76ers at Hornets
The Philadelphia 76ers' glut of young centers is getting thinner due to injuries and trades just as the team is finding its way back into the win column. The 76ers will go for their third consecutive victory on Monday when they visit the Charlotte Hornets, who dropped nine of their last 10 games.
Philadelphia general manager Bryan Colangelo revealed on Saturday that rookie sensation Joel Embiid is dealing with a small meniscus tear in addition to the bone bruise that has kept him out of the lineup since Jan. 27. "The MRI revealed obviously, what we thought it to be: a bone bruise," Colangelo told reporters. "There was also the recognition that there was a very minor meniscal tear. But it was not thought to be acute, and it was not thought to be the source of the pain, inflammation or symptoms. That is the case." The 76ers also sat second-year center Jahlil Okafor on Saturday in a 117-109 win over the Miami Heat because the club was close to completing a trade, leaving Nerlens Noel and Richaun Holmes to hold down the center spot. The Hornets made their own move at the center spot recently, trading away Roy Hibbert and Spencer Hawes in exchange for Miles Plumlee, but the move has yet to spark the team on the court.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, CSN Philadelphia, FSN Southeast (Charlotte)
ABOUT THE 76ERS (20-34): Philadelphia snapped Miami's 13-game winning streak on Saturday with solid execution late in the game to mark a second straight single-digit victory after pulling out a 112-111 win at Orlando on Thursday. "We’re seeing the growth of a team navigate close-game situations in a professional way," 76ers coach Brett Brown told reporters. "I really feel comfortable that this team can walk a game down now. We didn’t panic. We were able to find a way to beat a hot team when the game was getting close." Noel got the start on Saturday with Okafor and Embiid on the bench and delivered 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting in 32 minutes.
ABOUT THE HORNETS (24-30): All-Star Kemba Walker is in the midst of a shooting slump and went 4-of-18 from the field in Saturday's loss, dropping him to 28.4 percent from the field in five games this month. Shooting guard Nicolas Batum tried to pick up the slack with 25 points and eight assists on Saturday but had nothing good to say about the team's performance after the contest. "We’ve just got to go out there and compete and win games, that’s it," Batum told reporters. "Every meeting we talk about it, we know how to do it, it’s our job. Our job is to go out there and win games, compete and make our fans proud and make the city proud. That’s what we’ve got to do. ... We can’t keep losing games and say ‘ok we’re going to be fine’. No, we have less than 30 games left, we need to win those games."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Hornets C Cody Zeller (quad) sat out eight of the last nine games and remains day-to-day.
2. 76ers rookie PF Dario Saric is averaging 21 points on 23-of-41 shooting over the last three contests.
3. Philadelphia snapped a six-game losing streak in the series with a 102-93 home win over Charlotte on Jan. 13.