The Philadelphia 76ers were able to get away with a 118-111 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night and they declared defensive at the start of the game. The defensive effort the team put in was something they used to make sure they pulled away in the win.
They held the Hornets to just 13 points in the first quarter because they put Charlotte in a difficult situation from the start. The Hornets then shot only 35.6% from the floor in the first half and only 3-for-17 from deep.
The effort was led by their star duo, Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, while the two made a tremendous effort to follow the goal and the team followed.
“We were defensive out there,” Tobias Harris said. ‘Our pressure was there and this is where a guy like Ben, I think, does not get enough credit, but defensively his intensity. I thought Joel would bring it to both sides tonight at the end of the game. I thought he was great for us. ”
Simmons accepted the challenge to defend Gordons Hayward, the Hornets’ goal scorer. Hayward has been playing very good basketball lately to win Charlotte three games in a row, but Simmons has done a very good job.
Forcing it with Embiid at the back of the defense to make guys think twice about going to basket makes it difficult.
“I thought Ben was fair to Gordon Hayward, that his defense dominated,” coach Doc Rivers wondered. ‘If you have these two on the floor and their size, it can be really good for us other guys too. The thrust in the first quarter was as good as we could play defense. It was not as if they were missing shots, but there were not many shots. ”
At the end of the day, the defense was suffocated and it was as good as the Sixers watched it all season.
“I think the sky is the limit,” veteran Danny Green said. ‘It’s clear it’s a different team, it differs with different matches. I think how active we were, how many deflections we got, it was definitely a look at how good we can possibly be. I think the hard 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 up and down with the athletes they have, but they couldn’t do it. Simmons and Embiid made sure they did not get the opportunities.
“Even the blows they took were mostly a hand in the face, arguing, late, and that’s not how they want to play,” Rivers said. “They want to get up and down on the floor. The fact that we did not allow them to do so was quite cool. ”
The challenge now is to get on the plane and return home to tackle the Portland Trail Blazers.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!