With momentum on their side, the Sixers must avoid a letdown loss in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE — The 76ers arrived in the Queen City in the wee hours Thursday morning as the hottest team in the NBA.

Winners of six straight and 34 of their last 44 games dating back to Dec. 9, life is good for the Sixers (46-22). The team that resided most of the season in the shadows of Eastern Conference elites Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics is suddenly receiving its flowers. And with just case.

The Sixers’ trip here begins a brief break from an intense stretch of resume-building victories against some of the NBA’s best teams.

That said, the Sixers would be remiss if they relaxed against subpar competition as they have in seasons past. A letdown here against the struggling Charlotte Hornets Friday night could haunt the Sixers and have a impact similar to last season’s road loss against the Detroit Pistons, which cost them a outright second-place finish in the East.

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Instead, the Sixers were tied with the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks for second. But with the tiebreaker against them, the Sixers received the fourth seed. And what had been a season of optimism concluded with a second-round postseason loss to top-seeded Miami Heat. That scenario is one of several reasons the Sixers must avoid a letdown at the Spectrum Center.

The Sixers will then fly to Indianapolis for Saturday’s matchup against the Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

It’s imperative that they win both games to keep pace with Milwaukee (50-20) and Boston (48-22). The Sixers are third in the East and three games behind the first-place Bucks and one behind the second-place Celtics with 14 games remaining.

With a tough slate of games ahead, a loss to the beatable Hornets could possibly come back to hurt the SIxers for seeding purposes. The same can be said about the Pacers, who improved to 32-38 after Thursday’s 139-123 victory over Milwaukee.

Charlotte has lost three straight games and six of its last eight. At 22-49, the Hornets also have the East’s second-worst record. And the game will have a different vibe from the Sixers’ road victories in Cleveland Wednesday and Milwaukee on March 4. With that, it’s going to be easy for the visitors to fall into a lull.

“We got to jump on them from the beginning,” Joel Embiid said. “We can’t give them a chance, and we can’t make them believe that they can have a chance of beating us. That’s the key. We have to jump on them from the beginning. The same thing with Indiana.”

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The Sixers shouldn’t have any problem getting motivated to face Indiana. The contest in the Hoosier state will be a rematch of their 147-143 victory there on March 6. In that game. Both teams appeared allergic to defense until the Sixers strung together a couple of late stops to escape with the win.

The Sixers shot 58.5% from the field while the Pacers were slightly better at 58.9%. Indiana led, 79-78, at the half thanks to shooting 61.1% in the first two quarters, while the Sixers shot 61%.

So the Pacers will have their full attention.

But the Sixers have dominated the Charlotte series. The Hornets did beat them, 107-101, here on Nov. 23 on a night without Embiid (sprained left foot), James Harden (strained right foot) and Tyrese Maxey (fracture left foot).

Things were different when Embiid and Harden returned for the teams’ Dec. 11 meeting at the Wells Fargo Center.

Embiid feasted on the Hornets and Harden had a near triple-double in the Sixers’ 131-113 victory. The Sixers center finished with a game-high 53 points, 12 rebounds and one block. Harden had 19 points, a game-high 16 assists and nine rebounds.

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“We played well in Charlotte overall,” coach Doc Rivers said. “We just didn’t do it that last game [on Nov. 23]. So there’s no carryover from that. I don’t even think our guys will remember.”

But what about overlooking them?

“Well, if we do, we won’t win,” Rivers said. “And that’s every night in the NBA. Just because teams don’t have good records that doesn’t mean they don’t have talent on their team.”