Sixers Muggle Their Way to Victory Against the Magic

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

Philadelphia 96, Orlando 87 – Box Score

On the surface, Wednesday night looked like a game the Sixers could absolutely steal on the road. Orlando entered play losers of seven of their last eight, and were also without their best all-around player in Victor Oladipo. Things don’t always play out the way we expect on the court though, and when the Sixers started out flat, falling behind 20-10 in the first quarter behind some incredibly lethargic defense. Ish Smith, who was decent on the offensive end (13 points and 11 assists), really struggled to stay in front of Elfrid Payton defensively all evening (Payton finished with 21 points and 10 assists). It looked like Philadelphia fans were in for a long night.

That feeling only intensified when Nerlens Noel left the game in the second quarter with a sprained ankle. He tried to return, only to leave again with what was deemed a headache and blurred vision. The backbone of the Sixers defense was left playing just 19 minutes on the night, normally not a recipe for success.

However, if nothing else, the Sixers have been a resilient bunch lately, and rallied together as a group to take advantage of that reeling Magic squad and pull off that long-awaited first win over an Eastern Conference opponent. It was a complete team effort in every sense, as a large portion of the victory was thanks to two pivotal runs sparked by players coming off the bench.

First, after that flat start in the first quarter, the Sixers got back into things behind a 13-1 surge by the second unit. The Sixers received three straight triples from Hollis Thompson and Isaiah Canaan to actually take a 2-point lead after one quarter. That pair was tremendous all game long for Philadelphia. The Sixers going 9-19 from three while Orlando was just 4-17 was the biggest different in the game, and that pair was the catalyst for Philadelphia.

Thompson finished with 17 points on 7-10 shooting, going 3-5 from three. It looks like for yet another year, Thompson is starting to heat up heading into the second half of the season. He’s creeping right back toward his usual 40% from three, now at 38.6% on the year. Meanwhile, Canaan was 3-4 from behind the arc for 15 points. After basically being benched by Brett Brown for two games, Canaan has been very reliable the past three contests, going a combined 8-14 from downtown.

Then, with the game still a back-and-forth contest, the Sixers stormed out on another 13-2 run in the third quarter. The streak was sparked by a pair of threes from Robert Covington, before Philadelphia received seven straight points by Jerami Grant. Grant was another guy off the bench making a huge impact on the night. Not only did he contribute 12 points, but more importantly, he recorded five blocks, all coming in the second half. Grant had one swat which was a two-hand volleyball spike of Nikola Vucevic late in the fourth quarter to help quell a Magic comeback effort.

In between those two runs was Sixers big man Jahlil Okafor, who after being benched for fourth quarter and both overtimes against the Knicks, received all the minutes he could eat in the wake of Nerlens Noel’s injuries in this contest. In 38 minutes, Big Jah went to work for a team-high 20 points on 9-17 shooting. It wasn’t a dominating effort for Okafor, as he and Nikola Vucevic got into one of those sequences where they just take turns letting the other score (Voose had his typical double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds). Still, without Okafor as a reliable source of offense throughout the game, this win wouldn’t have happened.

The Sixers have a couple nights off before a game back home against the Celtics Saturday night. Hopefully, the couple nights of rest will be enough for whatever is ailing Noel to subside, and also for Nik Stauskas (bruised shoulder) and JaKarr Sampson (who left the Magic game with a hip pointer) to all return to action. It’s one thing to be a resilient group, but it’d be nice to see what this newly-invigorated Sixers team can do at full strength.