Sixers hang on against Charlotte — complete season sweep against Hornets
Philadelphia 76ers’ Tyrese Maxey (0) goes up for a shot against Charlotte Hornets’ Brandon Miller, from right, Nick Richards and Vasa Micic during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, March 16, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
The 76ers rebounded after a tough loss to the Bucks with a 109-98 win over the Charlotte Hornets beating the team for the 4th and final time of the season. They now sit just half a game behind Indiana for the 6th seed in the East, but before all that, let’s recap the win.
In the City Edition jerseys, the Sixers came out swinging to start the game holding a 27-24 lead after it was over. Domination by Kelly Oubre Jr and Tyrese Maxey would be a consistent theme both in the first quarter and throughout the rest of the game. In the first quarter alone they combined for 21 points and when it was all said and done had 55. For Charlotte, Miles Bridges led the way in scoring to start the night with 7 points.
Cam Payne led the way in the 2nd quarter with 8 points as the Sixers continued to pull away from Charlotte. After 1 half of play, the team held a 53-47 lead with Oubre on track to break his season high in points. At the time he sat at 17 points with 3 rebounds to go along with it. Maxey brought the energy as well giving the crowd some entertainment after the camera went his way after being fouled by Brandon Miller. That foul would be Miller’s second flagrant foul leading to his ejection.
Slowly but surely they kept pulling away with this one extending the lead by another 2 points spearheaded by another great quarter of play by Maxey who had 9 points and 2 rebounds. Buddy Hield would also score 8 of his 14 points in the 3rd quarter with 2 three-pointers to help the team hold a 79-71 lead with 12 minutes left to play.
Charlotte did come out on fire to start the final quarter even holding an 89-88 lead to open things up, but this is where the 76ers really closed it out. The final nail in the coffin for Charlotte was a 21-7 Sixers run making the lead the largest it would be all night at 13 points.
Maxey put his talents on full display dropping 30 points and leading the team in scoring. He finished with 30 points on 8/20 shooting, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists. Behind Maxey by 8 points was the former Hornet Oubre who had 22 points on 8/16 shooting, 3 rebounds, and 1 assist. Other names like Hield performed greatly with 14 points in just 20 minutes on 6/12 shooting. Overall the team hasn’t looked this good offensively in just over a week and hopefully is a sign of things to come with a tough stretch ahead on the schedule.
This win as I mentioned earlier, puts the 76ers at 37-30 half a game behind the 38-30 Pacers. They’ll have a very important game Monday against the Heat who sit half a game behind them at 36-30 in the standings. This stretch of the season will be a daunting task for the Joel Embiid-less Sixers, with the next 7 teams they face having a combined record of 275-179. Those 7 games could very well determine if the 76ers will be able to escape the Play-In Tournament or not. The 76ers beat the Hornets but now prepare for the most important stretch of games they’ve had so far this season.
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