, however, misses both free throws, giving the Hawks a chance. Sure enough, Johnson is able to draw the foul on Barlow, earning a chance to tie the game with 0.3 remaining on the clock:
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Johnson dispatches both free throws under enormous pressure, delivering the Hawks a lifeline in this game that looked like it had slipped away mere seconds earlier; to second overtime we go!
Second overtime saw the Hawks find some form from three-point range, each three hugely important in their own right.
The first comes from Alexander-Walker, who converts on a three after the Hawks tap out the offensive rebound from Krejci off of a Johnson miss:
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It wouldn’t be long before Johnson would finally see a shot go down in 2OT, facilitated by Alexander-Walker as he engages in the pick-and-roll with Okongwu, with Barlow making the wrong read on where the play was going next (gambling that the ball would be delivered to Okongwu on the roll), and Johnson receives the ball from Alexander-Walker and hits the three:
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Johnson gets a better look at another three off of the find by Okongwu on the drive, and Johnson is afforded all the time he needs to set himself and hit the three, giving the Hawks a commanding six-point lead in overtime:
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I have no idea what the Sixers were thinking here. I can only imagine they thought Okongwu (who was 0-of-7 from three) was shooting because, otherwise, why would they just allow Johnson an open three at this stage? Johnson was 3-of-7 from three before this shot, and had scored 38 points already… it’s baffling, the lack of urgency at this stage of the game.
Alas, control was now in the Hawks’ hands and, this time, they see the job through and take the 142-134 victory. Postgame, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder praised his side’s perseverance as the Hawks endured heavy minutes across their starting lineup, with Okongwu playing 47 minutes.
“It was more about perseverence than it was about poise,” said Snyder postgame. “When we didn’t have poise, or made mistakes, we were able to move forward and made enough plays when it counted. We put ourselves in a position, as did they, and we’re just happy it went our way. It was a gritty game for our group, and that’s a group of guys who haven’t been in games like that. It’s a pretty young group we have out there.”
“It was a tough, grit it out win,” added Jalen Johnson. “We just did what we needed to do down the stretch.”
Despite being pleased with the victory, Snyder acknowledged the Hawks made many mistake, citing the frequency of which Atlanta put the Sixers to the free throw line, leading to 38 free throw attempts. This, Snyder described, impacted the Hawks’ ability to get out in transition.
“We made mistakes, it started in the third quarter with all the fouling,” said Snyder of the Sixers comeback. “That’s tough on us because it doesn’t give us a chance to run. If you’re taking the ball out of the net you can still try to push the pace, but free throws are hard. It affects your ability to defend aggressively. We didn’t rebound, we turned the ball over. Those two things, usually for this group, impacts us in the most negative way. We didn’t get deflated. The perseverance the guys showed, when you feel you’ve got the game and you’re in another overtime, and you feel you get the advantage and you make some mistakes, or they make some plays. A good and important win for a young group of guys to come together. Onyeka doesn’t make a three but does a lot of really good things. We don’t get discouraged, that was the big thing for us.”
Jalen Johnson’s free throws to end the first overtime period and perimeter shots in 2OT made up for his blunder at the end of regulation, and it’s good to see that career-night for Johnson came in a win. Johnson finished with 41 points on 1-of-21 from the field, 4-of-8 from three, and 17-of-22 from the line.
“I think he’s doing the same things,” said Snyder of Johnson’s career-night. “He’s making quick decisions, not hesitating to shoot the ball when he’s open, which sets up a lot of other things. When you talk to him, he’ll notice his turnovers. He’s capable in those situations of making the right reads, but that’s part of it. That’s been the exciting thing about the things he’s doing: when he’s made mistakes he hasn’t let it get to him, he’s responded and adjusted. That’s the sign of a more mature player when you’re able to make adjustments during the game. He’s as happy as anyone about the win because he’s the guy we’re playing through most of the time late in the game. We’re trusting him to make a play, and that’s the thing he’s embracing.”
Johnson was a little sloppy with the ball at times (six turnovers) and forced a couple of shots in the fourth/overtime, but prior to that he had done a fantastic job of letting the game come to him and picking his spots in the natural flow of the game. It’s, generally, a big step in Johnson’s game last season where he would, at times, try to do too much and force the issue. This year, this is much improved and last night was a great example of that. He’s emerged as a leader and his play has backed that up in the fourth quarter. Mistakes were made at the end of regulation, but in both overtimes Johnson stepped up when the Hawks needed him, speaking to the ‘perseverance’ Snyder spoke of earlier.
Johnson’s continued success isn’t a surprise to any of his teammates.
“I’m not really surprised,” said Alexander-Walker of how he’s observed Johnson. “I have been given the opportunity to observe as a professional, as a person, teammate. How he carries himself, how he handles his approach to taking care of his body, working on his game and craft. I’ve been able to notice great strides even in that, which is what leads to here. For me personally, having to do a lot of work behind the scenes to get to my position, I know what that feels like for him and so watching it, seeing it, it makes a lot of sense because he’s dedicated to his craft. He’s just very dedicated at what he does, and it’s starting to show. He doesn’t really force much, he takes what’s there, he plays confident and we have confidence in him.”
Alexander-Walker himself was excellent in this contest, too: 34 points on 11-of-22 from the field, 6-of-11 from three, and 6-of-6 from the free throw line. Alexander-Walker was another player who let this game come to him. I thought he was actually a bit slow to open this game, but he certainly found his form in the second half where 27 of his 34 points arrived.
As has been the case during this stretch without Trae Young and Kristaps Porzingis, the Hawks’ starting five all contributed with double-digit scoring, with Daniels adding 17 points, Zaccharie Risacher adding 12 points, and Okongwu adding 10 points and 13 rebounds. Mo Gueye provided a good lift off the bench in the first half, scoring 13 points, but the bench impact in this game was difficult.
When Alexander-Walker was off the floor, the production was poor, not helped by Luke Kennard’s illness, with Snyder revealing postgame he was throwing up at halftime — it was surprising to see him again in the second half after being ruled questionable to return in the first half. He deserved to be commended for giving it a go and did dish five assists.
The Sixers have been a surprise in the Eastern Conference with their play, so this was a quality victory for the Hawks (13-8) in the end on the first night of a back-to-back. With the heavy minutes played and on the road in Detroit (16-4) tonight, it may provide the Hawks an ample opportunity to perhaps rest some players in a game where the Hawks will be up against it before the jump ball.
Until next time!
