By: Kylan Watson
The Philadelphia 76ers traveled to Charlotte to face a Hornets squad that was looking to find itself in the absence of LaMelo Ball. Without Ball the Hornets struggled to keep up with the Sixers powerful offense. They beat them 135-82 and with the win extend their win streak to six games and are now firmly in third place in the loaded Eastern Conference with a chance to get a top two spot if Milwaukee or Boston start struggling.
Philly started off fast as they were able to find the bottom of the net early on a couple of offensive possessions, and that early dominance carried over throughout this contest. The duo of Joel Embiid (42-points, grabbed 15-rebounds, had three-assists, and two-blocks) and Tyrese Maxey (21-points, made five/eight three-pointers, and had seven-assists) carried the Sixers once again they combined for 62 of Philly’s 135-points. The pairs dynamic and chemistry has continued to develop early in this season and has given opposing defenses nightmares because they have to choose which player they want to give the most attention to. When they devote attention to one of them the other goes off and this was a game where they both dominated this contest. Tyrese Maxey in particular had a hot second quarter where he scored 17 of his 21-points in that quarter and he did most of his damage from the three-point line. He made five/eight three-pointers and finally broke out of his three-point shooting slump. Maxey has continued to improve from the three-point line and if he can continue to keep his three-point momentum going then the Sixers have one of the most dynamic offenses in the league and have a duo that is showing a Shaq and Kobe like dynamic.
The Sixers did not give the Hornets much of a chance in this game they were down by 50-points (third time in franchise history they won a game by that margin) and continued to fight in the contest but without LaMelo Ball they could not keep up with Philly’s explosive offense. Brandon Miller was their leading scorer in tonight’s contest he scored 14-points and early in the contest he was taking full advantage of the Sixers defenders giving him room to get a shot off. Philly made the adjustment later on in the contest to put more size on him and that led to him taking more contested shots which he could not make. His ineffectiveness gave the Sixers enough room to build a sizeable lead that the Hornets just did not have the scoring power available to overcome. When the Sixers have it working on both sides of the ball like they did tonight they are a hard team to stop and can be title contenders when they play like this.
Philly will now prepare to face the Chicago Bulls on Monday night, they will need to continue their effective perimeter defense to keep the duo DeMar DeRozan and Zach Lavine in check. Additionally, they will need to continue incorporating ball movement in their offensive attack it has been a feature of the last few contests and the Sixers have won all of those games by huge margins. The ball moves faster than opposing defenders and it creates high percentage shot opportunities like it did tonight and when the shots are falling no team can compete with the Sixers. If they can implement these things they can get their 19th victory of the season and continue to make their ascension into a top two-position in the loaded Eastern Conference.