Orlando's offense exploded, while a shorthanded Sixers squad crumbled defensively, leading to a franchise-record first-half point total and a devastating rout.
Though the Philadelphia 76ers were entering this game with four starters missing from the lineup, the final outcome of this game was much worse than anticipated as it was the team's worst loss in quite some time. Aside from a very solid first quarter, the Sixers were simply a pitiful team throughout the game that couldn't buy a bucket or find a way to stop Orlando consistently.
With players like Joel Embiid, Paul George, and Kelly Oubre Jr. out, it was clear that this team would struggle offensively. That said, the Magic scored a franchise-record 86 points in the first half, and they picked apart everything that the Sixers threw at them defensively.
Leading the offense for Orlando, it was Anthony Black who had a career game, scoring 31 points. Unfortunately for Philadelphia, while Black certainly played a good game, it was more so the Sixers' poor defense that enabled him to score this much, rather than any incredibly tough buckets.
Philly's head coach Nick Nurse certainly has to take some accountability for at least the way this team lost this game as they lacked any sense of teamwork throughout the last three quarters. This has been a recurring theme throughout the season, as there has been a lot of "iso ball," but it was very noticeable tonight due to the skill-level of the players trying to iso.
It's also a bit difficult to say, but this is the sort of game that we saw Doc Rivers win when needed in his time in Philadelphia. Even when severely shorthanded, he was able to coach his players into some beautiful team basketball that led them to some incredible victories. Granted, this didn't happen every time they were missing some stars, but it was always hard to count them out in those games.
There were a couple of positives for Philly as Jared McCain once again looked like he was getting more comfortable since his return, scoring 15 points for the second straight game. Other than that, there was some solid effort from Andre Drummond, Dominick Barlow, and Jabari Walker, but clearly not enough to make it even a competitive game.
Trendon Watford left the game in the second quarter which is brutal for the Sixers as their depth is already awful right now, but hopefully at least George and Embiid will return by the next game as both were at least questionable prior to the final injury report.
Philly will need to put this loss to the side and not focus on the poor numbers as, when healthy, they're a top team in the league and they could be semi-healthy soon. Their next game isn't until Friday, so there will be plenty of time to rest up and get back in order before taking on the Brooklyn Nets.