The Philadelphia 76ers were able to get away with a 118-111 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday-evening and made a defensive statement at the start of the game. The defensive effort the team put in was something they used to get them to pull away in the win.
They kept the Hornets at just 13 points in the first quarter as they put Charlotte in a tough spot from the start. The Hornets then shot only 35.6% of the floor in the first half and only 3-for-17 from deep.
That effort was led by their star duo of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, as they both put in a great effort to that end and the team followed suit.
“We were defensive there,” said Tobias Harris. “Our pressure was there and that’s where a guy like Ben, I guess, doesn’t get enough credit, but defensively gets his intensity. I thought Joel was bringing it to both sides tonight from the start of the game. I thought he was huge to us. “
Simmons took up the challenge of defending Hornets scorer Gordon Hayward and kept him 4-for-10 in the first half. Hayward had been playing really good basketball lately to help Charlotte win three games in a row, but Simmons has done a great job for him.
Combine that with Embiid at the back of the defense and force guys to think twice about going to the basket, that makes it difficult.
“I thought Ben was right on Gordon Hayward, dominating his defense,” coach Doc Rivers was amazed. “If you have those two on the floor and their size, our other guys can be really good too. That piece in the first quarter was as good as we could defend. It wasn’t like they missed shots, there weren’t many shots to be made. “
At the end of the day, the defense was stifling and it was as good as the Sixers looked at that end all season.
“I think the sky is the limit,” said veteran Danny Green. “This is clearly a different team, it’s different with different matchups. I think how active we were, how many deflections we got, it was certainly a glimpse of how good we could potentially be. I think the hardest part is doing it for 48 minutes. “
It was really impressive because the Sixers forced the Hornets to play at a different pace. Charlotte loves to run and bounce with the athletes they have, but she failed. Simmons and Embiid made sure they didn’t get those opportunities.
“Even the shots they took were, for the most part, a hand in the face, controversial, late clock, and that’s not how they want to play,” Rivers said. ‘They want to go up and down the floor. The fact that we didn’t let them do that was pretty cool. “
The challenge now is to board the plane and return home to defeat the Portland Trail Blazers.
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