The Atlanta Hawks were here before. In fact, they didn't even need to go that far to remember the same situation.
In Game 5 of their series against the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night, Atlanta was staring at a 26-point deficit as it tried to take advantage in an Eastern Conference semifinal matchup.
On Monday, Atlanta was trailing 18 before returning for the win. So why couldn't the Hawks do it again?
"There's no losing," Atlanta coach Nate McMillan said after his team's 109-106 win in Philadelphia. "We always talk about playing a 48-minute game. It's a long game. And it took all 48 minutes tonight to get it done."
And as they did in Game 4, the Hawks made an impossible comeback to take a 3-2 series lead with Friday's Game 6 at home.
How impossible was the victory? According to ESPN Stats & Information Research:
- Philadelphia became the only team to lose back-to-back 18-point leads in playoff games over the past 25 seasons.
- The Hawks overcame a 22-point halftime deficit, the third-largest halftime rally in post-NBA history.
- 76 players were 165–0 in the last 25 seasons, when leading by at least 25 points at any point in the game (regular season or playoffs).
- At one point, Philadelphia had a win probability percentage of 99.7 (the highest was 95.5% in Game 4).
Atlanta trailed 24 in the third quarter with a 2:10, but a quick 8-2 run set the tone for the big fourth quarter. In the final quarter, Atlanta defeated Philadelphia 40–19.
Hawks guard Trae Young, who finished with 39 points and moved up to 19 of 17 from the free throw line, said it was "very difficult" to picture a comeback when a team like Atlanta had weapons down to 26. No".
"We have guys who can hit shots and make threes and really push our offense. We can score points really fast," Young said. "I think in the beginning we were missing a lot of open shots and it was again one of those first halfs. Hopefully we shoot better tonight and at home [on Friday] than in the last game. We have always had a belief that we are in the game."
Actually, Hawks was missing the shot in the first half. Atlanta shot only 31% from the field in the first two quarters and went 3-of-12 from 3-point range. The Hawks shot a respectable 47.6% off the field in the third quarter, half of their 3, before scorching 16-for-22 off the field in the fourth.
For the Hawks duo of Danilo Gallinari and Lou Williams, it was something they had seen before. Two seasons earlier, they were both playing for the Dock Rivers-coached LA Clippers team that crossed a 31-point deficit against the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs—the biggest comeback in post-NBA history.
"I've already done it when we were down 31. And 26 is better than 31," Gallinari said. "I think you can do it as long as you believe, as long as everyone believes. That's been the main thing since the beginning of the season. When you believe and do your job, then Amazing things can happen."
Both played a big part in the return of the Hawks. Gallinari hit a hard fadeaway jumper in the final minute to top Atlanta 107-104, while it was Williams who got him there.
Williams, a 16-year-old NBA veteran who hails from the Atlanta area and began playing for Philadelphia in 2005, had 13 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter.
"These guys just don't have to give up," McMillan said. "We continued to stick with what we were trying to do. We eventually got a warm hand in the loo and found a rotation that worked for us. We were starting to stop and just keep living with it." "
As happy as the Hawks were after the win, the Sixers were distraught and looking for answers. Rivers said he felt the pace change in the early part of the second half.
"Although we maintained the lead, I think we had six turnovers in our first 10 properties to start the third quarter. That's why I called an early timeout," Rivers said. "You can see we breathed out, rested. The first unit was pretty good and Seth [Curry] got us into that stretch to keep the lead on 22. Where it could have very easily been on 30 if we Didn't turn the ball was over.
"And then, obviously, you had to take people out and the other group really struggled in the second half tonight. They were phenomenal in the first half, and then in the second half, they struggled. And then stretch down. Listen. , we scored 19 points and left 40. So it's on us. It's on all of us. It's on me. It's on the players. And we have to figure out how to get back up, and play this game. Bring it back. Here for Game 7."
In the last two seasons, the river-coached teams are 11-5 when they lead at least 16 points in a playoff game. Every other team in the NBA in that period is 76-3.
As part of their strategy to return to the game, Atlanta used the "hack-a-ben" technique against Sixers point guard Ben Simmons. In the second and fourth quarters, Simmons was deliberately sent over the line eight times - he went 3-of-8.
This isn't the first time the Hawks have picked Simmons and taken advantage of his free throws shooting this series. Simmons shot 61.3% in the season, but he was shooting 67.1% before the All-Star break and only 53.3% after that.
Following his 4-of-14 performance from the line on Wednesday, Simmons is now shooting 32.8% in the playoffs from Stripe.
When asked where Nozive came from in the latter part of the season, Simmons said, "Don't know. But I need to bring it back. It's on me."
Joel Embiid (37 points) and Curry (36 points) carried the offensive load for Philadelphia, but no other player scored more than eight points. Embiid and Curry were the only two players to field goals for the Sixers in the second half, and only Simmons added one in the final 31:34.
"We need to come together more, I think," said 76ers' Furkan Korkmaz. "It's the playoffs. They're taking advantage of every minute and I think that's the whole point of the game. You have to focus on all the positions. Every position matters. Every point counts."
Tobias Harris, who carried much of the scoring with Embiid in the first four games of the series, said the defeat was "hurtful."
"But tomorrow we have to put it behind us, find a way to get better," said Harris, who scored four points shooting 2-of-11. "Go to Atlanta and get the win. I mean, our backs are against the wall right now and that's how we have to play."
When the Sixers arrive in Atlanta, they will be met by a horde of Hawks who are trying to please their team in what will be only the franchise's second conference final since 1970.
As the Hawks look to Game 6, Young was asked if he paused to think about what the historic comeback meant.
"Not now. I can't now," Young said. "We've got to finish the job. Maybe we can hopefully kick it off in the next game after that. Then we can look back on it."