On paper, the Philadelphia 76ers came away with a rather easy 127-112 win over the Charlotte Hornets. They never trailed and they led by as many as 17 on the night as strong nights from Tobias Harris and the shooters led them to the win.
However, there was one black eye on the night for coach Doc Rivers and that was the number of turnovers. Philadelphia committed 22 turnovers on the night and 15 of them came in the second half when the team had a big lead.
There was a lot of carelessness and Rivers believes he knows exactly what caused all of that.
“Our lead,” Rivers said with a laugh. “Listen, they tried to go zone in the first half and we scored a ton of points. One thing they did do that I thought gave us problems in a second [half] was they pressed us a little bit and we didn’t handle it as well as we should have.”
With the Sixers playing with a big lead, they tried to do some things they did not do in the first half which was throwing a bunch of lobs and try to be a little too flashy.
“A lot of our turnovers came, we had transition buckets where we’re going for lobs we’re going for, that’s a team with a big lead,” Rivers continued. “That’s a dangerous way to play. We’ll watch that on film.”
Philadelphia was able to build a big lead due to playing solid defense and taking care of the ball in the first half. That allowed Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons to go to work. The team’s efforts in the second half left a lot to be desired for Danny Green.
“We got to play better defense and not turn the ball over,” said Green. “Those are the two things we have to focus on, but we can be very dangerous if we keep making shots. That’s gonna open up the floor for Joel and Ben. Ben on the rim and then Joel in the post, they are not able to double as much. There’s nobody in this league that can guard Joel on the block.”
The Sixers will face the Hornets on Monday to complete the two-game home series with them.
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