PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers were able to bounce back on Wednesday as they knocked off the Orlando Magic 105-94. They jumped out to a 14-point lead and they were able to hang onto it even when the Magic made a push and cut to just one early in the fourth.
Philadelphia built their lead thanks to the play of Joel Embiid and James Harden. The star duo were able to play off each other and allow the Sixers to have success against a young Magic team.
Still, it felt like Philadelphia should have run away with this one, but they just weren’t able to.
“When you play a team twice, it’s gonna be a slugfest,” said coach Doc Rivers. “I don’t think we played great, but we played good enough to win, you’ll take that. Just didn’t have a great rhythm. A lot of off-target passes, turnovers, unforced. I thought we had a lot of opportunities to stretch the lead. The lead stayed at 10 the whole game it felt like. I felt like we could’ve got it to 20 several times, but in transition, turnovers, turnovers, turnovers, and that cost us.”
The Sixers had 19 turnovers which led to 24 Magic points on Wednesday, but they were able to lock in on defense in the fourth quarter to get this one done. Orlando shot just 27.8% from the floor in the fourth and scored only 16 points against a tough Philadelphia team.
“We got some stops,” added Embiid who had 28 points and 11 rebounds. “We were more physical than the other night. They felt us. Offensively, we were just way better than we were. We moved the ball and also it was defense and just the physicality.”
This was a professional win for Philadelphia. They weren’t able to hang on to the lead the other night, but instead of letting it snowball into this one, they were able to put their foot on the neck of the Magic and bounce back with a win.
“I think we played well throughout the course of the entire game,” added Harden who had 27 points, 10 assists, and nine rebounds. “Two days ago, we had a really good first half and in the second, they kind of turned the tables on us. We came off to a really good start, jumped out, and then kept that lead, and kind of played well and rode our swag for a full four quarters.”
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