The Philadelphia 76ers travel to State Farm Arena on Saturday to face the Atlanta Hawks at 6 p.m. ET in what is shaping up to be a difficult night for a depleted visiting roster. Atlanta enters the game on a five-game win streak and has won six of its last seven, while Philadelphia will be without Joel Embiid, VJ Edgecombe and Paul George for the foreseeable future.
Embiid remains out with an oblique strain and was re-evaluated Friday with the team announcing he will not return for at least another week as he works through individualized strength and conditioning. Edgecombe, who suffered a back contusion from a hard fall earlier this week, missed Wednesday’s game against Utah and was absent from practice Friday. George remains unavailable as he continues serving his suspension.
The Hawks have a clean bill of health by comparison, with only Jonathan Kuminga listed as questionable due to knee inflammation.
Why Atlanta is a bigger problem than their record suggests
Atlanta Hawks enters Saturday at 32 and 31 on the season, a record that does not immediately signal danger. The context around it does. The Hawks are 3 and 0 against Philadelphia this season, a run that includes matchups in which the Sixers were considerably less shorthanded than they will be Saturday. They lead the entire NBA in assists per game at 30.5, rank eighth in offensive rating at 117.6 and seventh in three-point efficiency at 36.8%.
The Hawks traded Trae Young at the deadline and have only improved since. The players carrying the load are doing so at the best levels of their careers. Jalen Johnson is averaging career highs of 22.7 points, 10.5 rebounds and 8.0 assists per game in an All-Star season. Nickeil Alexander-Walker is putting up a career-best 19.8 points per night while shooting 37.5% from three on more than eight attempts per game. Center Onyeka Okongwu is scoring 16.2 points per night and connecting on 38.6% of his three-point attempts, both career highs.
Beyond those three, Atlanta Hawks has depth throughout the roster capable of producing double-digit scoring nights on any given evening. Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, Corey Kispert and Jock Landale all represent additional scoring threats that can make Atlanta difficult to contain even when opponents gameplan for the primary options.
CJ McCollum has also been a significant contributor since arriving in the Trae Young trade. He is averaging 18.6 points per game across 23 appearances with Atlanta and has scored over 17.5 points in three consecutive games heading into Saturday.
What is at stake for the Sixers in this two game road stretch
The timing of this road trip is poor for Philadelphia. The Sixers enter Saturday sixth in the Eastern Conference at 34 and 28, but the gap between them and the 10th-place Charlotte Hornets is only three games. There is not much room to absorb losses before the playoff picture becomes genuinely uncomfortable.
Monday’s road game at Cleveland adds another layer of difficulty. The Cavaliers are also 3 and 0 against the Sixers this season, meaning Philadelphia faces two of the teams that have handled them most comfortably in the same two-game stretch with a significantly reduced roster.
Philadelphia’s most recent win came Wednesday against Utah, a narrow victory over a tanking team that offered little indication of how the next few nights might go. The Sixers need to find a way to stay competitive in both games while their key players work their way back, and Today in Atlanta represents the first test.
Atlanta opened as a 7.5-point favorite with a moneyline of minus-250.
