The Charlotte Hornets seem to be finding a really nice groove as of late. They've won six of their last eight games, including two wins back to back against the defending NBA champions. On Wednesday night, they beat the Philadelphia 76ers, who were on a seven game winning streak. The Sixers were also on a 16-game winning streak against the Hornets that dated all the way back to 2016. Thankfully, Charlotte put end to both streaks and played one of their best games of the season on both sides of the ball.

Despite the hot streak, Miles Bridges is still remaining humble. When he was asked about if he felt like the wins over the Milwaukee Bucks and Sixers were a message to the rest of the Eastern Conference, he kept it cool.

“I wouldn't say it was a message. We haven't done anything yet. Our main goal is to get better every game and make the playoffs. So we got three good wins against three good teams, but we got to keep going.”

Bridges has played a major factor behind the wins. Against the Sixers, he put up 21 points and eight rebounds. He sparked a run by himself in the third quarter to hold off Philadelphia after they turned a 20-point deficit, into a nine point win. Bridges held it down in that second half. In the first half though, Gordon Hayward was the hot man.

Hayward knocked down nine straight shots to start the game. He finished the game with 30 points.

Here's what he had to say on his hot start:

I saw a couple go in early. All credit to my teammates for finding me. We were spacing out and making the right pass and getting easy looks. So I was able to knock them down.”

Despite the good offensive output in this game for the Hornets, it was their defense that propelled them to this win. They've held the Bucks and Sixers to under 100 points in back to back games. They are finding an identity on that end of the floor and head coach James Borrego couldn’t be happier about it.

“They battled their tail off tonight against a premier player like Embiid. It was a collective effort. We used a little bit of zone to protect us and battled all night.”

Borrego has preached numerous times that his team's defense needed to improve to beat some of the league's top dogs. Now, the Hornets are starting to finally buy into that concept. The Hornets travel back to Charlotte to take on the Orlando Magic. Hopefully they can bring that same intensity back home to the hive.