ORLANDO, Fla. — The Philadelphia 76ers picked up a big 103-91 win over the Orlando Magic on Friday to begin their road trip. They have now won five of their last six and are continuing to push things in the right direction as the Sixers figure it out as a team.
Tyrese Maxey had 29 points to led the way. Joel Embiid had 22 points and nine rebounds, Dominick Barlow added 11 and nine rebounds, and Paul George had 18 and nine rebounds. VJ Edgecombe added six points, nine rebounds, and seven assists, and Andre Drummond added seven points and six rebounds.
Here are the three biggest takeaways following the win:
George comes up large in the fourth
The 9-time All-Star was having a tough shooting night, but the buckets he was making in the fourth were huge with Maxey on the bench. The Sixers needed to find a way to put the Magic away and George was able to do so with his offensive ability. There were some struggles in this one, but he scored 10 points in the fourth and led the charge for Philadelphia with the game still in the balance.
“It was great,” Embiid said of George’s big fourth quarter. “He was great, especially with that lineup. He had to do it and we know he can do it. He was great. Took us home. Kind of made the game a little bit more relaxing at the end for us.”
Zone defense stalling the Magic
The Sixers went to a zone often in the second half and it allowed Orlando down a bit. The Magic were feasting on looks inside the paint as they were dealing with their own struggles from beyond the arc and the Sixers played their zone to perfection and force the Magic to beat them with their 3-point shooting, and they were unable to do so. Philadelphia has the length and depth to make the zone work and it gave Orlando fits on Friday night.
“We tried the zone a couple times, and it was effective,” Nurse said. “It’s just looking for something to get us going. We also started blitzing Bane there for a stretch, once Drum came in, in the fourth. Again, just looking for some type of spark to get our defense fly around, and the defense was very good the fourth quarter. We got that we were we made them take tough shots. We turned them over quite a bit in the fourth. So, again, not a pretty win, but a win nonetheless, and a pretty good defensive effort in the fourth.”
Complete defensive effort in the fourth
The Sixers started the fourth with a lineup of George, Quentin Grimes, Kelly Oubre Jr., Edgecombe, and Drummond. That lineup led the charge to close the game out as George got going on the offensive end and the Sixers put the clamps on the Magic in the final frame as Philadelphia held Orlando to just 12 points and 4-for-19 shooting including 0-for-7 from deep. That defensive effort helped Philadelphia overcome some poor shooting on its end and allowed the lead to keep swelling. The Sixers also forced four turnovers as that lineup received a lot of praise from Nurse for their efforts.
Nurse stated:
I think you get lots of different versions of a game. I just didn’t feel like we looked like we were moving great, or, I don’t know, just our readiness wasn’t good. You can kind of see it on the defensive end. Just lot of guys standing up straight, not moving, great, etc., and that’s always going to translate to the other end. I just think that was it. The readiness to react quickly. That’s why we burned a quick timeout. Tried to get it going. Tried to keep shuffling through some players and stuff to find a spark and it wasn’t pretty at all. It never really got pretty for us, because we couldn’t really hit from the 3. Neither team could, right? But I think that again, that fourth quarter lineup, that’s a couple games in a row that they’ve really guarded, and that’s been an impulse kind of heated up there for a few minutes, and that’s kind of got us through the last couple games.
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: 3 biggest takeaways for Sixers following win over Magic on the road
