March 29, 2026, 7:02 a.m. ET
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Philadelphia 76ers handled business on Saturday as they rallied to knock off the Charlotte Hornets 118-114. The win moves the Sixers now two games ahead of the Hornets and they now own the all-important tiebreaker at this stage of the season.
A big reason for that was the play of Paul George. The 9-time All-Star made some huge shots in the third quarter to keep the Sixers afloat when the Hornets went on a big run to build a 15-point lead and he made the go-ahead 3 with 1:04 left to lift the Sixers to the win. He was terrific on both ends of the floor and he received a lot of love from his teammates.
Joel Embiid and others said a lot about George after the big win:
Embiid on George
“It was good, especially because, obviously, as I keep getting my legs under me, I needed to catch my second wind a little bit in that third quarter. Especially, after exerting a lot of energy in the first half. So it was good for someone, and he was that someone to kind of keep us afloat.”
Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!Andre Drummond on George
“Yeah, get a rhythm. Yeah. It’s good to see him in a rhythm, playing like himself, and not being timid and not worrying about missed shots. That’s the Paul George that we know so he got to keep that up.”
Kelly Oubre Jr. on George
“That’s who he is, man. He’s a very cool, calm, and collected individual. He doesn’t get too high too low, so we kind of leaned in on that and just let him play his game, and we wound up all the rallying behind him and figuring it out from there, but yeah. We needed that constant and he provided that.”
Tyrese Maxey on George
“He made some huge shots in third quarter. Like the ones that—run stoppers are what I kind of call them. Like, he had, like, an ISO 3, broken play, just step back 3, came back, hit another middy, and then he hit the trey in the corner, and that was big time.”