Harris leads Sixers to home sweep of Hornets

Tobias Harris was excited for the opportunity to play for Doc Rivers again. In their time together with the Clippers, the 6’8” power forward produced the best numbers of his career.

Speaking on his new role in the 76ers offense, Harris echoed his coach in saying he looked forward to playing a faster, more instinctive brand of basketball and avoid the overdribbling that led to clunky and unproductive possessions so often last year.

So far, so good. The 10th-year veteran was even named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the period of Dec. 28 through Jan. 3, his first time collecting the honor since Nov. 26, 2018 with the Los Angeles Clippers, and his third career Player of the Week Award.

Harris continued his strong play on Monday, fueling the Sixers to a 118-101 victory over the Charlotte Hornets, improving the team to 6-1 on the young season. He finished a team best +24, leading all scorers with 22 points on a very efficient 10-for-16 from the floor, with a pair of 3s on five attempts. It was his fourth consecutive game eclipsing 20 points. Remove his 10-point showing in the season opener, and Harris is averaging 20.8 points per game on 56.2% shooting overall, including 53.1% from 3-point range.

The win was the fourth in a row for Philadelphia and its second consecutive over the Hornets, who it also handled on Saturday night. To maximize the condensed schedule, NBA teams will face several baseball-style series throughout the season. This marked the first of five such series scheduled for the first half of the Sixers season.

The game was fairly tight in the early going, with neither team holding a lead of greater than 7 points until midway through the second quarter. Charlotte matched its biggest lead of the night at 36-31 on a Terry Rozier 3-point make. Shortly afterward, a Joel Embiid block on Jalen McDaniels was fielded by Shake Milton, who quickly led Ben Simmons with an easy outlet pass for a lay-up on the other end, sparking a 10-0 run.

The Sixers never looked back, building up a 58-43 halftime advantage. They cruised the rest of the way, swelling their lead to as much as 27 points.

The comfortable victory allowed Rivers to manage the workloads of his stars quite a bit, and only Ben Simmons played 30 plus minutes, finishing with 34. Joel Embiid (14 and 11) and Simmons (12 and 10) both collected point-rebound double-doubles. Seven Sixers finished with double-figure point totals, including all five starters.

Not a single Hornet reached 20 points, with Gordon Hayward pacing the team with 18. It was a difficult night on offense for Charlotte, who collectively shot just 41.9% from the field and turned the ball over 16 times.

The Sixers next play on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. when they host Washington in the first of a back-to-back. Philadelphia defeated the Wizards 113-107 in its season opener.