In their final home game of the regular season on Friday, the Atlanta Hawks will play the Philadelphia 76ers in an effort to maintain their position in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament.
After defeating the visiting Washington Wizards 134-116 on Wednesday, the Hawks (41-39) are currently eighth in the East. They have now won three games in a row. With two games remaining, they have a one-game advantage over the Toronto Raptors (40-40), who are in ninth place, and Atlanta holds the tiebreaker.
The No. 1 seed has already been won by the Sixers (52-28). 3 spot in the East. They have lost two of their last three games and five of their last eight after being hammered 129-101 on Thursday by the visiting Miami Heat.
On Friday, the Hawks are likely to experience the same thing.
This will be the fourth gathering of the time between the clubs. The first meeting was won by the Hawks in Atlanta, and the next two were won by the Sixers in Philadelphia, most recently by a score of 104-101 on Nov. 28.
Clint Capela, a center for Atlanta, typically performs admirably against the Sixers. He had 18 focuses and 20 bounce back against Philadelphia on Nov. 10.
Both Capela and Onyeka Okongwu are likely to finish with the franchise’s highest single-season field goal percentage. Capela holds 65.1 percent, while Okongwu holds 63.9 percent. Dwight Howard held the record with 63.3% from 2016 to 2017; Capela comes in second with 61.3% from 2021 to 22.
Ivica Zubac and Mason Plumlee of the Los Angeles Clippers are the only other teammate this season to rank among the top 10 in field goal percentage.
Driven by the play of Okongwu, the Hawks of prey have profited from their seat profundity, despite the fact that De’Andre Tracker has missed the beyond four games with a left knee strain and Bogdan Bogdanovic passed on Wednesday for load the board. In the victory over Washington, Jalen Johnson and AJ Griffin came off the bench to score 16 points each.
According to Rivers, the Sixers must continue to move the ball on offense rather than relying solely on Joel Embiid (33.1 points, 10.2 rebounds) for success. In the Heat’s defeat, Embiid was held to 12 points and six rebounds.
Due to neck stiffness, the Sixers kept Tyrese Maxey out of Thursday’s game, and De’Anthony Melton left in the third quarter with a right calf strain. Additionally, Rivers intends to manage minutes during the final week before the playoffs begin.
