The Philadelphia 76ers are back in the loss column after falling to the Charlotte Hornets by a score of 107-101. After going all out to beat the Brooklyn Nets in Ben Simmons' return to Philadelphia, the injury-riddled Sixers fell to the LaMelo Ball-less Hornets in a close contest.

Playing on the road the day after such a huge win with their top three players out against a well-rested team, the Sixers were not expected to put up their best effort. A 12-point lead after the first quarter inspired confidence but Philly was outscored in the following three periods. In his postgame press conference on NBC Sports Philadelphia, Doc Rivers praised the undermanned Sixers for providing a high level of effort in tough circumstances.

“I thought we played great,” Rivers told reporters following the Sixers' loss to the Hornets. “Honestly, I thought we ran out of gas. I didn’t see a negative thing in this game that we can say. Honest to God, I thought we played hard. First quarter, we had 33 points and then from that point on, we miss a lot of makeable shots, which you will live with. I thought our energy was fantastic. We played a team that's been off for three days. Georges couldn’t make any shots tonight. Tobias started out great, [then] couldn’t make any shots. I thought De'Anthony Melton was literally on fumes…I told our team I was very happy. I don’t wanna lose a game but I loved how we played.”

Shake Milton came to play all game long despite playing 36 minutes the previous night. He led the team with 22 points and nine assists to go with seven boards. The has started to find his groove as he becomes one of the lead ball handlers for the undermanned Sixers.

De'Anthony Melton got off to a hot start with 13 points in the first quarter and finished with 20 points, six rebounds, four steals and three assists. Tobias Harris contributed 19 points and P.J. Tucker snapped his historic scoring drought with a key fourth-quarter triple while bringing in seven rebounds.

The Sixers, after sinking half of their 3-point attempts from deep against the Nets, shot just 23.7 percent from deep. Overall, they just couldn't generate enough offense to keep up with the Hornets, who were led by Terry Rozier's 22 points. They will have a day to rest before continuing their road trip on Friday against the Orlando Magic.