Philadelphia 76ers 117 Atlanta Hawks 83

Boxscore

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
PHI	94	1.245	56.3	35.4	25	10.6
ATL	94	0.883	42.4	11.6	20.8	16

The Hawks got off to a horrible start offensively with Josh Smith taking three jumpers in the first three minutes, Joe Johnson unable to beat Andre Iguodala one-on-one, and no viable third option in Al Horford's absence.

The lack of defensive competence (there's no doubt the Hawks lacked talent and energy on that end tonight) rendered any attempts at making offensive adjustments pointless. Philadelphia scored 33 points on 24 first quarter possessions, then 32 points on 23 second quarter possessions. Even the second half of that sentence threatens to take the game too seriously in its particulars. No need to gild the lily. The game was over three minutes into the second quarter with the Hawks down 23 and no apparent avenue back into the game on either end of the court.

Maybe Al Horford shouldn't miss any more home games.

The Hawks lost a third of their efficiency margin for the season in the 41-point loss to the Hornets. They lost another thirty percent off of what was left of it tonight. Along with any remaining benefit of the doubt.

The Hawks are still a half-game ahead of the Magic for the fourth seed in the East but they'll have to play much better than they have over the last nine games when they've gone 5-4 despite being outscored by more than five points per game, more than eight points per 100 possessions.

A seven-game road trip starts on the 14th with the final two games (at Portland and at Denver) kicking off the 20-day stretch wherein the Hawks play 10 games against teams with winning records plus the make-up game against the Bucks, who have already beaten the Hawks convincingly in Atlanta this season.