Curry, Harris help 76ers hold off four-win Magic
PHILADELPHIA » Doc Rivers gave a pep talk to Jamahl Mosley shortly after the Orlando Magic hired the rookie head coach in July. The 76ers coach’s advice was simple:
“Just trust the process of things,” Mosley said.
Trust the process is still a triggering expression in Philadelphia, where the slogan for the franchise’s controversial rebuild method lingers to this day.
The Magic rekindled some of the earliest days with grit in a fiery second half that pushed the fourwin team to the brink of an upset. Much like those early Sixers, the fight fell short.
Seth Curry scored 24 points, Tobias Harris had 17 and the Philadelphia 76ers needed free throws in the final minute to beat the Magic 101-96 Monday night.
“We gave ourselves a chance because we sat down and guarded,” Mosley said after Orlando’s seventh straight loss.
The Sixers shot 39% in the third quarter as they coughed up a 16-point lead and the Philly crowd booed them off the court. Mo Bamba’s dunk with 57 seconds left tied it 93-all.
The Sixers just hung on from the line. Ty Maxey made two for the lead, Joel Embiid hit 3 of 4 and Maxey added two more to help the Sixers avoid an embarrassing defeat. Embiid scored 16 points on 4-for-16 shooting.
Franz Wagner led the Magic with 27 points and Jalen Suggs had 17 before he left late in the fourth with a broken right thumb. He will miss “an extended period of time.”
Last season’s top regularseason team in the East, the Sixers were hit with injury and illness this season that left them sputtering along at .500 most of this year. Embiid missed nine games because of COVID-19 — it him so bad, he said he had “headaches worse than migraines” — and Harris and Danny Green were among the other Sixers out for games because of league protocols.
Throw in the season-long absence of All-Star Ben Simmons following his trade demand, and the Sixers have been out of sync in Rivers’ second year on the bench.
Consider, the opening
night lineup of EmbiidHarris-Green-Curry-Maxey started for only the seventh time this season (5-2).
“Now that everybody’s back, we got to figure out how to get back to playing dominant basketball,” Curry said.
For a while, the combo worked. The Magic missed their first five 3s and the Sixers raced to a 31-19 lead.
But this was no blowout. And it was more proof that backed Rivers’ belief that the starting lineup needs more
time to get its groove back.
“This team is going to be really good. I just feel it,” he said. “It’ll take a little bit, but we’ll be fine.”
The Magic about handed Philly its worst loss of the season. Embiid still look fatigued in the second half and the Magic rallied their way into the lead. The Magic took the lead 64-62 on Suggs’ pick off of Embiid’s lazy pass and a fastbreak dunk that ignited boos from the home crowd.