The Philadelphia 76ers were able to win 118-111 over the Charlotte Hornets Wednesday night and declared defensively early in the game. The defensive effort the team made was something they used to make sure they got away with the win.
They kept the Hornets to just 13 points in the first quarter as they put Charlotte in a difficult position from the start. The Hornets fired just 35.6% from the ground in the first half and only 3 to 17 from the bottom.
This effort was led by their star duo of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid as they both made a fantastic effort at that end and the team went on.
“We were active off the defense,” Tobias Harris said. “Our pressure was there and this is where I think a guy like Ben doesn’t have enough credit, but defensively, his intensity. I thought Joel tonight would take him from the start of the game by both ends. I thought it was huge for us. “
Simmons took on the challenge of defending Hornets scorer Gordon Hayward and kept him on a 4-for-10 shot in the first half. Hayward had been playing basketball really well lately helping Charlotte win three games in a row, but Simmons did a fantastic job.
Combine it with Embiid on the back of the defense forcing the boys to think twice about going to the basket, which makes it difficult.
“I thought Ben to Gordon Hayward was fair, his defense was dominant,” coach Doc Rivers marveled. “When you have these two on the floor and their size, it allows the other guys to be good too. That stretch of the first quarter was as good as we could play on defense. It wasn’t like they were missing shots, there weren’t many shots to shoot. “
At the end of the day, the defense was suffocating and it was as good as the Sixers saw that end all season.
“I think the sky is the limit,” veteran Danny Green said. “Obviously, this is a different team, it’s different with different clashes. I think how active we were, how many deviations we got, it was definitely a vision of how good we can 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 likes to run and go up and down with the athletes they have, but they couldn’t. Simmons and Embiid made sure they didn’t have those opportunities.
“Even the shots they made, for the most part, were a hand to the face, disputed, with a late clock, and that’s not how they want to play,” Rivers said. “They want to go up and down the ground. The fact that we didn’t allow them to do that was pretty cool. “
Now the challenge is to get on the plane and go home to face the Portland Trail Blazers.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire. Follow us on Facebook!