After coming up short Wednesday against Orlando, the Philadelphia 76ers will aim to regroup Friday when they once again host the Magic.
Orlando opened its two-game trip to Philadelphia with a 106-102 victory. Franz Wagner did the heavy lifting with 35 points, while the Magic harassed Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey into a tough shooting night.
The Sixers played without two of their top three players as Joel Embiid and Paul George rested their knees, leaving coach Nick Nurse with one All-Star on the court, as well as a group of role players that is also banged up at the moment.
“(Finding continuity without key players) is very difficult,” said Nurse, who expects to have George (and, less probably, Embiid) for Friday’s contest.
“I hope that we are going to get these guys together at the same time here fairly shortly. And then start working on the continuity. But to your question, it is difficult. Guys are in and out and we’re trying to figure it out.”
Orlando played without its best player as well, as Paolo Banchero continues to miss time with an oblique injury. Still, the Magic rode Wagner’s seventh 30-point game of the season to another victory — their seventh in the last eight games.
“I really did like their composure,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said of his team’s poise down the stretch. “The communication between each of the guys about where the matchups were, how we were guarding, the different situations we were gonna be in. I just think that they did a great job of listening and paying attention to what the coaches were saying, but also with communicating with one another.”
Wagner is averaging career highs in points (24.2), assists (5.7), rebounds (5.6) and steals (1.8) despite playing roughly the same minutes per game as the previous two seasons. His teammates and coaches have been pushing All-Star talk for the fourth-year forward, but he prefers to tune out all that noise.
“(I try to) focus on the stuff that really matters,” Wagner said. “Obviously it’s really cool to be playing well and to have a good season. Everybody has their own motivation. That’s just kind of an add-on for me.”
Meanwhile, Philadelphia’s top scoring option at the moment is battling through a bit of a shooting slump.
Maxey shot just 7-of-19 from the field (0-for-7 from 3-point range) against Orlando on Wednesday — the fourth time in the last five games that he made less than 42 percent of his shots.
“They trapped every ball screen,” said Maxey, who is 1-of-14 from 3-point range in the last two contests. “That’s hard, but that’s why Jared (McCain) got downhill. They played drop on him. He got downhill and scored (24 points), he made some 3s. I thought we did a good job, man. I got in the paint, I got guys open shots — we made some, we missed some. I’m overall happy with the way we played offense.”
The Magic are 3-1 on their five-game road trip that has included stops in New York (against both the Nets and Knicks) and now Philadelphia. After Friday’s contest, they’ll return to Orlando for seven of their next eight games.
–Field Level Media