By: Kylan Watson

The Philadelphia 76ers are currently riding a three-game winning streak. As they traveled to Orlando hoping to push it to four games against the surging Orlando Magic. Both teams traded blows throughout this game, but the Sixers used a second quarter explosion to take this game away from the Magic 124-109.

Philly once again started the game off hot picking up right where they left off on Tuesday Night against the Nuggets. The ball was moving and finding the right player in their hot spots for a high-percentage shot that found the bottom of the net. Before Orlando could even settle into the game they were down by double-digits. The trio of Joel Embiid (36-points, grabbed seven-rebounds, and had four-steals) Tyrese Maxey (32-points and had five-assists), and Tobias Harris (12-points) combined for 80 of Philly’s 124-points. Orlando had no answers for either of them, they got whatever they wanted from the floor. Joel Embiid in particular dominated first three quarters of this game since returning his two-way dominance has made his teammates even more aggressive on the defensive end. That aggressive defensive play forced the Magic into 16 turnovers, some of those led to easy buckets for the Sixers on the fast break and that was the difference in this contest. Philly took advantage of Orlando’s mistakes, and the Magic could not take advantage of the Sixers’ miscues.

The Magic to their credit continued to fight in this game despite the scoring explosion from Embiid and Maxey. At one point in this game, they were able to retake the lead and were in control in this game. Wendell Carter Jr scored 25-points in this contest, and he was the player who kept them in this game. Early in this contest he had it working as he found the bottom of the net despite having Joel Embiid guarding him and forcing him into difficult shots. When Carter Jr. finally started missing shots Orlando’s offense became less effective. That happened because Philly shut down the rest of his teammates and that helped them increase their lead and win this game. The Sixers did an excellent job shutting down Paolo Banchero (14-points made five/12 shots) who is the best and most dynamic player on Orlando’s roster. The responsibility to guard him fell to Tobias Harris and he did what he was supposed to do, forced Banchero to take difficult shots and he could not runover Harris who had a weight and muscle advantage on him. Banchero is normally able to dominate his matchup and attack the basket he could not do that to Harris and that helped the Sixers pull this one out.

Now the Sixers will prepare to face the Charlotte Hornets tomorrow night. Charlotte finally has the services of LaMelo Ball who missed the last contest with an ankle injury. Ball being available makes the Hornets offense even more dynamic and it will be important for Philly to stay attached to their man and force Charlotte’s shooters to take difficult shots and limit them to one possession. On the offensive end the Sixers will need to keep their ball movement going. When the ball moves their offense becomes more dynamic and high-percentage shots are created, like they were in tonight’s game against the Magic. If the Sixers can implement these things into their gameplan they can get their 28^th victory of the season and push their win streak to five games.