Sixers-Hornets takeaways: More balance needed; Joel Embiid hits another milestone; fortunate to win

The 76ers were caught watching.

Joel Embiid pulled even with Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain. And he and his teammates were fortunate to leave Charlotte with a victory Saturday night.

Those three things stood out in the Sixers’ 97-89 win over the struggling Hornets at the Spectrum Center.

The Sixers’ two-man game of Embiid and Tyrese Maxey has been elite this season. They headed into Saturday’s game as the NBA’s top scoring duo, scoring 61.3 points a game.

On Saturday, Embiid had 33 points, 10 rebounds, and three blocks against the Hornets (9-31). Maxey added 16 points and eight assists.

While their play all season has been impressive, the Sixers (28-13) must get others involved in the offense. And that wasn’t the case through two quarters against the Hornets.

Embiid had 20 points on 6-for-14 shooting in the first half, while Maxey had 12 points on 5-for-14 shooting. However, no other teammate had more than two shot attempts. That led to a lot of standing around and watching Embiid and Maxey play in a closer-than-expected opening half. The Sixers clung to a 46-45 halftime lead.

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When players did shoot, they weren’t efficient. As a team, the Sixers made just 40% of their first-half shots, including making just two of 11 three-pointers.

While the Sixers stepped things up after intermission, they’ll need to find more balance moving forward. They were fortunate that they were playing a struggling and undermanned Hornets squad.

They would have dug themselves into an insurmountable hole if they were playing a quality opponent.

The reigning MVP was up to 31 points on a 16-foot jumper with 3 minutes, 13 seconds remaining Saturday. That’s important because it extended Embiid’s streak of games with 30 or more points to 20. That pulled him into a tie for fourth on the NBA’s all-time list with one of Chamberlain’s streaks. Chamberlain accomplished that feat with the San Francisco Warriors during the 1963-64 season.

Chamberlain is also ranked first and third on this list. He scored 30-plus points in an NBA-record 65 straight games for the Philadelphia Warriors during the 1961-62 season. Former Sixer James Harden did it for 32 consecutive games as a Houston Rocket during the 2018-19 season. And Chamberlain accomplished the feat with 25 straight with the Warriors during the 1960-61 season.

The San Francisco Warriors traded Chamberlain to the Sixers on Jan. 15, 1965.

The Sixers finally woke up from their deep slumber in the fourth quarter. They opened the final 12 minutes with a 13-2 run to build an 82-75 lead with 8 minutes, 26 seconds remaining. Tobias Harris scored six points during that run and 10 total in the fourth quarter. That enabled the power forward to finish with 21 points to go with six assists.

The Sixers shot 55% in the fourth quarter after struggling through the first three quarters, when they made just 38.5% of their shots. The Hornets, meanwhile, struggled mightily from the field in the fourth, shooting 31.2%, including making 2 of 7 three-pointers. Charlotte also committed nine of its 16 turnovers in the final quarter while being held to 16 points.