You can lay as many bricks as you want as long as you come away with a win.
The Sixers won their fifth game out of their last six, beating the Magic 103-91 in Orlando Friday night. With this being the third
and final meeting between these two, the Sixers have clinched the season series.
Tyrese Maxey found his shooting stroke in the second half, once again taking his place as the game’s leading scorer with 29 points on 10-of-22 shooting.
Joel Embiid scored at least 20 for the 15th time in his 19 appearances, finishing with 22 and nine rebounds shooting 7-of-17 from the floor.
Paul George took over the beginning of the fourth quarter, putting up 18 points going 8-of-21 from the floor with nine rebounds. VJ Edgecombe was the lone Sixer to have a stronger start than finish, having just six points along with nine rebounds and seven assists. Anthony Black led Orlando with 23.
Unbelievably, the Sixers once again had their whole main roster available while the Magic were down Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs.
Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.
First Quarter
- The Sixers came out pretty flat offensively. They only scored on free throws for the first three and a half minutes of the game before a Dominick Barlow putback dunk. Things started to open up a bit when Edgecombe used a pick-and-roll to get a wide open floater and took an Embiid outlet pass all the way up the floor to get Barlow a transition bucket.
- That hardly got the lid off the rim though as they started the game 4-of-15 from the field. They began to generate good looks, such as Maxey missing two open threes off the catch. He missed his first six attempts of the game while the team missed all of their 11 three-point attempts in the quarter.
- It was really only Edgecombe who looked good to start, so naturally he had to leave the game after getting inadvertently poked in the eye. In other unfortunate injury news, many people’s favorite ref (including mine) Bill Kennedy appeared to pull something running down the floor and had to leave the game. The Sixers trailed by four after one as there were only two officials for the rest of the night.
Second Quarter
- More importantly though, Edgecombe was right back out there to start the second. Embiid was able to get some better looks, nailing a midrange and hitting Barlow for a lob, but he even coughed the ball up after beating Goga Bitadze off the dribble. Orlando was shooting just as poorly, slipping under 40% from the field themselves.
- As soon as the Sixers clawed back to tie the game, they surrendered an 8-0 run. Jared McCain had a quiet first shift after dribbling the ball off his foot early, but it was him who ended that run, able to get all the way to the basket.
- With all these bricks came more opportunities for offensive rebounds, and at least both teams did that, combining for 27 second-chance points in the half. The Sixers also generating plenty of fast break opportunities thanks to seven steals. The last of which was capped off by an Embiid layup at the end of a 10-2 Sixers run. They got beat down the floor and gave up a fast break layup of their own off a made basket, allowing the Magic to retake a one-point lead at the break.
Third Quarter
- Maxey finally got a couple of jumpers to fall to start the second half — his midrange pull-up bounced off the rim then backboard before falling in. The three off the catch on the following possession fell, but his heatcheck from way out rimmed out.
- Right after steamrolling his way to the basket for a dunk, Embiid took a pretty hard fall after being fouled. He favored his side for a bit and Edgecombe got himself in a double technical situation getting snippy with Penda, but Embiid nailed both of his free throws and was looking just fine staying in the game.
- Thanks to their ability to keep generating turnovers, the Sixers were able to take their first extended lead of the game. Maxey hadn’t scored since his early flurry but got going again with a couple drives to the basket. Shortly after he buried a stepback three to pick up his 14th point of the quarter. Embiid took another hard fall on a drive but again popped top to knock down both free throws. Desmond Bane was able to quickly get down the floor and catch his hand in the cookie jar on a floater, an and-1 that cut the Sixers’ lead to four entering the fourth.
Fourth Quarter
- George definitely got away with goaltending Jett Howard’s layup to start the quarter, but Howard’s three-point attempt was cleanly blocked by Oubre and easily his best play so far since returning. They seemed to settle in to the quarter well with George picking up a few baskets, the only negative being they put the Magic in the bonus less than four minutes in.
- Despite the fouling their defense was superb, holding the Magic scoreless for over three and a half minutes and without a field goal for nearly five. George was shooting as poorly as anyone to start the night but really found a groove with his midrange jumper, helping the Sixers push their lead to double digits.
- Maxey hit a three to make the reeling Magic call a timeout. He was the only Sixer to hit a three in the half, but he had still tripled the team’s made threes from the first half so it was technically an improvement. The Sixers only made one field goal after that made three at the 3:42 mark, but that was all it took to put this particular game away.
