Joel Embiid scores 42 points in three quarters as Sixers blast Charlotte Hornets for sixth straight win

CHARLOTTE — After Joel Embiid buried a fading baseline jumper in the first quarter Saturday, a fan wearing a red Allen Iverson jersey and makeshift blue 76ers chain yelled a simple message.

“All day!” he hollered while standing from the top row of Section 105 of the Spectrum Center.

Lately for the NBA’s reigning MVP, it has been all day, every game.

Embiid again feasted on an inferior, shorthanded opponent, racking up 42 points on a wickedly efficient 18-of-23 shooting, along with 15 rebounds in less than three quarters to anchor yet another lopsided (and record-setting) victory, this time 135-82 over the Hornets.

“I was just trying to do my job and try to put them away,” Embiid said. “Try to give us a cushion; good enough to give some of the [deep bench] guys that we have some playing time.”

It was the sixth win in a row for the 18-7 Sixers, all against sub-.500 teams who entered Saturday in 10th place or lower in the Eastern Conference standings. But the last four outings have been absolute thrashings by an average of 37 points — Saturday’s 53-point margin was the worst loss in Hornets franchise history, and the third-largest victory in Sixers franchise history — with Embiid at the literal center.

It also was the 11th consecutive 30-point performance for Embiid, the NBA’s leading scorer, and fourth straight without needing to play the final quarter. Though Charlotte coach Steve Clifford warned his team against committing unnecessary fouls before the game, Embiid did not accumulate a significant portion of his points at the free-throw line (6-of-6) — a stat that initially left teammate Tyrese Maxey dumbfounded.

» READ MORE: Sixers trade primer: Assets to deal, potential targets, and teams to watch

Instead, Embiid’s jumper was smooth and surgical, a strategy hatched early when he turned upset about an “clear foul that I didn’t get.” And even when the Hornets (7-17) did swarm Embiid inside, he still finished around those defenders or through the contact. He scored the Sixers’ first eight points in less than three minutes. He barely missed achieving a double-double in the first quarter, with 18 points and nine rebounds. He was up to 27 points by halftime on 12-of-15 shooting.

“Some nights, [defenders] want to be extremely aggressive against me,” Embiid said. “ … Tonight, it just seemed like they were aggressive, but they weren’t all over me. So I had a few times where I had an easy jumper, which I just took.

“I’m just really taking whatever the defense is giving me. ... I’ll take it as long as we’re putting the ball in the basket.”

Embiid then reached 30 points less than five minutes into the third quarter, when he took an over-the-top pass from Maxey for an easy layup. He again surpassed his season scoring average (33.8 points per game entering Saturday) before the end of the third quarter, reaching 35 when he grabbed a feed from Nicolas Batum and finished inside.

He then hit 40 points when, following an and-one jumper that rattled in, he took a rebound to the opposite end and drilled another shot. And after converting a driving finger-roll layup, he checked out of the game as “M-V-P!” chants rang from a contingent of Sixers fans who often were louder than the home team supporters.

“I love the rhythm he’s taking [the jumper] in,” coach Nick Nurse said. “It hits his hands, and it’s going up. There isn’t a whole lot of holding it and surveying it and looking around, which, if he’s open, he should go into the rhythm right up. [But he is] still mixing it up enough. He’s going inside, and the guys keep finding him in there just enough: up in transition, a few duck-ins here and there. … Those are super high-percentage. I mean, everything was high-percentage tonight.

“When he’s locked in and focused, he can keep doing things that are, well, when you’re on our side, they’re really fun to watch.”

Seemingly all that stopped Embiid were his rest periods, when Maxey took over the scoring load. He scored 17 of his 21 points in the second quarter, including a blistering 5-of-6 from three-point range, and also finished the game with seven assists.

Following a November dip, the Sixers had entered Saturday ranked second in the NBA in defensive efficiency (107.9 points allowed per 100 possessions) over their previous eight games. That allowed them to climb to seventh overall in that category, at 110.9 points allowed per 100 possessions.

That only will improve after limiting the Hornets — who were missing standouts LaMelo Ball and Gordon Hayward — to 36.3% from the floor and 7-of-35 from three-point range. Charlotte’s 82 points were the fewest the Sixers have allowed this season, after giving up 92 against the Detroit Pistons Friday night.

Charlotte missed 13 of its first 15 shot attempts. They went 2-of-17 from three-point range in the first half. That helped the Sixers lead by as many as 16 points in the opening frame, then extend that advantage to as much as 29 before the break.

“Right at the start, you could just tell we were guarding,” Nurse said. “We were getting deflections. We were up into bodies. Most of their shots they were taking were really challenged. …

“We were ready to go from that end. That is probably going to translate to the other end most nights. They’re playing each possession out with some intensity and with some thought, and that’s kind of getting [the starters] to the point where they get to take the fourth quarter off.”

The Sixers also generated 10 steals in the game and only surrendered five fast-break points, a weakness throughout the early season.

Kelly Oubre Jr. told The Inquirer earlier this week that he hoped to “give them a good show” in his return to Charlotte but also “beat the crap” out of Charlotte, where he played from 2021 to 2023. He expressed a similar sentiment when he came back from a fractured rib nearly two weeks ago against the Washington Wizards, the team for which he began his NBA career.

Consider that done. Oubre finished with 12 points, four rebounds, and multiple flashy plays that drew “oohs” from fans who once cheered for him.

Oubre ran out of the tunnel at the end of the line of Sixers and saluted the crowd. He greeted several former teammates near midcourt as both teams warmed up before tipoff. A welcome back message appeared on the video board during a first-quarter timeout.

» READ MORE: Sixers rotations coming into better focus with roster at full strength

He then threw down a follow dunk with about eight minutes remaining in the second quarter, then got free for another slam off an inside pass from Tobias Harris late in the third. Oubre then opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer, before collecting another putback dunk to push the Sixers’ lead to 50 points.

Before the game, Clifford said he had recently communicated with Oubre and said, “I know he’s happy [playing for the Sixers]. I know he’s excited about the possibilities of what their team can do.”

It also was a homecoming for Batum, who spent five seasons in Charlotte from 2015 to 2020. He finished with three points, three rebounds, and three assists and spent part of the game guarding Hornets standout guard Terry Rozier.

When asked by a Charlotte media member about Batum before the game, Nurse called the veteran forward an “unbelievably classy person” and a “really a perfect fit for us” because of his defense, passing ability, and high basketball IQ.