By: Kylan Watson

The Philadelphia 76ers were riding high after beating the Houston Rockets on Monday night. They faced the Orlando Magic who were desperate to get a victory and stop the four-game win streak of the Sixers. Philly was able to use a late-game offensive explosion to beat the Magic 116-106.

Philly started the game off very slowly. They were missing some easy baskets early in the game. The Magic took full advantage of this early power outage they were able to hit their shots and take an early lead. They were led by Cole Anthony who shredded Philly’s defense. He was hitting his shots from the perimeter, paint, and beyond the arc. Philly had no answers for him. He scored 26-points and hit three three-pointers.

Despite the offensive explosion from Anthony. Philly weathered the early storm and were able to retake the lead by three-points by half-time. Tobias Harris was able to get out of his scoring slump during tonight’s game. He scored 22-points and hit three three-pointers. He played like a man possessed as he took full advantage of the clearly overmatched Magic defenders. Harris made them pay for daring to leave him open. If he takes this performance and finds himself then that could be an important development for the Sixers. He has not been himself since returning from covid but if he can continue to put up 20 plus-points a game again that will be particularly important for Philly and can keep Embiid fresh and give Philly a reliable second option again.

Despite Harris finding his scoring touch again the Magic were able to make it interesting late in the game, but center Joel Embiid (31-points) and guard Seth Curry (20-points) hit some clutch baskets to lead the Sixers to their sixth straight victory. They combined for 51-points and have both been playing off each other and that has been a huge development for the Sixers. If that two-man game continues to be deadly. Philly could find themselves in the top-four standings of the wide-open Eastern Conference.

The Sixers will now prepare for the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night. They will need another balanced scoring night to keep up with the Spurs dynamic offense. Additionally, they will need to have another strong defensive performance on the perimeter if they want to stifle the backcourt of the Spurs and get their 22^nd win of the season.