The Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Atlanta Hawks at home but it wasn’t a very reassuring victory. The Sixers won 125-114 but made it about as hard as they possibly could have against a Hawks team missing Trae Young due to illness.

Joel Embiid tallied 38 points, 14 rebounds, four blocks and three assists while Tyrese Maxey had 30 points and seven assists. De'Anthony Melton had a decent outing with 15 points, six rebounds and five assists. Three Hawks had at least 20 points, led by De'Andre Hunter's 24, while Clint Capela notched 16 rebounds (including 10 on the offensive end) and 15 points.

Like the Sixers' recent win over the Washington Wizards, they played awful defense but got bailed out by star power. Philly has taken care of business so far in perhaps the easiest portion of its schedule but while the results are good, the way they have come about is rough. Let's jump into the film.

5. Making it easier for Maxey

The fourth quarter became Maxey time for the Sixers. After a so-so first half, Maxey really turned it on and got Philly the points it needed to stay ahead.

At the start of his dominant stretch, Nick Nurse ran a nifty play with various actions to get him an open look. It starts with Patrick Beverley bringing the ball up and dishing it to Marcus Morris Sr., who goes into a dribble handoff with Kelly Oubre Jr. Meanwhile, Beverley and Mo Bamba are setting pindown screens for Maxey. It's a great way to get Maxey open on the perimeter while occupying the other defenders.

Since Maxey's defender tries to go over the screen to meet Maxey at a spot, Onyeka Okongwu has to run out to force Maxey off the three-point line. The slithery scorer gets to the paint in the blink of an eye and finishes through contact.

The charge call on the floor was overturned, giving Maxey two of his 16 fourth-quarter points. Nurse also came through on this play with a successful challenge. His rotations in this game were questionable but he came through in key moments to help secure the win, too.

4. Too much stuff, not enough space

The Sixers' offense can sometimes become too clunky and get in its own way. While these lapses in sharpness aren’t enough to knock them down from the top two in offensive rating, they often require a bailout. Embiid does just that on this play at the start of the second half.

Tobias Harris' slot cut to the middle of the floor with Embiid in the post would have been worthwhile if the Hawks didn’t have a second defender shading over to Embiid. Batum recognizes that and makes a smart opening for a pass by setting what is essentially a flare screen. Maxey is wide open in the corner as a result of Batum's improvisation and squares up to prepare for a potential pass.

Embiid does have a skip pass here to Maxey that he could make, though it is a bit tough. Murray, the closest opponent to Maxey, would seemingly have a tough time going from boxing out Batum to contesting the corner triple. With Atlanta having a second defender in Embiid's driving lane, he should know that someone is open somewhere as a result. But Embiid is trying to get it to Harris down low and either doesn’t see Maxey or isn’t sure enough to make the pass.

Instead of passing, Embiid waits for the defense to clear out and attacks the middle himself, drawing a shooting foul. A fine result was born out of a play where guys were all on different pages.

3. Building off of the simple stuff

The Sixers have a go-to action early in the clock where someone cuts behind Embiid at the top of the key for an easy shot. They run it for Harris often. When they go to the play late in the first half, the shot isn’t open and he instead creates offense with a drive.

Harris gets the ball here just as De'Andre Hunter looks to fight over the Embiid screen, giving him a slight step on Hunter, who he keeps on his hip. With the Hawks seemingly in a zone defense, Oubre has the baseline wide-open and makes a good cut. One of the best on the team at relocating off the ball and possessing the athleticism to finish at the basket in a number of ways, Harris finds the open man for a dunker-spot slam.

The going has been pretty rough for Harris as of late but he did have some nice moments in the second quarter when the Sixers could manufacture ways for him to attack the paint. These are the types of sets that can help him establish a rhythm on offense. Defense is a separate issue — one that reared its ugly head during the Hawks' 45-point second quarter.

2. Free looks at the rim

Nurse said that he played Mo Bamba over Paul Reed in the fourth quarter in the hopes of deterring the Hawks' high frequency of shots at the rim. But it wasn’t all Reed's fault. Harris was far more culpable because of his awful defense against Hunter, who averages 14.8 points per game but had 13 points in the second quarter.

On one play, Harris got obliterated on a pindown. He was flatfooted as Hunter starts his cut and was left in the dust. Hunter is a solid shooter and thus is not someone who players want to go under screens too often. Harris could have gone under the screen and met Hunter at the spot since the pass was a bit late but, in fairness, that’s a very tough thing to read in real-time. It might have been better for Harris to just go under the screen anyway.

He is far from the only Sixers player who fails to stick around players on off-ball screens. The Wizards opened up a ton of floaters by curling off of pin-down screens like Hunter did.

Reed gets called for the foul here despite what appears to be a guarding position that could have been called either way. Hunter getting such an open lane to the paint puts him in a tough spot anyway. He also got another easy driving opportunity by beating Harris badly in a pick-and-roll and by ghosting a screen and cutting right to the paint, forcing a defensive miscommunication.

Nurse's decision to fix the defense of the Sixers' second unit was to get a more traditional rim protector at center to make the Hawks less likely to shoot at the rim. But while Bamba is a bigger presence at the rim than Reed, the guys around the center, regardless of who it is, have to all be much better.

1. Now THAT'S good defense

The Sixers' defense has been a problem as of late — ranking 26th in defense over the last two weeks — but this possession from the fourth quarter inspires hope that they can become a good defense for a prolonged stretch of the season.

With eight seconds left on the shot clock, the Sixers make a wise decision to pressure the ball high up the court. Embiid matches Bogdanovic and uses the out-of-bounds line to create a de facto trap, forcing a pocket pass. Embiid flipping his hips to get back to the middle of the floor, especially after twisting his knee earlier in the game, is a great display of hustle and determination. He's right there to contest a drive (even if from behind) after being right near the sideline.

Oubre does his job of being the low man very well. He's right there to make sure Capela doesn’t have a driving lane as Embiid comes over to cover him. But he also knows he has to get over to the corner and makes his way over there as soon as the pass starts. As soon as Capela looks at Saddiq Bey, Oubre's knees and feet are pointing that way.

Bey sticks one foot in front of the other — which he kind of does on his normal shot release but always not to this degree — and gets clipped by Oubre, who isn’t whistled for a foul. Embiid finishes off the possession with a rebound. These are the types of sequences the Sixers have to perform more of.