The No. 1 seed Philadelphia 76ers will face the No. 5 Atlanta Hawks in the second round of the 2021 NBA Playoffs. The Sixers were staring down a sweep of the No. 8 seed Washington Wizards on Monday before C Joel Embiid was forced to leave the game due to a knee injury. He was diagnosed with a small tear in his meniscus and is considered day-to-day after missing the series-clinching win in Game 5 on Wednesday. Seth Curry stepped up big on offense for Philly, which will need a healthy Embiid to make a deep run the rest of the way.
The Hawks appeared to be in a dog fight with the No. 4 seed New York Knicks but that wasn’t exactly the case. While the series was chippy, the Hawks were able to get by in five games, similar to the Sixers. Trae Young has a playoff series win under his belt despite some ups and downs. He’ll look to add to that in the second round surrounded by a deep, talented Hawks roster with a veteran coach in Nate McMillan.
The Sixers took two of three games from the Hawks during the regular season, sweeping a back-to-back set in April with two easy wins. The Hawks’ lone win over Philly earlier in the season was when the Sixers were without both Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris. The health of Embiid will be important in this series but the Sixers have capable defenders to lock down Young while boasting enough veteran depth to advance.
Here we’ll be tracking everything you need to know for the Hawks-Sixers series, including picks, injuries and the schedule. We’ll provide the full schedule when it’s released.
Sixers vs. Hawks series schedule
Game 1: Hawks 128, Sixers 124
Game 2: Sixers 118, Hawks 102
Game 3: Sixers 127, Hawks 111
Game 4: Hawks 103, Sixers 100
Game 5: Hawks 109, Sixers 106
Game 6: Sixers 104, Hawks 99
Game 7: Hawks at Sixers, Sunday, June 20th, 8 p.m., TNT