The Atlanta Hawks have a tall task ahead against a playoff team in the Philadelphia 76ers, but they will have to find a different way than to hurt them in transition. The Hawks' best hope to come out on top rests on running the floor and taking and making 3-pointers, and head coach Lloyd Pierce will give his team the ultimate green light to let them fly — even if it means hoisting 70 3-pointers.
“I’m not joking,” said Pierce, according to Ben Ladner of All Hawks. “We know this team is really gonna try and beat us up physically, so we want to beat them up with our pace and with our speed. We want to create opportunities that are early in the shot clock or move them defensively where we can get some 3s and some easy, uncontested shots like we had in the Toronto game. If we had 47 in that game, there’s no doubt in my mind we can get more tonight.”
The Sixers are a physical team with ample length, but out of all 30 teams the Hawks should be the last to hoist that many 3-point bombs. Atlanta is dead-last in 3-point field goal percentage and that is while attempting a healthy 35.6 threes per game.
Doubling that amount would only bring plenty of more bricks for a top-10 defensive rebounding team to ensnare away, quickly putting the game away.
Unless Trae Young starts to heat up on one of those nights, the Hawks will be best off looking for the right opportunities instead of ill-advisedly jacking up a high volume of three-pointers to gain an advantage. Otherwise, Pierce could be in for a long night against a Sixers team that has won six of its last seven games and looks to get Joel Embiid back soon.
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