The Philadelphia 76ers managed to come away with a 118-111 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night and made a defensive statement early in the game. The defensive effort the team put in was something they used to make sure they went away in victory.
They kept the Hornets at just 13 points in the first quarter because they put Charlotte in a difficult position from the start. Hornets then shot only 35.6% of the floor in the first half and only 3-for-17 deep.
This effort was led by their duet of stars, Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, while the two made an extraordinary effort for this purpose and the team followed.
“We were active there defensively,” said Tobias Harris. “Our pressure was there and there I think a guy like Ben doesn’t get enough credit, but defensively, his intensity. I thought Joel was bringing him on both ends from the start of the game tonight. I thought it was huge for us. ”
Simmons took on the challenge of defending Hornets top scorer Gordon Hayward and kept him on fire 4-10 in the first half. Hayward had been playing very good basketball lately, helping Charlotte win three games in a row, but Simmons did a great job.
Combine this with Embiid in the back of the defense, forcing the boys to think twice about going to the basket, which makes it difficult.
“I thought Ben on Gordon Hayward was right, his defense dominated,” coach Doc Rivers wondered. “When you have the two on the floor and their size, it allows the other boys to be very good too. That stretch in the first quarter was as good as I could play defensively. It wasn’t like there were no shots, there weren’t many photos to take. “
At the end of the day, the defense was stifling and was as good as the Sixers watched this final all season.
“I think the sky is the limit,” said veteran Danny Green. “Obviously, this is a different team, it is different with different matches. I think how active we were, how many deviations we got, was definitely a look at how good we can potentially be. I think he does the hard part for 48 minutes. ”
It was really impressive, because the Sixers forced the Hornets to play at a different pace. Charlotte likes to run and go up and down with the athletes she has, but they haven’t been able to do it. Simmons and Embiid made sure they didn’t have those opportunities.
“Even the photos they took were, for the most part, a hand in front, contested, late, and they don’t want to play like that,” Rivers said. “They want to get up and down on the floor. The fact that I didn’t allow them to do that was pretty cool. “
The challenge now is to get on the plane and go home to pick up the Portland Trail Blazers.
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