The Sixers came up just short of a 2-0 back-to-back Wednesday night.
They suffered a 106-102 loss to the Magic at Wells Fargo Center, dropping to 5-15 on the season.
Jared McCain was the Sixers' top scorer with 24 points on 10-for-17 shooting. Tyrese Maxey posted 16 points on 7-for-19 shooting and six assists.
Franz Wagner starred for the 16-8 Magic, recording 35 points.
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The Sixers were without Joel Embiid (left knee injury management), Paul George (left knee injury recovery), Kyle Lowry (right hip injury recovery) and Andre Drummond (right ankle sprain).
Orlando’s Paolo Banchero and Gary Harris were out with injuries.
Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said pregame he thinks there’s “a chance” Embiid will play Friday night when the Sixers face the Magic again. Embiid did an on-court workout Wednesday and plans to do the same Thursday, according to Nurse.
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Here are observations on the Sixers' defeat Wednesday:
Tough sledding for Bona
The Sixers started a Maxey-McCain backcourt along with Kelly Oubre Jr., KJ Martin and Guerschon Yabusele.
That unit looked ready to roll defensively. Oubre stole the ball from Wagner around half court, leading to a Maxey fast-break layup. The Sixers held Orlando scoreless until the 9:23 mark of the first quarter and grabbed a 6-0 lead. Yabusele scored seven quick points and made his first four field goals after an off shooting night Tuesday in the Sixers’ win over the Hornets.
Nurse subbed Adem Bona in next to Yabusele about five minutes into the evening. The rookie made an impressive play soon after entering, skying for an offensive rebound off a missed Oubre free throw. That led to a Caleb Martin and-one hoop. Bona's hustle and bounciness have jumped out since Drummond's injury.
Bona had a difficult matchup against Moe Wagner, who’s been one of the NBA’s most productive backup centers this season, and he struggled in his first stint. The UCLA product picked up two early fouls and got rejected on an audacious dunk attempt over Jonathan Isaac. Orlando went on a sustained run and took a 15-point lead less than 13 minutes in when Isaac canned a corner three.
Nurse said postgame that Bona had a knee issue of some kind.
“He obviously wasn’t moving great out there,” Nurse said, “which limited … that’s kind of why we got him back out of there (late in the third quarter). We’ll have more on that for you later.”
McCain gets Sixers back on track
The Sixers needed to play Bona significant minutes because of the Magic's size. Much of the time, the Sixers were shorter at every single position.
Zone defense was an effective, sensible Plan B, especially given that Orlando’s a decidedly subpar three-point shooting team.
McCain led a 10-0 Sixers spurt early in the second quarter, making a couple of crafty finger rolls and assisting a KJ Martin and-one layup and an Oubre three. The 20-year-old was stellar throughout the second period, posting 11 points and regularly troubling the Magic with subtle shifts in pace on his drives.
As a team, the Sixers closed the second quarter in strong fashion. McCain chased down an offensive rebound and Yabusele then niftily dished to Oubre for a dunk. Maxey’s driving layup with 11.6 seconds left in the first half knotted the game at 53-all.
The Sixers scored the first six points of the third quarter, too. Oubre, who had a season-high five assists and played another nice game on both ends, drove and found KJ Martin in the dunker spot. He slammed it home.
Plenty of frustration, missed jumpers for Maxey
McCain committed two turnovers early in the third quarter and, in a rare sight, missed two consecutive free throws.
The Sixers shot 11 for 19 (57.9 percent) at the foul line overall, which they could not afford against the Eastern Conference's current No. 3 seed.
“Tough one, man,” Nurse said. “You don’t have that margin for error in a game like this. If you want to win it, you can’t give all those points away like that.”
McCain was clearly unbothered by his hiccup early in the third quarter, bouncing back with two tricky finishes. On the Sixers' final possession of the third, he made a savvy pump fake and then drained a three right in front of the Magic bench, tying the contest at 77 apiece.
After a poor three-game shooting run — 12 for 41 from the field, 2 for 21 from three-point range — McCain has returned to great form over the past two games.
“I think the worst thing you could do is change — change anything,” he said. “I work too hard on this jump shot. There’s no way I’m going to change something with my routine. It’s just shots are not going to go in sometimes. That’s just how it is. It’s the best defenders in the world, best players in the world.
“They’re going to guard you differently each game, so I think just adjusting to that, knowing what they’re going to do and taking the shots with confidence. Each game’s going to be different. The shot’s not (always) going to fall, but you’ve got to affect the game in other ways.”
Meanwhile, Maxey had a hard time and seemed quite aware that he had zero free throw attempts until the 1:21 mark of the fourth quarter. During a third-quarter timeout, the All-Star guard had an animated conversation with an official.
In general, Maxey's night was lacking in friendly bounces. He saw a wide-open three go in and out late in the third quarter. Over the Sixers' back-to-back against Detroit and Orlando, Maxey shot 1 for 14 from long range.
He's fallen to 30.5 percent this season. Some of that early-season outside shooting dip can be chalked up to Maxey needing to force more difficult jumpers in shorthanded situations, but it's disappointing regardless. He'll expect to improve as the season progresses.
Franz Wagner was aggressive all night and delivered several timely second-half buckets. His isolation shotmaking helped the Magic regain a slim lead early in the fourth quarter. Orlando was a constant threat on the offensive glass, too. Jalen Suggs' driving layup on Maxey extended the Magic's lead to 97-87.
The Sixers still hung around. Seconds after Suggs' lay-in, McCain drilled a pull-up three.
Ricky Council IV closed the game and played a key part in the Sixers' spirited comeback effort with his physical, attacking style. However, he missed a corner three attempt with just under a minute left that would've tied the game.
With 8.0 seconds left, the Sixers found themselves down 103-100. Maxey received the ball off of their sideline out-of-bounds play, but his running three-point attempt thudded off the front rim. Nurse was irate that no foul was called on the play.
“He broke through the gap a little bit and their secondary defender hit him on the arm,” Nurse said. “That’s what the video (replay) showed. Should have been three free throws. So it would’ve been a great play, right?”
