The 76ers didn’t have their All-Star center Wednesday night, however they brought their defense.
Tyrese Maxey scored 23 points and Tobias Harris and De’Anthony Melton included 22 each for Philadelphia, which beat the Orlando Magic 112-92 while playing without ruling MVP Joel Embiid.
“We got deflections, got a lot of runouts. It was our veryfirst time attempting some various things out there defensively,” Maxey stated. “It truly worked, truly assisted us.”
Paul Reed had 15 points, 10 rebounds and 3 obstructs for the Sixers while beginning at center for Embiid, the league’s leading scorer who missedouton a 2nd straight videogame with a sprained right ankle. Philadelphia has won 9 of its past 11 videogames.
“I think we definitely got to discover another design to play duetothefactthat it’s so various when he’s there, and the veryfirst couple (games) weren’t excellent,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse stated. “Playing well enough to offer ourselves a possibility to win is the primary thing without Joel.”
Franz Wagner scored 24 points for the Magic, who were held to a season low in scoring and have lost 5 of 7. Jalen Suggs included 20 points and Paolo Banchero included 19 points and 9 rebounds for Orlando, which shot 9 for 33 from 3-point variety.
Banchero hadahardtime all night and endedup 6 of 21 from the field.
“I idea they did a actually excellent task of plugging the paint and our capability to browse that,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley stated. “You have to offer them credit for acknowledging the videogame strategy and carryingout it at a high level.”
The Magic, who have strike less than 28% of their 3s in each of their last 3 losses, got some open looks from behind the arc, and Suggs stated they had to take them.
“They’re fantastic looks. We wouldn’t trade any of those,” he stated. “Those are shots we’re living with and we’ll take those every time. If you puton’t take them, that looks insane.”
Harris scored twotimes throughout a 9-0 run that offered the Sixers the veryfirst of 3 11-point leads they held in the 3rd duration. Suggs reacted with a dunk and a 3-tip before being called for his 4th nasty with 7: 04 left in the quarter.
Back-to-back 3-guidelines by Banchero and Caleb Houstan got the Magic back within 3 with 9: 36 staying, however Harris and Melton struck 3s for the 76ers and Orlando neverever threatened onceagain. The Magic scored just 17 points in the 4th quarter.
Maxey, coming back from a 4-for-20 shooting efficiency in a Christmas Day loss at Miami, scored 14 points in the veryfirst half inspiteof sitting out the last 8 minutes of the veryfirst quarter with 2 fouls.
“I remained aggressive, let the videogame come to me a little more tonight,” he stated. “The shots fell, the exactsame shots I’ve been making all year.”
UP NEXT
76ers: Visit Houston on Friday.
Magic: Host New York on Friday.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
Get more from National Basketball Association Follow your favorites to get info about videogames, news and more