Nic Batum did not make good on his promise Saturday when he told reporters that he guaranteed a win against the 76ers Monday night. Philadelphia 76ers picked up their third straight win when they beat the Charlotte Hornets, 105-99. It’s the Hornets third straight loss, Hornets have lost their last ten out of eleven games. Starting centers for 76ers Joel Embiid (left knee contusion) and Jahlil Okafor (who is expected to be traded to the Pelicans) didn’t travel with the team. While Hornets starting center Cody Zeller was out again with a quad contusion, Frank Kaminsky took his place in the starting lineup. At halftime, Charlotte was down 48-46 but would go on a 7-2 run to start the third quarter to take a four-point lead. But the 76ers would respond with a 10-0 run to quickly re-take the lead. Starting the fourth quarter 76ers were up eight, the Hornets would cut it to six with less than a minute to go when Kemba hit a jumper, Batum had a golden chance to cut the lead to two when he stole the ball from Henderson but his three-pointer attempt from the corner hit the rim and bounce out of play. The 76ers would hold on after that to get the win.
The MVP for the Hornets this game would be Kemba Walker with 29 points and 7 rebounds. Kemba was on a rough streak of games where he didn’t look like himself but tonight he looked like his self. He got to the basket with ease and shot the ball much better as well. The three stats from this game that really stands out, is first the rebounding margin. 76ers out-rebounded the Hornets 51-33, which helped them get 11 second-chance points, while the Hornets only had 3 second-chance points. The last stat that stood out was the points in the paint 76ers had 56 points in the paint while Hornets had 36. I know Cody Zeller was out and backup center Miles Plumlee left in the second half with a strained right calf. But that just means that others players must stand up and get physical. This team lacks that outside of Cody, Plumlee, and Kemba. Before I go into the leading scorers for tonight game, I wanted to talk about the trade the Hornets made earlier today, Hornets and Cavs agreed to a trade today, that sent Chris Anderson and cash to Charlotte in exchange for a highly protected second-round pick. The Hornets waived Anderson immediately when the trade was approved and they only way Cleveland would get the second-round pick was if the Hornets finished this season with one of the top-five records in the NBA. Which is highly unlikely unless teams start losing a lot of games and Hornets start winning a lot of games. The trade help opened a roster spot for the Cavs who are looking to sign a backup point guard, while the Hornets can use the cash to help them either get a better backup point guard or more bench scoring. Overall the trade was a win-win for both teams. The leading scorers for the Hornets this game was Nicolas Batum with 16 points, Frank Kaminsky with 12 points 11 rebounds, Jeremy Lamb with 12 points and Marco Belinelli with 8 points. The leading scorers for the 76ers this game was Dario Saric with 18 points 11 rebounds, Robert Covington with 17 points, T.J. McConnell with 14 points 7 assists and Gerald Henderson with 12 points. Charlotte Hornets (24-31) travel to play the Toronto Raptors Wednesday night.
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