The Philadelphia 76ers owned the longest active streak of wins against one team. The Sixers won 16 straight games over the Charlotte Hornets. That streak ran all the way back to 2016, but the Hornets snapped that streak on Wednesday night.
Everything that could have went right for the Hornets, did. They made Joel Embiid earn all 31 of his points and held everyone else in check. The Hornets had three guys topple over 20 points and did a good job clogging up the paint and crashing the glass after missed shots.
In the post game press conference, players and James Borrego acknowledged the fact that they haven't beaten them in the last four years. James Borrego addressed it directly after the game:
“We've been battling with these guys for years. It feels like every shot at the end of games has gone their direction and they've made the right plays. But I'm proud of our guys overall, they battled tonight. We stuck together and I'm just really proud of their effort.”
Borrego also dished out credit to Mason Plumlee and PJ Washington for giving it their all on Philly's All-Star center.
“They battled their tail off tonight against a premier player like Embiid. We trust them and they played with some foul trouble, but it was a collective effort. We used a little bit of zone to protect us and just battled him.”
Embiid has had eight straight 30 point games now and his team is 7-1 in their last eight games. It's not easy to keep consistent bodies on Embiid without getting their confidence broken and just giving up half way through the game. Big props do go to the Hornets bigs for doing all they could and playing with five fouls a piece.
James Borrego also had some keys to the game that got the job done against this hot Philly team:
“We had to win the paint tonight, the boards, and we were aggressive at the rim on both sides of the ball. So to win all those categories against this team shows what we're capable of as a team. Great effort by this team tonight.”
This was one of the Hornets best games of the season. Normally, they start the game off fairly slow and wait to receive the first punch. This time, they took it to Philly at the opening tip, built a commanding lead, and maintained a comfortable double digit lead every time Philly started to get hot.
Credit goes out to Miles Bridges and Gordon Hayward who sparked big runs in the first and second half single handily.
Gordon Hayward also reacted to ending the Sixers win streak:
“I think it was a big win for us. We talked about it ending that streak before the game, so it was big for us. It”s just one win though, so we'll learn from this one and move onto the next.”
Bridges had this to say about the win as well:
“We just have to keep attacking. Sometimes we get a lead and we just try to keep them, but we have to try and increase them and keep going. Get out in transition, get stops and what we were doing before.”
This team is growing before everyones eyes. The Hornets have improved to 23-19 and look like they are picking up steam heading into the postseason. If they can maintain this level play for the rest of the season, they should have no problem making it into the postseason. Hopefully they can keep this going.
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