While Trae Young may not have had to hear chants from the crowd about him “balding,” he did however have to witness his team lose again versus the Philadelphia 76ers, as the Hawks were unable to win Game 3 of this NBA playoff series. The Sixers took a 2-1 series lead in this Eastern Conference Semifinals matchup with Atlanta after winning Game 3 of this series 127-111, making it back-to-back wins for them now. 

In the first two games of this series, Joel Embiid scored 38 and 40 points respectively, but in Game 3, he beat the Hawks in more ways than just scoring. He still put up 27 points on 7-14 shooting from the floor, but he also had 9 rebounds and 8 assists. Given the circumstance of this being a pitival playoff game, this may have been Embiid’s best all-around game this season. 

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With Danny Green leaving the game after just four minutes due to a calf injury and Ben Simmons dealing with foul trouble all game long, somebody needed to step up and facilitate for the 76ers in Game 3 in order for them to take a 2-1 series lead, so who better to answer the call than their MVP candidate in Joel Embiid! 

After giving up 128 points to the Hawks in Game 1, the 76ers have allowed the Hawks to score just 102 points in Game 2 and 111 points in Game 3. Defensively, the Sixers have tightened things up and they have not just had a lot of success pressuring Atlanta up-and-down the court, but defending the three-point line as well. 

Right now, Philadelphia has all the momentum in this series, but Trae Young and the Hawks are a special team. They have faced adversity before and while the 76ers may have a more skilled team talent wise, Atlanta was the only team in the NBA during the regular season to have 9 different players finish the year averaging double-digit scoring numbers. 

This team is more than capable of fighting for 48-minutes in any game of this series, which is why they could easily come back in Game 4 and even up this series. If Atlanta is going to avoid falling into a 3-1 hole in this series and dropping both games at home, they are going to need to focus on the following three areas in this series.