Their final moments weren't elegant, and they could have been the beneficiary of some extenuating circumstances surrounding the health of Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid, but the Atlanta Hawks are - improbably - only two games away from the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals.
Prior to March, the Hawks were 14–20 and were buried in 11th place in the East when management fired coach Lloyd Pierce and promoted Nate McMillan as his interim replacement. McMillan had inherited a young team that was talented and skilled but petulant and callous. Just a few weeks ago, teammates spoke openly about the team's aggressive approach, and Trae Young can be seen making his way through a string of bad losses.
But what McMillan may lack as a three-time casualty of the profession, is a coach who values order. Immediately, a Hawks team made to win began to win. Atlanta finished fourth on the streak from 11th in the vault with eight consecutive victories.
The Hawks' 103-100 victory over the 76ers in Game 4 on Monday night drew the second-round series to a 2-2 draw. The first half, surrounded by missed shots at point-blank range and sloppy defensive turns behind toothless double-teamers, revealed a squad that - for the third straight game - had yet to find that Embiid dominated and Young. How to deal with weaknesses Atlanta went down the half 62–49, making only a third of their first-half field goal attempts.
And it was worse than that: Young, who ruined the New York Knicks in the first round and continued his exploits in the Hawks' Game 1 victory in Philadelphia, was suffering a right shoulder injury. Black kinesiology tape was sewn to his shoulder, and while Young rested on the bench, it was wrapped with a second-grader-sized heat pack.
"I got hit last game, and it's been kind of painful," Young said after Monday's win. "For me, it wasn't bothersome; it was just like fighting through it knowing it was kind of a pain. I just tried to make it work and keep warm throughout the game."
Young's shooting didn't provide that warmth: He finished only 8-for-26 off the ground and 6-for-8 from the foul line. Shut out in the first quarter, Young won his first two field goals of the game by working the ball not as the primary ball handler but from the weaker side. He generated considerable heat as a distributor. He tied his NBA career as high as 18 assists. (He previously scored 18 against Philadelphia on January 31, 2020.) According to research by ESPN Stats & Information, Young became the sixth player in NBA history to score only 25 points and 40 points in a playoff game.
"Just like I do every game, I read what the defense gives me," Young said. "[The Sixers] are doing a lot of hedging and trapping. To me, it's okay, it's good. Now, it's about making the right play and open passes. It's really a lot of what they did. They We're just forcing me to, really, just release the ball too much."
Eighteen assists would have only scratched the surface if the Hawks had not endured such a wretched night shooting the ball. According to ESPN Stats & Info, the Hawks converted only 11-in-56 (19.6%) of their competition shots in Game 4, the highest post-season since ESPN began tracking all playoff games in 2014. Tied for the worst competitive shooting game in the world. Of the nine Hawks players who watched the minute, only center Clint Capella shot better than 40% off the floor.
For the Hawks, the win demonstrated the kind of maturity that defined the second half of their regular season. John Collins, who is seeking a hefty paycheck as a banned free agent but played exceptionally well for most of the playoffs and wreaked havoc on the Sixers after halftime, in the first half of Game 4. He trapped an offensive rebound, including a brutal putback for a slam and a crucial 3-pointer to cut the Sixers' lead, with 2:15 remaining in the contest.
"I thought Collins was the toughest guy on the floor all night," said Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers.
Turnovers are often the mark of less experienced or sophisticated teams, especially ones like the Hawks that don't rely on isolation. On Monday, Atlanta scored just four possessions, generating 101 field goal attempts. The Hawks also collected 82.2% of their defensive rebounds, a healthy total that helped limit the Sixers to single-shot attempts.
"It's a big reason why we won," Young said. "Even though we shot 30% in both [field goals and 3-pointers], we had over 100 assets [which ended in shot attempts]. That's big for us. We have a lot of guys who are making plays. can."
The Atlanta defense - who finished 23rd and 12th on March 1 after McMillan took the first chair - compensated for his incompetent night on offense. Although Embiid was clearly limited in the second half, during which he shot 0-for-12 from the field, Hawks was a more capable on-ball defender and a more active and opportunistic assist. Embiid's woes aside, the Hawks cut off entry into the second half more easily and restricted the Sixers to just eight points in the paint, while 15 of their 16 3-point attempts - 11 of them - were overwhelming.
"It was a great job by [Cappella] guarding [Embid] in isolation all night, trying to make every shot as hard as possible, plus the weak side and we were all on a string and our understood the game plan," Collins said.
The Hawks made an organizational statement in the off-season by investing heavily in veterans Bogdan Bogdanovic and Danilo Gallinari, and integrating Capella into their starting unit. It's still a franchise trying to reach the NBA Finals since it came to Atlanta 53 years ago, surrounded by much of that history with poor ownership. While Young enjoyed some formative moments during his first three seasons, he was traded for draft classmate Luka Doncic, who finished fourth in the MVP voting last summer.
Yet in June 2021, the Hawks are one of only seven squads remaining in the NBA playoffs, even with a team that is the top seed for the majority of the regular season. If this looks like a consolation prize for a team in a rebuilt third season, the Hawks are consoled enough as they head back to Philadelphia for Game 5.