PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers wrapped up the preseason schedule on Wednesday when they knocked off the Charlotte Hornets at home, 99-94, to finish 4-0 in the exhibition schedule. The focus now turns to the season opener with the Boston Celtics on Tuesday.
Joel Embiid totaled 19 points and six rebounds in the preseason win on Wednesday. As he looks ahead to the regular season, he acknowledges the team has a great deal of talent but has a lot of work to be done.
“We got a long way to go,” Embiid said. “We’re not where we want to be. Obviously, new guys, basically a new team, so it’s gonna take a while for everybody to get on the same page. I think we got a good foundation to build on it and get better every single day.”
In Wednesday’s preseason finale, the Sixers were a little sloppy. In the first quarter against the Hornets, they allowed Charlotte to shoot 52.4% from the floor and its guards were consistently able to get into the paint.
“Defensively, obviously, we have our moments, but we need to be solid throughout the whole game,” Embiid explained. “Then offensively, keep moving the ball, getting guys open, me doing my thing, James (Harden) getting everybody shots all around, but it all goes back to ball movement and defensively, just gotta be on for 48 minutes.”
These are things that the Sixers will look to fine-tune over the next few days leading into Tuesday’s opener. Philadelphia has a challenging start to the schedule. It visits the defending Eastern Conference champs, hosts the 2021 NBA champs, and then plays road games in Toronto and Chicago.
“We got a tough schedule that’s gonna get us ready,” the big fella added. “We like the challenge and, like I said, there’s gonna be a bunch of different schemes and different teams that play differently. You look at Charlotte, whether they play drop defense, and we’re gonna play Toronto that switches everything so it becomes harder to run pick-and-roll offense. We’re gonna play Boston that kinda does the same thing, so I’m just excited to see how we look and what we can learn from each team every single night.”
The preseason is over. It’s time for the real games to start for Embiid and the Sixers.
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