Jan. 27, 2026, 5:30 a.m. ET
The Philadelphia 76ers suffered a long afternoon on Monday as they fell to the Charlotte Hornets 130-93. The Sixers trailed by as many as 50 and were unable to get much going. While Joel Embiid and Paul George were sidelined on the first night of a back-to-back, the Sixers just didn’t have the energy to keep up with the Hornets and everything went Charlotte’s way.
Kelly Oubre Jr. led Philadelphia with 17 points, VJ Edgecombe had nine points and six rebounds, Tyrese Maxey struggled with six points on 3-for-12 shooting and seven assists, and Quentin Grimes added 14 points and five assists. Jared McCain had 16 while Andre Drummond had four and seven rebounds.
Here are the three biggest takeaways following the loss:
Inability of the reserve guards to get much going
The Sixers desperately need one of Grimes or Jared McCain to figure it out for the bench unit. It will take so much pressure off of Maxey to have to do all the shot creation from the perimeter in the future. It wasn’t there in this one as the Hornets did a solid job of making sure Grimes and McCain were unable to get anything moving in the right direction. McCain had some open looks early, but was unable to convert until garbage time—which is a positive sign for him! Grimes had some opportunities, but wasn’t able to convert until the game as out of hand. That has to be figured out in the future.
Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!Struggles keeping out dibble penetration
The Hornets got into the paint with ease to start the afternoon. LaMelo Ball was able to have dribble penetration leading to dump-off passes for big man Moussa Diabate to get easy buckets before the Hornets then got going with the 3-ball. It was too easy for Charlotte to find good, open looks throughout the afternoon and the Sixers had a tough time getting any stops and had to play in the half-court rather than having the opportunities to get out and run in transition. That led to a long day on either end of the floor.
Inability to get the 3-ball going
This goes back to having to play out of the half-court for a majority of the afternoon. The Sixers were unable to get into the paint with any type of dribble penetration on their end and were unable to generate many 3-point looks. When they did, they were unable to convert on those opportunities and it led to the Sixers struggling to find anything positive to lean on in this one. It was certainly one that the Sixers need to flush as they prepare for a back-to-back on Tuesday.