Shorthanded Sixers show ‘great spirit and togetherness’ to post fifth victory in seven games
Tyrese Maxey and Paul George became the first pair of Sixers teammates to score at least 30 points and make six three-pointers in the same game after combining to score 73 against the Hornets.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The 76ers still believe they have time to turn things around.
In their eyes, Monday night’s 121-108 victory over the Charlotte Hornets is the perfect bounce-back win after a disheartening loss Friday to the Indiana Pacers.
“This does the same thing that any win does for us right now — gives us confidence,” Tyrese Maxey said. “We dropped the last game. But other than the last game, we’ve been playing pretty well. So we had to get back to that, playing extremely hard out there.”
» READ MORE: Tyrese Maxey and Paul George combine for a big night in the Sixers’ win over the Charlotte Hornets
In addition to improving their record to 8-16, the win marked the Sixers’ fifth victory in seven games. The most impressive part? The Sixers’ latest accomplishment came without Joel Embiid (right sinus fracture), Jared McCain (lateral meniscus tear in his left knee), and Caleb Martin (right shoulder impingement).
“Obviously, we’ve got a little chip because we’re missing our brothers,” Kelly Oubre Jr. said. “I’m praying for them, for a speedy recovery and everything going well. But we’ve got to hold it down for them until they get back — keep stacking wins, keep stacking good days. We’ve been practicing really well, and everything is carrying over.”
The Sixers have ample opportunity to do that. They have a rematch with the Hornets (7-19) on Friday at the Wells Fargo Center (7 p.m., NBCSP). Then they’ll face the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday (8 p.m., NBCSP+) at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. The earliest Embiid could return is the Sixers’ home game against the San Antonio Spurs on Monday.
In the interim, the way Maxey and Paul George dominated should give the Sixers some confidence. Maxey (40 points, 6 of 12 on three-pointers) and George (33, 6 of 9 on threes) became the first pair of Sixers teammates to score at least 30 points and make six three-pointers in the same game.
As a team, the Sixers made 16 of 38 three-pointers. Eric Gordon made 3 of 5 threes to score nine points off the bench. Oubre (19 points, nine rebounds) and Andre Drummond (nine points, 15 rebounds) also had solid performances.
For Maxey, Monday’s performance was all about being himself and letting the result speak for itself.
“I just said I had to smile more and get back to being happy out there playing basketball,” Maxey said. “I think I did that [Monday]. I’m happy. I’m a happy person. And I was happy for my teammates and how hard they played tonight.”
» READ MORE: Sixers’ Joel Embiid will miss another week as he recovers from a right sinus fracture
The Sixers’ spirit is what stood out the most to coach Nick Nurse as his team faced a tough matchup against a young and athletic team.
“I thought the guys were together and focused,” Nurse said. “I thought we did a really good job on a couple of things. They’re a fast team, and until the end when they started kind of racing up, we did a decent job in transition.”
Tenacity often shows up in the form of rebounds and 50-50 balls. The Sixers held the Hornets to just three offensive rebounds in the first half and nine for the game. That was significant as Charlotte entered Tuesday fourth in offensive rebounds (13 per game) and eighth in total rebounds (45.2 per game).
“They’re a very good offensive rebounding team as well,” Nurse said. “So we took care of two main keys. But I think it was great spirit and togetherness.”