It's amazing the air of invincibility a good win can give you. Going into last night's game against the Hawks, I was still riding such a high from the W against the Timberwolves one outing earlier that I thought maybe we could take 'em. A 21-15 team that moves the ball and has bigs that can shoot (and that put 127 on us the last time we played)? Sure, we got this. Well, maybe not — the Hawks went on a 17-0 run going into the second quarter, and the Sixers never threatened again, losing by a final score of 126-98.
The Sixers had 'em for a quarter, anyway, getting out to a 21-15 lead where it seemed like we could keep up with these guys in the full and half-court. But then just like in the Clippers game, the Hawks hit a three at the buzzer to win the quarter, 22-21, and from there they were pretty much unstoppable, scoring 39 in the second quarter and putting the game out of reach by halftime. It's clear that what the Sixers still really struggle with is defending consistently against a team that both pushes and moves the ball — they're just not organized or experienced enough yet to play smart D against a team that keeps the pressure on like that. (Particularly Jahlil Okafor, natch, but he was far from the only problem in that second quarter.)
At least Jahlil helped make up for it on the offensive end in this one, powering his way to 21 and 7 on 9-16 shooting in about 27 minutes. In five games since returning from his sore knee injury, he's averaging 15 and six on 58% shooting in under 22 minutes a game — you wish he was rebounding more, especially since no one besides Nerlens Noel really is on the Sixers right now, but he's been more potent a scorerlately than he's been pretty much all season. Not too much else to say about this one, though at least Robert Covington hit a couple threes in garbage time — maybe that helps get our long-slumping wing back on track somehow.
Back to it tomorrow against the Raptors, Game Two in a brutal four-game homestand that the Sixers are hosting against the Eastern Conference's elite. At least we haven't had to play the Warriors yet.