Without LeBron and Embiid, the Sixers visit a Charlotte team missing three of its own

The line and the rosters

Philadelphia is 5-1 and second in the Eastern Conference; Charlotte is 3-3 and seventh. The ESPN game page lists the Sixers as 2.5-point favorites and gives them a 59.4 percent chance in the matchup predictor.

That is a small number for a five-win team against a three-win team, and the reason is the injury report. Philadelphia is without LeBron James (back) and Joel Embiid (foot), both listed with estimated returns in early November.

Charlotte is without Kon Knueppel (hamstring), Coby White (calf) and Grant Williams (hamstring), all of whom have yet to make a season debut.

Two short-handed teams on the second night of a back-to-back is the kind of game where the line is about depth, not talent.

A 2.5-point line between these teams tells you the market thinks the record is mostly the schedule. Philadelphia has played one of the league's softer opening slates.

What Philadelphia has left

The offense runs through Tyrese Maxey, who has been the team's best player and will be the primary creator again. Anfernee Simons gives the second unit a scorer, and VJ Edgecombe is in line for his first high-usage night.

Jaylen Brown's status has been the story of the week. He missed Friday's win over the Knicks with left patellar tendinopathy and was listed as questionable before being upgraded to available, according to the Yahoo report.

Adem Bona and the rest of the center rotation inherit the Embiid minutes. That is the matchup the Yahoo preview flags: Charlotte's Naz Reid has averaged 17 points per game as a starting center this season.

Philadelphia also wants to play fast. The Yahoo preview notes the Sixers would like to get out and run with their guards, which is the version of this team that has been most effective.

The Sixers' bench has been the season's quiet story: Simons has scored, Bona has defended, and the second unit has held leads rather than given them away.

What Charlotte has left

Charlotte lost in Washington on Friday to fall to 3-3, and the numbers are unkind: the Hornets are last in points scored per 100 possessions, a figure skewed by the 79-point night against the Wizards.

They are also 10th in points allowed, according to Cleaning the Glass, which is the part of their profile that has kept them competitive.

Brandon Miller, fresh off a contract extension, is averaging 25.6 points per game but shooting 39 percent from the field. That combination is the reason Charlotte's offense has been inefficient rather than absent.

The Hornets' problem is not effort. It is that a roster missing three rotation players has to ask Miller to do too much.

Charlotte's path is to make this a half-court game and let Miller hunt mismatches. That is slower than Philadelphia wants and better than the alternative.

The matchups that decide it

The first is the paint. Without Embiid, Philadelphia's interior defense is a committee, and Reid is the kind of center who can punish a committee.

The second is pace. Philadelphia wants to run; Charlotte would rather not turn this into a track meet without its guards.

The third is 3-point variance. Both teams have been below-average shooting teams this season, which makes the game more likely to be decided by which one gets a good shooting night.

The fourth is free throws. In a game with a 2.5-point line, the team that gets to the line more often usually wins the margin.

The Hornets also need to keep the rebounding battle close. Without Embiid, Philadelphia is smaller, and second-chance points are the cheapest way for a short-handed team to stay in a game.

Why it matters

For Philadelphia, this is a game the team can win without its stars, and that matters for a roster that has been built around two veterans who will miss nights like this.

For Charlotte, it is a chance to beat a good team at home while that team is depleted. Those wins are worth more to a young roster than the standings suggest.

Neither team is at full strength, and both are on a back-to-back. The team that handles the schedule better will look like the better team afterward.

That is not a satisfying way to decide a game, and it is how November works.

A win here would be Philadelphia's sixth in seven games and would make the rest plan look smart. A loss would start the first real argument about it.

What to watch

Three things. First, Maxey's usage. A night without both stars is his test as a primary option.

Second, Edgecombe. If he gets the high-usage night the preview expects, it is the clearest look yet at what the rookie can be.

Third, the fourth quarter. Both teams played Friday, and the first four minutes of the last period will show which bench held up.

Fourth, the injury report an hour before tipoff. On a back-to-back, a late scratch changes the line more than any tactical adjustment.