Charlotte Hornets Primed To Shake Road Struggles Against Surging 76ers
The Charlotte Hornets are looking to right the ship in Philadelphia after dropping their third straight road game at the hands of the Houston Rockets.
The Charlotte Hornets (20-19) will try to get their current road trip on track when they travel to the city of brotherly love for a battle with the Philadelphia 76ers (11-25). Charlotte’s Frank Kaminsky banged home a go-ahead three during crunch time in Houston, but it never phased the Harden-led Rockets.
The 121-114 loss in Houston marked Charlottes third straight defeat and their fifth in six games.
Past iterations of their next opponent — The Philadelphia 76ers — would have guaranteed a bounce back win. Not so much this season.
Philly has won four of their past five and a T.J. McConnell buzzer-beater against the Knicks guaranteed the Sixers will have a better record than last year. The Process is clearly being trusted.
Charlotte has dominated Philadelphia of late, having won six in a row against the Sixers, giving Joel Embiid and company all the fuel they need for an upset victory.
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Charlotte Hornets @ Philadelphia 76ers
7:00 p.m. EST, Friday, January 13th, 2017
Wells Fargo Center
Broadcast on FOX Sports SouthEast
InJury Report
CHA:
Nicolas Batum (knee) — Probable
Jeremy Lamb (inflamed metatarsal) — Out
PHI:
Ben Simmons (foot) — Out
Biggest Story:
Containing Embiid
Joel Embiid may already be a top five center in the NBA, the crazy part? He’s played less than a decade of organized basketball. An early frontrunner for rookie of the year, Embiid leads the team in scoring (19.4 points per game) rebounding (7.5 per game) blocked shots ( 2.0 per game) and “The Process” is only on the court around 25 minutes per game. Embiid is the real deal and he’s drawn praise from Hornets Assistant Coach Patrick Ewing. The Knicks legend called him “one of the best centers in our league” earlier this season.
Embiid has been on fire during Philadelphia’s current hot streak, the matchup with New York marked his seventh straight game scoring over 20 points. No 76er has hit that milestone since the Brett Brown era began in 2014.
The Embiid effect has finally come to fruition in Philadelphia.
Matchup To Watch:
Cody Zeller vs Joel Embiid
The thought of containing Embiid would be enough to make anyone’s head hurt, luckily Cody Zeller has fought through his sickness over the past week. Victory is seemingly in the hands of Zeller’s defense, Embiid is averaging 23.2 PPG when the Sixers win and 17.4 PPG when they lose.
If Embiid gets to 20 points history isn’t in Charlotte’s favor.
