The Philadelphia 76ers and the Atlanta Hawks are headed to a Game 7 on Sunday night, the third of this postseason and second Game 7 of the conference semifinals. The two teams have to follow the instant classic in Brooklyn from Saturday night, in which the Bucks outlasted the Nets in an overtime thriller to win 115-111 despite the best efforts of Kevin Durant, who almost hit the shot of the century to win the game over PJ Tucker if not for his, in his words, “big ass feet” that touched the three-point line to just force OT.
The Sixers and Hawks have had some thrillers of their own, most notably three fourth quarter collapses that Atlanta has managed to be on the right side of each time. In Game 1, the Hawks were the ones doing the collapsing, but held on for a narrow win before being the comeback makers in Games 4 and 5, overcoming 18 and 26-point deficits in stunning fashion. Game 7 will be back in Philly after a rather wild Game 6 that saw the Sixers finally take and hold onto a fourth quarter lead as both teams went cold late, with the physicality of the series continuing and a brief scuffle between Joel Embiid and John Collins breaking out after a hard foul.
On Sunday morning, the NBA announced the punishments for that incident, with a suspension for Hawks reserve center Bruno Fernando (who has played a grand total of three minutes in the series) for leaving the bench area and a $35,000 fine for Embiid for escalating the confrontation in an “unsportsmanlike manner.”
Full NBA release includes a $35,000 fine for Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid for “escalating” the on-court altercation “by pursuing” Atlanta’s John Collins “in an unsportsmanlike manner” … pic.twitter.com/pzvdE9kDHV
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 20, 2021
Ultimately, that will put the incident behind everyone without a significant impact on Game 7. Embiid’s pockets will be a touch lighter and the Hawks won’t have an emergency big man should this game reach a garbage time situation, but otherwise it is full speed ahead for everyone going into Game 7. The more concerning ramification from Game 6 is the status of Bogdan Bogdanovic, who left and did not return with knee soreness and is listed as questionable for the biggest game of the season thus far for the Hawks.