GRADES: Philadelphia 76ers 118, Charlotte Hornets 111

The Philadelphia 76ers end (and sweep) their three-game road trip with a defensive battle against the Charlotte Hornets.  

A strong defensive stance by the Philadelphia 76ers started off the game as they held the Hornets to two shot-clock violations.

Even more impressive was the future 2020-21 MVP (I mean, is it really even a question at this point?), Joel Embiid, as he made the Hornets look silly. The big man drove down the lane for a murderous one-handed dunk and followed it up the next time down the court with his second 3 of the game.

Embiid ended the quarter matching the number of points by the entire Charlotte team, 13 points. Per Amy Fadool, this was the least amount of points allowed by the Sixers in the first quarter.

Dwight Howard was eating up Hornet rebounds like a Wawa hoagie (a classic Italian on white, of course). In just six minutes he tallied six rebounds, one of which resulted in a Shake Milton 3. The first half really shone a light on the team that Daryl Morey has magically crafted together. They are basically everything that they weren’t last season. They’re balanced offensively, extremely aggressive defensively, and accumulating seemingly fewer turnovers.

After seeming like he was allergic to taking any shots, Seth Curry finally took his first of the game in the third quarter, and not a good one to say the least. Charlotte was playing him pretty tight, but he didn’t even look like he was trying to get open. He continued to be scoreless for the remainder of the game.

A major difference between last year’s Tobias Harris and this year’s is the way he moves around in the paint. He’s developed into a player that can dance around defenders at the rim.

In the blink of an eye, the Hornets made it an eight-point game in the third quarter. They begin hitting every 3 imaginable, bringing back some unwanted memories. The Sixers began drying up on offense once they stopped running plays through Embiid. Once they ran plays through the big man again, they generated good looks and scored almost every time down. After some impressive defensive plays, Matisse Thybulle hit a once-in-a-blue-moon 3-point shot to break up the Hornets’ momentum.

After leading as much as 26 points, the Sixers led by just ten with four minutes left in the game. Doc Rivers had no choice but to let his starters finish the job, though it would have been in the Sixers’ best interest to keep their foot on the gas earlier on so that they could have brought in deep bench players. After tonight’s game, they’ll hop on a plane to play the Portland Trail Blazers tomorrow back at the Farg.