The 76ers might have a better will to win than we thought.
Joel Embiid showed he can still dominate when he plays aggressively. The Sixers still need to do a better job of keeping teams out of the paint.
And former Villanova coach Kyle Neptune has found a great landing spot with the Charlotte Hornets, where he’s a welcome addition.
Those four things stood out Saturday night in the Sixers’ 125-121 home-opening victory over the Hornets at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Will to win
Embiid didn’t play the final 19 minutes, 2 seconds of the game because he is on a minutes restriction. Dominick Barlow missed the second half with a right elbow laceration. And the Sixers had their share of defensive woes.
But like in Wednesday’s season opener, they battled back from a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter to win the game.
This time they trailed by 112-102 with 5:42 remaining.
The Sixers (2-0) took the lead for good when Quentin Grimes’ three-pointer gave them a 122-119 lead with 15 seconds remaining.
» READ MORE: As Joel Embiid adapts to his new reality, can he help the Sixers be competitive?
“I was kind of reminding them, it was 10 or 11 [down], I was kind of reminding them, this is right where we were the other night. We got it,” coach Nick Nurse said of battling back from a 13-point, fourth-quarter deficit Wednesday to beat the Boston Celtics, 117-116. “We are going to have to make a few stops, and some of you guys are going to have to get up the floor and start pulling the trigger on some plays on offense.”
And that’s what happened.
These two victories are great confidence builders for a team with a young corps. The Sixers know they’re capable of pulling out victories regardless of the circumstances.
“I think everybody is playing hard,” Embiid said of the Sixers’ resilience. “This year, we wanted to make sure that when everybody shows up, we’ve got a job to do. We play hard, win or lose.
“Even tonight, if we would have lost, I still would have been proud of the guys.”
Embiid’s aggressiveness
It didn’t take long for the 2023 NBA MVP and seven-time All-Star to erase memories of Wednesday’s season-opening performance against the Celtics. On that night, Embiid scored four points on 1-for-9 shooting. Against the Hornets, Embiid finished with 20 points on 7-for-11 shooting, along with two rebounds, four assists, and two steals. He played just 20:07.
The elevated play had a lot to do with Embiid being more aggressive than in the season opener.
The Sixers made a conscious effort to get him involved early on. After VJ Edgecombe missed a jumper, Dominick Barlow grabbed the offensive rebound and passed the ball to Tyrese Maxey. Maxey, in turn, dished the ball to Embiid, who buried a three-pointer 45 seconds into the game.
“I came in the first game, obviously, the first game in a couple of months,” Embiid said of Wednesday. “I know I played in the preseason, but it’s not the same. It’s not even close. [In the first game], I tried to work my way back and try to figure it out. First game in months, obviously. It’s easier when you make shots like I did tonight. It looks better, but I think it was just the same.
“And the first game, it was slowly trying to figure it out. Tonight, it was more like, ‘Well, I only got 20 minutes.’”
With that, he decided to make the most of those minutes.
» READ MORE: VJ Edgecombe enjoyed every bit of his historic NBA debut. But he hopes it becomes a footnote to a long career.
The 7-foot-2, 280-pounder had nine points as the Sixers took an 18-9 lead with 7:52 left in the first quarter. Ryan Kalkbrenner, a rookie center out of Creighton, picked up two quick fouls and had to head to the bench while guarding Embiid.
Embiid did a better job of balancing looking for his shot and finding teammates.
If he can continue to play this way, and the Sixers can create more scoring opportunities for Maxey and Edgecombe, then this team has a potent offense early on.
Sixers must stop the ball
The Sixers struggled to stop the Hornets’ dribble penetration. Charlotte routinely drove the lane with ease.
Realizing the Sixers couldn’t stop it, the Hornets prioritized the dribble drive on almost every possession for long stretches.
Charlotte led, 48-40, in points in the paint and had a 16-15 advantage in second-chance points. However, the Hornets’ margin appeared wider because it was so easy for them to get into the paint, as Sixers guards struggled with on-ball defense.
They’re going to have to correct this if they expect to be competitive. This is a copycat league, and teams watching this game film will attack the rim until the Sixers stop them.
“It really has become a lot of point-of-attack offense,” Nurse said. “It’s almost the same as the other night. It’s almost like they bring it across, and the guy who’s bringing it across is putting their head down and trying to just get by or force a foul or force a rotation.
“So a couple of things, we’ve got to close. We got to square up and play physical. We also have to be in our gaps a little better, so the driving lanes don’t look so inviting.”
They played a little better in the fourth quarter.
Great landing spot
Some might say that Kyle Neptune had the misfortune of replacing Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright at Villanova. He coached the Wildcats to a 54-47 record over three seasons, with zero NCAA Tournament appearances, before being fired on March 15.
But Neptune has been a welcome addition to the Hornets after being hired on Aug. 29.
“I’ve actually admired Kyle’s coaching career ever since he was at ’Nova,” said Hornets coach Charles Lee, who played at Bucknell. “I knew him back in the day when he played at Lehigh. So there was a ton of Bucknell-Lehigh rivalry matchups and stuff like that. And so it started there, but then I’ve always kind of followed his career.”
» READ MORE: Quentin Grimes’ clutch three lifts 76ers to victory over Charlotte in home opener
Even though Neptune didn’t get the results Villanova wanted, Lee loved everything Neptune did during his time with the Wildcats. He said his new assistant recruited “really good players,” some of whom Lee got the opportunity to coach in the NBA.
“The first person that they would usually bring up is Kyle Neptune,” he said.
Lee also likes how Neptune went 16-16 in his lone season as Fordham’s coach. That came one season after the Rams went 2-12.
“He’s been a great value add to our group,” Lee said. “He fits the type of person we want in our organization. He’s a culture enhancer. Then, on top of it, he knows how to teach the game. He’s a great motivator, and works really well and builds really good relationships with players.”
