This Friday edition of “Fo’ with the Foes” — Philadunkia’s advanced scouting series which with the help of an accomplished journalist from around the NBA beat or blog world, previews upcoming 76ers opponents — features tonight’s opponent the Atlanta Hawks.

The 76ers are coming off a not-so-surprising loss to the Miami Heat during which they actually looked like they had a clue for a stretch or two.  However most of the time on Wednesday night they looked like the same band of headless chickens that played in Eddie Jordan’s circus last year.  The question for this team really is how quickly can they shake the bad habits from 2009-10 and start following the plan Doug Collins has laid out for them.  We don’t see that happening in Game 2 of this season. 

In addition to the Sixers being a mess, the Hawks are more talented, more athletic and deeper. They also shoot the ball better and they play better defense.  So even if the Sixers get their acts together tonight and play the way Collins wishes, they’re still matched up against what is simply a better team. All of this basketball stuff provides a daunting list of items that this Sixers roster has to overcome in order to secure a victory tonight.

Of course there also is an off-the-court item that could have an impact on the Sixers tonight.  Hanging out in the wind are the reports (and subsequent denials) that Andre Iguodala has asked to be traded.  In our minds, that rumor has to be a distraction.  The rumor combined with the Sixers learning a new system and the fact that the Hawks are a better all-around team means that tonight’s contest will produce an 0-2 start for the 7-6.  

For a little more insight into the Hawks team the Sixers face tonight, we turn to our man Bret LaGree from hoopinionblog.com to answer two questions on Atlanta from us here at Philadunkia as well as provide us with two points of analysis on this Hawks squad from an insider’s perspective. 

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This Friday edition of “Fo’ with the Foes” — Philadunkia’s advanced scouting series which with the help of an accomplished journalist from around the NBA beat or blog world, previews upcoming 76ers opponents — features tonight’s opponent the Atlanta Hawks.

Given the horrific play of the 76ers for 90% of the last two months and the fact that they’ve had no idea how to “Protect this House” in 2009-10 (3^rd worst home record in the League), we were tempted to quickly write down tonight’s game against the Atlanta Hawks as a blow out loss and move on.  However, the win in Milwaukee on Wednesday night highlighted a trend with this struggling Sixers team.  For some reason they frequently rise up against “elite”, playoff-bound teams, and give them a good game or even pull out the occasional upset.  In addition to the shocking win two nights ago at Milwaukee, the Sixers played decently but lost to Orlando on Monday and put in “spirited” efforts earlier this month against Cleveland and Boston.  Back in February, they beat the Spurs and gave the Lakers all they could handle before going down in the final ticks.

So we don’t expect the Sixers to get embarrassed tonight, but we still think a W is out of the question.  We know their defense is not good enough to stop the talented and deep Hawks who feature the scorerslike Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Jamal Crawford, Al Horford, Marvin Williams and Jeff Teague.  Additionally, Philadunkia’s home team doesn’t have enough firepower to go toe-to-toe with the Hawks offense in a shoot out style game.  So after further consideration, our original instinct was probably correct, tonight the Sixers are going to take another L and inch closer to the 4^th spot in 2010 NBA Lotter, but they’ll do it gracefully.   

For a little more insight into the Hawks team the Sixers face tonight, we turn to our man Bret LaGree from hoopinionblog.com to answer two questions on Atlanta from us here at Philadunkia as well as provide us with two points of analysis on his Hawks squad from an insider’s perspective.
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