Sixers defeat Hornets with strong 3-point shooting (2024)

The Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Charlotte Hornets 127-112 on Saturday night, with Doc Rivers and his squad improving to 5-1. The Sixers will play the Hornets on Monday night at the Wells Fargo Center to complete a two-game mini-series.

For the second game in a row, the Sixers were lights-out from deep, especially in the first half, when they made 12 of their 22 3-point attempts, outscoring the Hornets 36-15 from long range in the opening 24 minutes of play. The Sixers built up a 15-point lead by the end of the first quarter and went on to a wire-to-wire victory.

All five starters reached double figures for the Sixers. Tobias Harris led the way with 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting, with Joel Embiid adding 19 points, 14 rebounds and 4 assists, Seth Curry with 21 points on hyper-efficient 8-of-11 shooting, Danny Green adding 13 points (11 of which came in the first quarter), and Ben Simmons finishing with a 15-point, 12-rebound and 11-assist triple-double. Shake Milton contributed 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting off the bench.

Here are some quick thoughts on the Sixers’ fifth win in six games.

Tobias Harris’ excellent streak continues

Harris finished the game connecting on four of his seven 3-point attempts, which means he’s made 15 of his past 27 3-point shots after going 0-4 in the opener. And when Harris is on a roll from the perimeter like he is, his entire game changes. Before you know it, he has the audacity to try stuff like this.

Oh my, @tobias31. pic.twitter.com/8DXTWVw8Ot

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) January 3, 2021

(My favorite part of that clip is that Gordon Hayward doesn’t even bother to take two steps over to help off Ben Simmons in the corner and cut Harris off. The Sixers have significantly better floor spacing with Curry and Green on the floor instead of Al Horford and Josh Richardson, last year’s counterparts. The spacing gets even better when the opponent inexplicably treats Simmons like he’s JJ Redick standing in the corner.)

A lot was made in training camp that the Sixers would put Harris in more pick-and-rolls, and that it would get him back into his comfort zone on offense. Through this point in the season, it hasn’t actually unfolded that way, though, as only 16.2 percent of Harris’ possessions have come as a ballhandler in pick-and-roll sets, per Synergy Sports. That percentage is lower than in either of the past two seasons for Harris. Precisely zero of Harris’ 15 made 3s have been derived from Harris creating out of a pick-and-roll.

But what Harris has done so far his season is turn himself into an elite catch-and-shoot threat, with Synergy charting him at 1.6 points per possession on catch-and-shoot jumpers. That, in turn, has unlocked some of Harris’ potential attacking closeouts off the dribble. The combination of all of that — teams worried about Harris as a spot-up shooter, the extra space to attack off the bounce because of the improved perimeter shooting around him and a confident Harris making decisive movements — has led to maybe the best stretch of basketball of Harris’ Sixers career.

We’ll see what happens when he hits an inevitable cold streak, but Harris has rebounded in a massive way after a clunker on opening night.

Danny Green finds his groove

Heading into Saturday night’s contest against the Hornets, new Sixer Green was averaging just 4.4 points per game and shooting only 21.1 percent from 3-point range. He was playing good defense, but the Sixers were playing four-on-five offensively too frequently.

Green found his groove early Saturday with 11 first-quarter points, including three makes from 3-point range in the first six-plus minutes of the game. Green was the beneficiary of some excellent ball movement from the Sixers, and for him to convert on those opportunities gave the Sixers just a little more punch in their half-court offense.

“We were shooting well because we were getting open shots,” Green said. “I think most teams will shoot well if you swing the ball (and) find the open man. Most uncontested shots are a lot easier. Obviously, we know the worm is gonna turn, we’re gonna have some lows, or some lapses or phases where we don’t shoot as well, but at least we’re getting the best shot for our team.”

Seth Curry is a model of consistency

The other major shooter the Sixers added over the summer, Curry, has been an absolute model of consistency so far this season, with his season averages now up to 16.2 points and 4.0 assists. He’s shooting 56.1 percent overall and 51.5 percent from 3-point range after another excellent outing on Saturday night that saw him finish with 21 points on only 11 field goal attempts, which included 3-of-6 shooting from 3-point range.

The respect teams give Curry’s shot opens up driving lanes not only for teammates but also for Curry, who patiently waits for his defender to fly by him with an aggressive closeout. This allows the not-particularly-quick Curry a chance to drive into the teeth of the defense. Curry finished with six dimes Saturday, with a couple of them coming on nice drive-and-kick sequences to Green for an open catch-and-shoot J. Curry is not going to wow you with his dribble-drive moves, but he does a good job using the threat of his shot to open up other facets of his game.

Embiid, Simmons forcing defensive rotations

Embiid’s progression as a half-court initiator, rather than just scorer, has been a revelation so far, with the Sixers big man seemingly inviting double teams — and using the team’s perimeter shooting to make the opponent pay.

“Joel is a load to guard, and teams every night have to make a choice: one-on-one with Joel, or go help and open up our shooters,” Rivers said. “And those are two good options for us.”

In addition to that, Embiid controlled the game defensively in the first half, altering nearly every shot Charlotte took in the paint. The defense slipped a bit in the second half, as did most aspects of the Sixers’ execution, but the first half served as a good reminder of Embiid’s nearly unmatched two-way dominance.

By the same token, this was one of Simmons’ better games in terms of finding a way to get into the heart of the defense and kicking the ball back out to shooters for quality looks. The Sixers even made a concerted effort to get Simmons active when he was off the ball, sending him cutting through the middle a couple of times, hitting him with passes at full speed to help him get a step on his defender.

“I think Ben’s doing a great job with his timing on the dives,” Rivers said. “Early on he was diving too early, and they were able to get to him and get back off. Now his timing, he’s taking someone with him. I just like how we’re doing it right now.”

All of this is then topped off by a group of perimeter shooters who have done a good job of making the extra pass. So far this season, 9.3 percent of their shots have been corner 3s, per CleaningTheGlass.com. While that is good for only 11th in the league, it is the highest it’s been in the Simmons-Embiid era. In fact, 13.9 percent of the Sixers’ field goal attempts last night were corner 3s, which is the fifth-highest total of any game in the Simmons-Embiid era. They have had three games this season where the percentage of shots that came from corner 3s was higher than any game in 2017-18. They’ve never been better at creating these high-quality looks.

Everything is converging: The spacing is allowing Embiid and Simmons to be more patient, and the patience is then leading to defenders being forced into rotations they don’t want to make, with enough shooters and precise ball movement to take advantage in a cascading effect of good to great.

Things will not always be this easy, and the quality of the competition has to be factored into any assessment of the recent results. But considering how the offense looked in the first four games of the year, these last two against the Magic and the Hornets have been a comparative joy to watch. The Hornets are the type of overmatched, undisciplined defensive team that the Sixers have picked apart in the regular season before. But while the shots won’t always go in as frequently as they did Saturday night, the ease with which they generated those quality open looks was encouraging to see.

Turnovers, defense plague second half

The Sixers did get sloppy in the second half, both with their turnovers and their team defense. On another night, when they weren’t making so many of their 3s, this might have cost them a very winnable game.

The Sixers turned the ball over 15 times in the second half, which can’t happen against the better teams in the league. Many of the errors were unforced, especially at the start of the third quarter, when a terrible entry pass by Harris was followed up with a head-scratching outlet pass from Simmons kicked off a really sloppy portion of the game for the Sixers. The focus just wasn’t there after they came back from the break.

The Sixers’ poor passing and decision-making on offense led to a plethora of open 3-point shots in transition for the Hornets, who started to connect from deep as a result of the easier looks they were receiving. After struggling in the first half, the Hornets shot 6 of 12 from deep in the third quarter, dropping 32 points on the Sixers in the third, with 17 of those coming off Sixers turnovers.

“Our lead,” Rivers said when asked what was behind the Sixers’ struggles in the second half. “We had transition buckets where we’re going for lobs. That’s a team with a big lead, that’s a dangerous way to play. We’ll watch that on film and correct that.”

Luckily, the offense continued to hum along (at least it did in the possessions when the Sixers were able to get a shot up), and the Sixers made enough shots to keep Terry Rozier and his 35-point performance (12 of 18 from the field, 7 of 11 from 3) from killing them. Despite the sloppiness, it never really felt like the Sixers’ lead was in much danger. But it was far from a perfect second-half performance.

(Photo:Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images)

Derek Bodner is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Philadelphia 76ers. He previously reported on the team for Philadelphia Magazine and SB Nation. He has also covered the NBA Draft for USA Today and DraftExpress, and written about the NBA for The Ringer. Follow Derek on Twitter @DerekBodnerNBA