Lloyd Pierce’s return to Philadelphia didn’t go so well for the first-year Hawks head coach as Atlanta dropped to 2-4, losing 113-92 on Monday night. Here are some thoughts and observations from the game.



It was clear from the moment the ball tipped off that Pierce’s strategy against his old team, where he was the team’s lead defensive assistant, was to double team Sixers big man Joel Embiid and leave Markelle Fultz and Ben Simmons plenty of room to shoot. In particular, Fultz essentially was left uncovered on nearly every possession Philadelphia had in the halfcourt in the first quarter. Check this out:



Atlanta’s strategy worked … in the first half. The Hawks held the Sixers to 33 percent shooting. Philadelphia was its least efficient Monday when Fultz and Simmons shared the court together. In the five minutes they did so, the Hawks held the Sixers to 3-of-8 shooting, a minus-6 +/- and an abysmal 135.1 defensive rating. For...