Joel Embiid, Sixers explain what went wrong after home loss to Magic
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PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers were sitting pretty at home on Monday night. They were leading by 21 over a rebuilding Orlando Magic team and it looked as if they were going to cruise on their way to another win.
The Magic then woke up and they put on a furious rally on their way to a 119-109 win. Orlando recovered from shooting just 25.9% from the floor in the first quarter and they were able to use a big third quarter offensively and then a big fourth quarter defensively to get the job done.
The Sixers had five turnovers in the fourth quarter, three from Joel Embiid, which led to seven Magic points on the other end.
“Turnovers, rebounding,” said Embiid. “I mean, blowing a 21-point lead is hard to do. So, I made that. Obviously, turnovers led to that, and we just gotta be better.”
Coach Doc Rivers turned to the first quarter when asked for an explanation. The Sixers built a 17-point lead in the first quarter as Embiid and Tobias Harris got off to a hot start offensively, but Orlando began chipping away to end that quarter.
“Just everything,” said Rivers. “I mean, really. I thought we played great to start the game. I thought we had great effort to start the game, and towards the end of the first quarter on, I thought they played harder, faster, tougher, more physical, and I thought they deserved to win the game.”
Once the Magic started making shots, they began gaining confidence and the Sixers couldn’t find a way to stop them. Embiid was able to have success down in the low post, but he wasn’t able to help Philadelphia get over the top.
“They started making shots,” added James Harden. “They picked up their pace, they made shots, we couldn’t get into a rhythm on both ends of the ball. I felt like the game was just happening so fast. Especially, in that second half.”
The Sixers will host this same Magic team on Wednesday.
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