NBA 2022/23, Sunday, 11/13/2022
Just two days after the last clash between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Atlanta Hawks, the rematch takes place tonight. This time, however, the venue is the Wells Fargo Center and no longer the State Farm Arena in the state of Georgia.
The Sixers brought in James Harden last season to give Joel Embiid the support on the opposing board that he now lacks. In fact, in my 76ers Hawks tip, I go into how much the loss of “The Beard” is currently affecting the Phillies.
James Harden’s injury – who won’t be able to play for at least a month – has had a big impact on the Sixers’ performance on the floor. With “The Beard” they probably wouldn’t have lost the match against the Hawks.
In the end, however, it remained 104 to 95 for Atlanta and a record of now 1:2 in the three games in which James Harden was absent for the Phillies. Moreover, the once vaunted offensive rating was only 99.3 in that period.
In short, Philadelphia are struggling going forward, unable to compensate for the absence of one of their key players – Joel Embiid alone simply isn’t enough to strike fear into an opponent like Atlanta.
Tyrese Maxey was expected to fill the vacuum left by Harden, but his shooting of 29.7% over his last three outings and especially his three-point percentage of 26% are not exactly the best.
Maxey is trying more and more to create the offensive, but so far he is not making a positive impact – but also the rest of the team is not doing enough.
During the last three games, the collective shooting was only 38.6% and only 6 of 30 three-point attempts found their target. The best indication that the offense isn’t working? The Sixers committed more turnovers (17) than they produced assists (15).
Joel Embiid had a passable night against the Hawks with 26 points, but he alone isn’t enough to get on the board against the red and white in a similarly imposing fashion as he did last year.
Without James Harden, the Cameroonian gets too little support. I have already discussed Tyrese Maxey’s mediocre impact on the offensive line, which leaves the strong-playing Paul Reed.
The problem with “BBall Paul”, however, is that he is a foul machine. No wonder the Sixers currently have a record of 5-7. Of course, it’s still too early to make a prediction, but right now they wouldn’t even make it into the play-in tournament.
The picture is quite different for the Hawks, whose entire starting five scored double-digit points against the Sixers, showing that they can shoulder the load evenly.
Trae Young had a strong game with 26 points, while Clint Capela and De’Andre Hunter provided valuable support with 18 and 14 points respectively – and the aforementioned trio was also convincing on the defensive end.
Symptomatic of the Hawks’ much more fluid offensive play was Trae Young’s alley-oop to John Collins, with the pass coming from his own half of the court, which drew thunderous applause from the stands.
The best sports bettors when it comes to the NBA probably didn’t realise that the last head-to-head duel was directional to correctly interpret the course of the game in the rematch.
Because the current 76ers Hawks odds assign the “Falcons”, who were victorious just a few days ago, odds of an inflated 2.35 if they win again. I’ll take that one in a heartbeat!
Duels between the two franchises, by the way, are usually characterised less by offence and more by strong defensive basketball.
Consequently, it is to be expected that a sub-210-point bet, as can be placed with providers such as Bet365, has just as good a chance of success as my 76ers Hawks tip.
After all, none of the last three head-to-head duels have ever broken the 200-point barrier.
Conclusion: The Sixers’ negative record after several NBA weeks already says it all. In the month ahead, with James Harden missing due to injury, expect the number of losses to continue to climb.
The Hawks, meanwhile, celebrated a well-deserved victory over the 76ers a few days ago, which was highly deserved and makes me optimistic that the red and white will also win the rematch in Philadelphia.
First and foremost, we can expect another low-scoring game, but that’s exactly why I see Atlanta ahead in the end. Their starting five, which is much better in harmony, defends its own half-court much better than the Sixers.
My 76ers Hawks tip: Atlanta wins the doubleheader!
