The Philadelphia 76ers were feeling good about themselves on Wednesday when they returned home to host the Charlotte Hornets. They were riding a 7-game win streak, they had not lost to the Hornets since November of 2016, and they were continuing to play well despite being shorthanded on some nights.
All of that came crashing down as the Hornets built a 20-point lead on their way to a 109-98 win over Philadelphia. The Sixers committed 17 turnovers which led to 23 Charlotte points and Philadelphia just could not respond.
“I’m not here to compliment Charlotte,” said coach Doc Rivers. “I will say this, they played so much harder and they’re aggressive, they attack, so that’s what creates them. We were so sloppy that anybody would’ve gotten turnovers against us tonight. I thought the ball stuck. We’ve been so good overall moving the ball and I just thought tonight, we didn’t do that. The ball stuck on every possession. We rarely got it from side to side.”
Joel Embiid had seven of those turnovers. So while he had 31 points and six rebounds, the seven turnovers are what is going to stick out the most with him.
“They were mostly unforced,” said Embiid. “It looked like we were shy out there. We didn’t wanna attack, especially their zone, but they did what they did. They made a lot of shots especially Gordon (Hayward), he was hot, they moved the ball, and played together. That’s why they beat us.”
The Hornets also had 25 points on the fastbreak. So that means getting into the passing lanes when Philadelphia was in the halfcourt offense and they were able to get out and run.
“I just thought we got a little too stagnant offensively,” added Tobias Harris. “We weren’t really able to run throughout the game. You gotta give them credit, they made a lot of shots, but we just didn’t have our pace. I didn’t think we had enough ball movement in the halfcourt. They showed zone a little bit and I think that stopped our momentum as well, but it was just too many sloppy plays all around that we needed to be better at on the offensive end for us to win the game.”
The Sixers found themselves trailing the Hornets by seven early as they committed four turnovers in the opening quarter alone. They were able to take the lead by the end of the first thanks to Tyrese Maxey and Embiid, but the effort wasn’t there in this one.
“It was just disappointing,” said Rivers. “Flat. We were flat tonight. That happens, but you should still play right. I just don’t think we played right tonight.”
The zone defense that Charlotte employed did cause some problems for the Sixers, but there is no excuse for the sloppiness in this one. It was a tough night all around.
“It starts with me,” Embiid added. “I wasn’t good enough today. Too many turnovers, mainly offensive fouls, but they still count as turnovers so I gotta do a better job and obviously, we had some guys out coming back so they tried to get their rhythm back. We just weren’t good enough today.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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