Joel Embiid, Sixers Climb Out of Slump With Blowout Win vs. Hornets

Heading into the weekend, the Philadelphia 76ers have struggled in their last few games. After taking on a tough ten-point loss against the Phoenix Suns last

Heading into the weekend, the Philadelphia 76ers have struggled in their last few games. After taking on a tough ten-point loss against the Phoenix Suns last Sunday, the Sixers fell into a small slump. 

This past Tuesday night, the 76ers hosted the defending champions, the Milwaukee Bucks, and couldn’t keep up with the star power of Giannis Antetokounmpo in the second half.

After taking on yet another loss on Tuesday, the Sixers hoped to bounce back two nights later in Detroit against the Pistons. Once again, the Sixers controlled the game for most of the matchup. But once crunch time approached, it all went downhill for Philly.

Going into Saturday afternoon’s game with three-straight losses, the Sixers hosted a red-hot Charlotte Hornets team. While the Hornets aren’t guaranteed to notch a spot in the postseason this year, they are in the NBA’s Play-In Tournament and looking to improve their seeding.

Therefore, Saturday’s game had high stakes for both teams, as the Sixers had an opportunity to notch a spot in the playoffs with a victory over Charlotte and a Cleveland Cavaliers loss. 

Lately, the Sixers haven’t been the best version of themselves, but they came out looking like a completely different team on Saturday afternoon. In the areas where the Sixers have struggled over the last few games, they look much improved as they cruised past Charlotte with a significant win.

Jordan's Best Yet

Lately, the bench play has been a critical topic surrounding the 76ers — especially when it comes to the backup center minutes behind Joel Embiid. The Sixers have several candidates that can fill in with DeAndre Jordan, Paul Millsap, Charles Bassey, and Paul Reed.

Considering Bassey and Reed lack experience at the NBA level, Doc Rivers has shown hesitation to play the two young prospects and typically rolls with Jordan and Millsap. So far, that experiment hasn’t gone well, but Jordan had himself a solid performance on Saturday.

In nearly ten minutes of action, Jordan made all four of his field-goal attempts, scoring eight points. He also collected five rebounds and blocked two shots. Saturday’s performance was by far Jordan’s best with the Sixers, and if he can continue to play with that confidence moving forward, the team would be in great shape for the playoffs. 

Pure Dominance

On Friday, NBA.com released its NBA MVP ladder. Last week, Joel Embiid was in the top spot above Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic. This week, Embiid slid a couple of spots as Jokic not only passed him but so did Antetokounmpo.

It’s unclear whether Embiid’s been paying close attention to the MVP race or not, but he came out firing on all cylinders against the Hornets as if he has been keeping an eye on it.

Checking in for the entire first quarter, Embiid drained all but one of his four field-goal attempts. He also went 3-5 from the free-throw line and collected nine points.

In the second quarter, Embiid checked in for seven minutes and continued to shoot efficiently as he drained four of his six shots from the field and collected ten points. At the end of the first half, Embiid had 19 points and 11 rebounds in just 19 minutes.

Philly’s first-half performance was good. Their third-quarter performance was spectacular. And, of course, Embiid had a lot to do with that. Once again, Embiid checked in for the entire quarter. It seemed that as long as the big man helped the Sixers rally coming out of the half, he would be able to end his day early.

That ended up being the case. After going 5-6 from the field, collecting another ten points, Embiid checked out at the end of the third quarter with 29 points in 31 minutes. He drained 75-percent of his shots from the field as the Sixers rallied past the Hornets with a blowout 144-114 victory. 

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.