The Sixers did exactly what they needed to against a woefully undermanned Hawks team on Wednesday, winning a 127-83 blowout that was over by the end of the first quarter. A professional beatdown if there ever was one.

Here's what I saw.

The Good

• As a veteran of covering this team, I learned a long time ago not to take the wins against bad and undermanned opponents for granted. Thankfully, the Sixers have done a pretty good job of beating up on the little guys when they're down, and they never gave the Hawks much of a chance on Wednesday evening.

Ben Simmons is the guy who deserves the most credit for Philadelphia's fast start. He wasn't exactly below par in his return game against the Thunder, but Simmons looked like he was shot out of a cannon to start Wednesday's game. With Doc Rivers using him as an off-ball roamer on defense, Simmons was able to disrupt a lot of plays by cheating just far enough off of his man (Solomon Hill) without opening up passing lanes for the Hawks. Even when the Hawks weren't going at Simmons, he was finding ways to make his presence felt on defense.

But it was the offensive end where Simmons did a lot of his damage early, and he did it by just beating the Hawks down the floor with speed and purpose. Atlanta's transition defense was not exactly Hall of Fame material, I'll grant you that, but he made them look absolutely foolish for most of the first quarter, getting all the way to the rim or throwing an on-the-money dime long before he arrived there.

Unfortunately, Simmons got caught with his hand in the cookie jar a few too many times, forcing him to the bench with foul trouble to close out the half. But he kickstarted things in a comfortable victory and looked damn good doing it.

• Sixers games have followed a semi-predictable script this year. Joel Embiid dominates the first half, follows it up with a good (if slightly less spectacular) second half, Tobias Harris puts on his closing shoes, the Sixers go home happy winners. But Wednesday's dominant first-half performer was...Seth Curry?

Surprising, but a good sign for Philadelphia. Curry was in a groove from deep, thanks in some part to Simmons' uptempo start, and once he found the range he started toying with the Hawks in the in-between areas. On one play that sent the crowd into a fit of oohs and aahs, Curry razzle-dazzled until he nearly broke his own ankles, eventually coming up with a nice floater to cap off the sequence.

When Curry is in a groove, the Sixers are extremely hard to beat. They would have been hard for this Hawks team to beat regardless, but they were jumping and dancing every which way trying to stop Philly's sharpshooter.

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• Curry was the guy leading Philadelphia in scoring for most of that first half, but it was indeed Embiid who punctuated the end of the second quarter with one last haymaker for the Hawks. After sputtering a bit early, the Sixers spread it out around their franchise center and he finished shoveling the dirt on Atlanta. He apparently didn't appreciate the early offensive rebounds Clint Capela came up with at his expense.

Embiid has showed off a deep arsenal of moves this season, but one he is increasingly leaning on is the one-legged fadeaway in or around the painted area, a callback to Mavericks great Dirk Nowitzki. That's not exactly an accident — Embiid told reporters recently that he spent a lot of time studying and emulating Nowitzki's game with his trainer in the offseason, and those reps have really started paying off in recent weeks. He can certainly win with power against a lot of big men in today's league, but he gets harder and harder to defend as he masters finesse moves most guys his size couldn't dream of pulling off.

Unfortunately, the big guy's touches in the second half came on a lot of janky possessions, so his numbers were ultimately kind of bleh when you consider the opponent. But I'm not in the business of complaining about his efficiency on a series of late-clock jumpers.

• Rivers made one noteworthy change to the rotation against Atlanta: Philadelphia's first man off of the bench was George Hill, not Shake Milton. Replacing Tobias Harris in the lineup, Hill got a brief chance to run with the rest of the starters, eventually taking control of the second unit once they made more changes.

That move, assuming it sticks, accomplishes a few things. Simmons can play some "backup four" out of that look, minimizing the need for Mike Scott. It gets Harris ready to come back and anchor the bench unit sooner than later, a role he has thrived in this year. And it bumps Shake Milton ever so slightly down the pecking order, putting a better defender and more trustworthy playmaker in his place.

Hill still has to go out and look the part, of course, and he has offered plenty in limited reps with his new team. There was a little bit of everything against Atlanta — a corner three, some great help defense and active hands, even some burst against a closeout that led to a pretty nice dunk for the veteran guard:

Hill would repeat the feat in the second half with a dunk that drew contact and an extra free throw on top of that, putting an exclamation point on a solid night. There won't be many (if any) nights where he has a path that clean to the rim in the playoffs, so I hope he can savor those moments now. In any case, he looks like he's finding his place within the team, and the sooner he's up to full speed, the better.

• It is a beautiful thing to see the Sixers put lineups on the floor where they can spread it out and have several different guards out there at a time who can either hit the open three or attack the closeout credibly. Hill's addition has made a difference there, and the full-strength Sixers can swing the ball from one side of the floor to the other and feel comfortable with almost anybody putting up the eventual shot.

They still require some tough shotmaking, and they got it against the Hawks. Furkan Korkmaz hit an insanely difficult bail out three on a possession in the second quarter, and even when the Sixers couldn't generate much pressure on the rim against Atlanta, they still came up with made shots or second-chance points anyway. That couldn't have been a fun evening for Atlanta.

• The most important guys in Philly's lineup got to rest for most of the second half, on and off the floor. That's the biggest win of all.

• Some smaller points of interest that caught my eye throughout the night:

1. Tobias Harris was good, if unspectacular as a scorer, but this was an excellent passing game for him in a season where high assist counts have been more common for him than ever. With the chance to run the break a few times on Wednesday, Harris was able to be both the finisher and the setup man on lob plays. Always good to see him get rolling as a creator.
2. Shake Milton playing off-the-ball more is good for his shooting reps, but it also helps simplify the game for him as a playmaker. When you're asking him to make one-read passes on a closeout attack rather than weakside hook passes out of pick-and-rolls, he looks a lot more in his element.
3. In a competition that only featured him and Lou Williams, Danillo Galinari was probably the best NBA player left standing for the Hawks on Wednesday night. He shot 1-9 and had an absolutely miserable night at the races thanks to Matisse Thybulle, who did an excellent job of bothering Gallo and weaponizing the athletic gap between the two players.
4. Tyrese Maxey continues to make guys look silly with his burst of speed turning the corner around picks. Can't wait to see what he can do for this team in year two.
5. Shout out to the usher who got really into the timeout dance battle midway through the fourth quarter. It's a thankless job, especially with the added responsibilities during the COVID games era, but that doesn't mean you have to let anyone else steal your joy.

The Bad Hawks

• I mean seriously, the group they had left to play was a disaster. Good job by the Sixers, yeah, but that team was stinky. 

The Ugly

• If you're a Sixers fan, of course you see your team beating up on a minnow and feel pretty happy. Taking care of business is a necessary part of pushing for top seeds in your conference, and you never apologize for how you get to the final win total.

I just find it hard to believe anyone is turning on these games and watching them start to finish and actively enjoying it. This is simply not a good product — the Hawks basically offered the Sixers a runway to the rim on a lot of possessions Wednesday night, providing little resistance in the first half of a two-game set between these teams. It's hard to get too jazzed up about offensive performances when they're against this caliber of defense.

One day I'll get to cover (and you'll get to watch) a game where both teams look reasonably close to full strength. I hope, anyway. What a dumb year.

• Seth Curry was called for a travel on a play where it appeared he traveled to avoid getting kneed in the head by Brandon Goodwin. So, that was certainly a choice made by the officials. 

• You gotta be a real asshole to get into a near scuffle with Matisse Thybulle. Congratulations to Kris Dunn on being a real asshole. 

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