Big Al leads Charlotte Hornets past troubled Sixers, 113-88

What happened to Charlotte Hornets center Al Jefferson Friday might occur once a month. For some reason that seemed baffling to anyone watching, the Philadelphia 76ers chose to single-cover Jefferson with rookie Jahlil Okafor.

Bad idea. Horrible idea. By game’s end Jefferson had totaled 26 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and five blocks in a 113-88 victory.

“I guess they think I lost a step or something,” Jefferson said with a laugh about the Sixers’ approach to guarding him.

This was the Big Al who was third-team all-NBA two seasons ago. Actually it was a bit better than that because he did so much more than post up. He was making his jump shot, hitting 11 of 19 field-goal attempts. He was finding cutters and spot-up shooter for assists. And those five blocks surprised even him post-game.

“I think somebody made a mistake,” Jefferson said of his block total.

It wasn’t a mistake, but rather how the NBA interprets its rules. Any time the ball is thrust upward and is taken away, it’s marked as a shot-block rather than a steal. Jefferson had a couple of those Friday.

Okafor, the former Duke center, is eventually going to be a very good NBA big man. He’s already a solid enough ballhandler that he split a Jefferson-Kemba Walker double-team for a layup.

But Okafor is still a big kid and Friday was a painful sort of education. The Sixers are 0-13, and have the look of that 7-59 Charlotte Bobcats team.

To ask Okafor to contain Jefferson in the post with little or no help got this game out of control quickly. During one 11-0 run Jefferson scored nine of the points and assisted on the other basket.

The Hornets led 30-19 after one quarter and the lead spread to 20 late in the first half.

“It’s always important to get off to a great start,” Jefferson said, though that has not so much been the Hornets’ standard practice this early season. “In the third quarter we kind of had a relapse (letting a 26-point lead slip to 11) but we finished strong.”

Jefferson said he wasn’t so much picking on a rookie as taking advantage of a flawed strategy.

“When I started smelling blood it was when I noticed they weren’t double-teaming me,” Jefferson said. “I was able to get to my shots. It wasn’t about him being a rookie. The rookie from Minnesota (Karl-Anthony Towns) went at me and got the best of me.

“I don’t take rookies for granted.”

He also doesn’t take victories for granted. The Hornets are now 7-6, the first time their record has been above .500 since the opening game of the 2014-15 season. Jefferson sees progress after the Hornets opened the season 0-3. They are now 5-1 at Time Warner Cable Arena.

“Our schedule – in-and-out (of town) – was tough but we went 5-2 in the last seven games and that’s impressive,” Jefferson said. “That shows how focused we are.

“But the test is never over. We get tested every time.”

Except usually that exam includes something more creative than making a rookie guard one of the league’s top post scorers all by himself.

 

This story was originally published November 20, 2015 at 11:00 PM with the headline "Big Al leads Charlotte Hornets past troubled Sixers, 113-88."