Hawks fail to snap streak in 119-109 loss to Sixers

The Atlanta Hawks were once again in action Wednesday night against the young Philadelphia 76ers when they made the trip to the Wells Fargo Center for their only game in Philly this season. The Hawks came in on a six-game losing streak since winning their first game and looked to get a win against Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid’s Sixers.

The Hawks inactives for Wednesday’s game were DeAndre Bembry, who is rehabbing a broken wrist, and Miles Plumlee could return any day after dealing with a hamstring strain the last few weeks. Earlier this week, the Hawks released a statement saying Ersan Ilyasova would miss the next week or two dealing with a bone bruise on his left knee. Also on the injury report was Dennis Schroder, Marco Belinelli and Mike Muscala who all played tonight.

In the first quarter, the Sixers got off to a hot start from three-point land. Robert Covington especially for the 76ers did major damage from deep all-night long. The Hawks second unit of Isaiah Taylor, Malcolm Delaney and John Collins did some great work to get the Hawks back in the game to begin the second quarter. The Hawks new found spark plug Isaiah Taylor had 6 points in his vital minutes playing some good defense against Philadelphia’s young guards.

In the second quarter, Atlanta really flipped the momentum on the Sixers and got Dennis Schroder involved late in the quarter. With some much better perimeter defense the Hawks were able to claw their way back in the game going into halftime with just a two-point deficit. Dewayne Dedmon really had a good first half on both ends all while matching up against Joel Embiid most of the time.

Beginning the second half, the Hawks were aiming to avoid the flat start to the third quarter that fans have become accustomed to seeing and Dennis Schroder did just that getting his point total up to 20 by the end of the quarter. The Hawks went back and forth with the Sixers in lead changes in the third with Luke Babbitt giving the Hawks some valuable minutes in the third. For the Sixers it was Ben Simmons taking his drives to the rim that kept them in the game. Going into the fourth the Hawks and Sixers were all knotted up at 93.

The Hawks came into the fourth quarter super sluggish but thankfully so did the 76ers. With a little over four minutes left to play the Hawks were down by ten and with no John Collins, who guarded Joel Embiid great all night long, the Sixers big man took advantage of the Hawks down low. Ben Simmons with his great size continued to pound the Hawks inside late and with no one able to stop the Simmons/Embiid tandem the Sixers walked away with an easy victory late.

For the Hawks, guard Malcolm Delaney was forced to leave the game in the second quarter with an ankle sprain.

John Collins fouled out midway through the fourth quarter and starter Dewayne Dedmon had five fouls to end the game. The Hawks will try to end their seven game losing streak against the Houston Rockets Friday night.