76ers to Try and Catch Fire Nearing the end of the Season

Coming off of a very commanding 31 point win against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the 76ers sit 1.5 games behind the Brooklyn Nets right now for the 1st seed in the Eastern Conference, and will be hosting the Atlanta Hawks Wednesday evening at the Wells Fargo Center. In their previous, and first matchup of the season, the Hawks walked away victorious against a very short handed 76ers team without Ben Simmons, Tobias Harris, and Seth Curry. The 76ers should look at this game as a must win in order to tie the season series up at 1, and have the tie breaker decided Friday night.

Unfortunately for the Hawks, some of their top guys are out for tonights game. 3 major names that are out for the Atlanta Hawks in tonights meeting is Trae Young, Cam Reddish, and De'Andre Hunter. Hunter and Reddish have been out of action since February, but Young recently suffered a high ankle sprain and has been out the last 3 games. Kevin Huerter of Atlanta is also a possibility for tonights game. With Young being out, and possibly Huerter, there is no excuse for the 76ers to lose tonights game as they are just simply the better team.

Now just because the 76ers are the better team, does not mean this will be a cakewalk. The Atlanta Hawks shoot a large amount of 3s due to having two fantastic shooters at the guard position. With Young out, this should make things a lot easier on our end. With huerter being a possibility, the 76ers need to game plan just as they would if he does or does not play.

They key to beating the Hawks is to play tough defense and limit the 3s. If the 76ers allow for Bogdanovic, Gallinari, Huerter, and Goodwin to chuck freely it could backfire quickly. Any team can catch fire from deep and consistently hit all game long as we've seen in many other games this season against the 76ers this season, and this Atlanta team is very capable of it.

Although this is a shorthanded Hawks team, the 76ers have to win this in order to even the season series up and also gain ground back on the Nets in hopes of reclaiming the 1st seed. The 76ers also miss Trae Young who seems to be our kryptonite, giving us more of a reason we should be able to win this game. If Simmons, Embiid, and Thybulle can anchor down on defense like they did against OKC this should be an easy game with some rest at the end.

Gametime: 7:00 PM

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