The Sixers’ seven-game winning streak came to an end with a 109-98 loss at home to the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night.

They weren’t gonna win 20 games in a row, but the fashion in which they lost was disappointing. They failed to crest 100 points for the first time since December 23rd. They didn’t move the ball well and were -16 in total field goal attempts, because they coughed up the ball, didn’t create their own turnovers, and didn’t rebound well either. On the other end, Gordon Hayward looked like the second coming of Larry Bird en route to 30 points on 13 of 16 shooting. He didn’t miss from three.

It’s a similar story in most Sixer losses. Joel Embiid has to try to lead the way and there’s not enough help from the supporting cast. Tobias Harris (6-14, three turnovers) and Tyrese Maxey (4-13) had subpar shooting nights, and as is sometimes the case, Seth Curry just doesn’t get up enough shots. He was 4-7 in this game, turned the ball over three times, and the entire team shot 68% from the foul line, hitting just 18 of 28 attempts.

It was a wide-ranging turd sandwich, and there’s not a ton to analyze, so we’ll go the quote route this morning and see what the coach and players had to say.

Doc Rivers on the game:

“They played so much harder. And they’re aggressive and they attack. So that’s what creates them. We were so sloppy that anybody would’ve gotten turnovers against us tonight. I thought the ball stuck. We’ve been so good overall moving the ball and I just thought tonight we didn’t do that. The ball stuck on every possession. Rarely got it from side to side. I think in the middle of the second quarter, we had four assists, five assists. Then we started picking it up. It was just really disappointing. Flat. We were flat tonight. That happens. But you still should play right. I just didn’t think we played right tonight.”

Doc on playing the Embiid + Andre Drummond lineup in the second half:

“We were awful and (thought) ‘let’s try something.’ It’s part of what you do as a coach. You try to shake it up, see if we can get something. Actually, it looked okay. Defensively, we got some stops and rebounds. But, it’s one of those nights where nothing was going and you try to just throw stuff in. I do like that lineup. I don’t necessarily like it against that team, but it wasn’t bad for us.”

Embiid on his play, and being fronted by Charlotte defensively:

“It starts with me. I wasn’t good enough today. Too many turnovers. Many offensive fouls. They still count as turnovers. Gotta do a better job. Obviously, we had some guys coming back, so trying to get the rhythm back. But, we just weren’t good enough today.”

“We just weren’t patient enough. There were a bunch of times where you don’t have to force the ball. We have to move ball. The ball needs to get to me, especially when they’re fronting. I don’t have to fight it. I should actually invite it. Make them front me and take the back side. And try and create an angle and reversing the ball. Then I’m wide open at the rim with a guy still right in front of me. I just thought we had no patience. As soon as we caught the ball at the perimeter, we just started dribbling without seeing what was in front of us. And that’s also why we turned the ball over a lot.”

Bad turnover game for the Sixers, their first in a while. Believe it or not, they only commit 12.6 per game, which is the third-best in the NBA. We’ve come a long way since the Brett Brown motion offense days, where they were slinging a bazillion passes and playing some pretty offense but also coughing it up with regularity.

When you go through the film, there were so many easy transition buckets and uncontested dunks for the Hornets. It was jarring:

Sixers put up a clunker at home. They’re 23-17 and 5th place in the Eastern Conference as the February 10th trade deadline looms. Also, I’m not sure how we made it through an entire game without video of fans booing Rich Paul, or someone dumping popcorn on him, or anything at all taking place: