These two-day breaks are killers, aren’t they? Feels like an eternity.

We’ve got Sixers/Hawks, Game 3 tonight in Atlanta. Chances are, the folks down there will not give one-tenth of a crap about the local basketball team because they’re looking ahead to SEC football, or the next NASCAR event, or whatever that melting pot city currently cares about.

The Hawks won’t have the VORACIOUS home court crowd that the Sixers enjoy in Philadelphia, but it’s 1-1 in this series and you never want to underestimate the opponent.

I went through the data to pull some random observations:

  1. This series has been pretty sloppy from a ball protection standpoint. The Hawks have turned the ball over 35 times and the Sixers 28 times. Those are the worst TO numbers among all eight teams still alive in the postseason.
  2. Sounds like a broken record, but the Sixers still aren’t taking enough three pointers. They have only tried 55 in this series despite hitting at 40%. The math says you gotta increase that number if you’re hitting well-above the regular season league average.
  3. The free-throw shooting discrepancy is being cancelled out by poor efforts once they get to the line. Philly is 38-57 (66.7%) from the line in this series and Atlanta is 35-39 (89.7%). Despite being +18 in FTA, the Sixers only ended up being a +3 in free throw points. Ben Simmons and Dwight Howard have been dragging down this number all season long.
  4. Among all five-man lineups that have played at least 25 minutes in this postseason, the Sixers’ starting group has the best net rating. 38.8 is an insane number. No opponent can stay with that group.
  5. The Sixers and Hawks are 1st and 3rd in field goal percentage in the second round. Only Phoenix is hitting shots at a similar clip. It’s been an offensively impressive series so far.
  6. The pace of this series is 102.25, which is #1 among the remaining playoff matchups. The Wizards/Sixers series was also the highest-pace game in its respective round. Lots of movement, lots of early shotclock efforts, lots of transitional efforts, etc.
  7. The Sixers are having a ton of success when they do get out in transition. 36 fast break points against Atlanta over the course of two games is #1 in the league, in the second round.
  8. The Hawks are also giving up 55 points in the paint per game, which is worst in the league. They don’t have anybody who can handle Embiid when he’s doing his thing.
  9. 40 post ups in two games for the Sixers. They’re 12-21 on those (57.1%), and earned ten trips to the foul line where they’ve shot 8-10. Joel is having a lot of success here…
  10.  …but they’ve been better in catch-and-shoot situations, where they’ve hit 19-40 from three for the best clip in the league over these last two games. Those Seth Curry catch-and-shoot possessions have been really big for them.

Just a brief sampling right there, but it helps tell the storyline of this series. It’s been pretty open, with good shooters and numerous open floor moments.

As long as the Sixers keep pace with their bench and continue to do what they’re doing offensively, they’ll put plenty of points on the board. Keep Trae Young contained and close out their shooters and hope to contain Atlanta in anything resembling a semi-effective way, and that’s the blueprint for a Game 3 win.