76ers at Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks have seen their offense take a dive in December, especially the last three games. The Hawks have a great opportunity to snap their three-game slide and get the offense back firing on all cylinders when the lowly Philadelphia 76ers visit on Wednesday.
Atlanta fell off against some of the better teams in the league and managed an average of 86.7 points in losses to Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Miami in the last three games. That continued a trend that has seen the Hawks reach 100 points once this month – a 100-87 victory over the lowly Los Angeles Lakers. That should all change against the 76ers, who own the worst record in the NBA and are allowing opponents to score an average of 103.3 points while their own offense posts far and away the worst scoring average in the league (90.6). Philadelphia is winless on the road and is playing the finale of a three-game trip after falling to Toronto and Chicago by a total of 39 points.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, CSN Philadelphia, FSN Southeast (Atlanta)
ABOUT THE 76ERS (1-25): Philadelphia searches for positives daily and needs only to look in the direction of rookie Jahili Okafor to get excited about the future. The Duke product, who turned 20 on Tuesday, scored at least 22 points in each of the last four games. “It’s clear he is someone special,” 76ers coach Brett Brown told reporters of Okafor. “He navigates well on the court, and is very coachable. Now, we want him to grow to be a voice of the team. Being a leader is in him.”
ABOUT THE HAWKS (14-12): Atlanta has lost 11 of 18 since beginning the season 7-1 and shot 39.3 percent from the field in Monday’s 100-88 loss to Miami. Jeff Teague and Kyle Korver combined to go 4-of-24 from the field, and both failed to score in double figures in either of the last two contests. “Obviously we are not playing well,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer told reporters. “We are going to have to find a way to fight through this, to work through this. I think it’s going to be a call of our character, a call of our work ethic. We’ll have to get after it.”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. 76ers F Nerlens Noel (corneal abrasion) sat out Monday and is not expected to play on Wednesday.
2. Hawks F Kent Bazemore joined the starting lineup on Monday and is averaging 17.2 points on 52.5 percent shooting in the last five games.
3. Philadelphia snapped a seven-game losing streak in the series with a 92-84 win in the last meeting on March 7.