3 observations: Trae Young lights up Sixers, leads Hawks to Game 1 win

The Philadelphia 76ers and the Atlanta Hawks matched up in the playoffs on Sunday for the first time since 1982 in a much-anticipated matchup for both teams. The Sixers are led by a talented star duo of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons while the Hawks have a young star of their own in Trae Young.

The Sixers had a tough time coming up with an answer for Young as they ended up dropping Game 1 at home on Sunday 128-124 as Atlanta stole home-court advantage. The Sixers had a furious surge late, but that’s what it was. Just too late. Young had 35 points and 10 assists as he proved to be a tough cover for just about everybody the Sixers decided to throw at him.

Joel Embiid made his return and he led Philadelphia with 36 points and eight rebounds, Tobias Harris had 20 points and 10 rebounds, Seth Curry had 21, and Ben Simmons added 16 and 10 assists, but he shot just 3-for-10 from the foul line while Matisse Thybulle had 10 points off the bench.

Here are the observations following a tough loss to begin the series:

When a team defends a pick-and-roll, they have to decide how they are going to do it. Either they have the big man up on the screen to defend the guard or they will have the big man drop to prevent an easy lob pass. The Sixers went with the drop coverage early and Young feasted on it. The star leader of the Hawks was stepping into easy jumpers and he was also able to have enough space to fire from deep. Also, with the attention he receives, he was able to pick apart the defense with his underrated passing.

In the second half, Philadelphia adjusting by having Simmons defend Young, but he then picked up two quick fouls on Simmons and they had to go back to Danny Green. The quick guard then went right by Green and he was doing similar things that he did in the first half. The Sixers could not come up with an answer for him all day long. It will be up to coach Doc Rivers and the staff to come up with an adjustment in Game 2.

Even in the second round, Rivers could not help himself when it comes to these all-bench units. The Hawks are certainly not the Washington Wizards as they have more reliable options around their star player and the second unit could not keep up with Atlanta offensively. Tyrese Maxey gave the unit a bit of a boost, but challenging Atlanta’s rim protection is tougher than Washington’s and running out an all-bench unit against a tougher opponent proved to be a bit problematic. Philadelphia did not score in the second quarter until almost five minutes into it when Harris came back in and scored.

Defensively, that group had a lot of issues trying to come up with stops against Atlanta’s offense as they have too many weak links in that unit who teams can pick on. Then, on the other end, those weak links could not make up for it with their offense. The all-bench unit was outscored 10-0 in the first half and they had five turnovers. Considering that this is the playoffs, at some point, Rivers will have to go away from these lineups and ride with his starters a bit longer in this series.

Moving forward, this is really the only thing that matters for Philadelphia. The health of the big fella is the only thing that matters now as he is the engine that will drive their championship hopes. He was able to move around on the floor and he had a couple of bully moves in the post that showed that he appears to be OK. He saw his matchup with Clint Capela and he did not settle too often as that showed that his knee injury did not bother him too much.

As this series moves forward, Embiid is going to be the difference in every game. If he is healthy, aggressive, and moving well in the post, then the Hawks won’t have much of an answer. Philadelphia will then need to just find him and then knock down their open looks when he passes out of the double teams.