Hawks at 76ers
The Atlanta Hawks are battling it out with the Chicago Bulls for the No. 5 spot in the Eastern Conference. The Hawks will try to make up some ground in that race when they visit the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday. The 76ers have little left to play for but did manage to secure a 101-90 victory at Atlanta on Friday before dropping their last two. The Hawks have lost three straight to slip a half-game behind Chicago.
Philadelphia put together one of its better stretches over the final week of March and into April, winning four of five capped by the victory at Atlanta. The last two games of the road trip did not go quite as well, and the 76ers are hoping to avoid sinking even further down in the East over the final five games. The Hawks are trying to figure out the difference between starting the playoffs at Brooklyn, as they likely would as the No. 5 seed, or at Indiana as the No. 6 team. They also have to worry about the Celtics creeping up from behind.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, SportSouth (Atlanta), Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia
ABOUT THE HAWKS (42-36): Atlanta allowed 40 first-quarter points to the 76ers last week and never recovered. The team was criticized by coach Larry Drew, who said: “Somewhere along the line we forgot who we need to be,” in reference to his team’s lack of a defensive identity of late. The Hawks followed that performance up with a 99-97 loss at San Antonio on Saturday with Josh Smith on the sidelines nursing a sore knee. Smith reportedly participated in practice on Tuesday and could be ready Wednesday along with Al Horford (hamstring), Kyle Korver (undisclosed), Devin Harris (foot) and DeShawn Stevenson (rest), who all of missed the loss at San Antonio. Smith had 19 points in the loss to the 76ers while Horford added 18 and 10 rebounds.
ABOUT THE 76ERS (31-46): Philadelphia took the Celtics to a seventh game in the Eastern Conference semifinals last spring and looked like a young team ready to take another step forward in 2012-13. But a summer trade that sent away Andre Iguodala and brought in an injured Andrew Byum turned out to be a disaster, and the 76ers have already been eliminated from playoff contention. Philadelphia held opponents to an average of 89.8 points during the five-game stretch from March 27-April 5 but has not been able to keep that defensive pace up in losses at Miami and Brooklyn. The 76ers were outscored by an average of 20 points in those last two contests. Road-weary Philadelphia has won four straight at home dating back to March 16.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Philadelphia has taken seven of the last eight in the series.
2. 76ers F Evan Turner has averaged 18 points in the last six games, including 24 against the Hawks.
3. Atlanta will get two straight at home after Wednesday before finishing the regular season at New York.