Magic's Offensive Flurry Too Little, Too Late in Loss to Philadelphia

Poor shooting doomed the Orlando Magic in the fifth and final game of their road trip — a 102-94 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.

Philadelphia 76ers forward Paul George (8) shoots the ball against Orlando Magic center Goga Bitadze (35) in the second quarter at Wells Fargo Center. / Kyle Ross-Imagn Images

Trailing the Philadelphia 76ers by 13 points with just over five minutes to play, the Orlando Magic finally started making shots.

In the fifth and final game of this road trip, Orlando's defense threw bone after bone to its offense as the Magic tried to overcome the Sixers for the second time in three nights.

When the Magic's shooters did find the range in a 35-point fourth quarter, it was too little and way too late. The Sixers held off the Magic for a 102-94 victory.

The Magic concluded the road trip 3-2. Their overall record is now 16-9.

"Our guys fought to the very end, gave ourselves a chance," Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. "Became a two-possession game at one point, but just being able to take care of the basketball is crucial in these games. The possessions matter."

Orlando turned the ball over 21 times and shot 42.3 percent from the field as a team – their sixth-worst showing in 25 games.

As Brooklyn did Sunday, Philadelphia adjusted from game one to game two by throwing more size at the Magic. The idea was to deny entry into the lane, where the Magic offense can score at the rim or kick out passes to open shooters.

The Magic, who rank last in the NBA in three-point percentage, attempted 46 threes, or 59 percent of their field-goal attempts. Just 13 threes fell.

From the first to the third quarter, the Magic missed 18 consecutive three-point shots. In the game's middle 24 minutes, Orlando scored 32 points on 10-of-36 shooting. The Magic attempted 21 threes and made one.

As the pace picked up in the fourth, so did Orlando's scoring. Jalen Suggs scored 15 of Orlando's 35 points in the final period and the Magic shot 13-of-19 and 7-of-12 from three.

It wasn't enough to overcome the previous lulls.

"It was a slowed-down game, they were playing through the post [and] through isolation, so we just wanted to speed them up to get an opportunity at more possessions," Mosley said. "Guys were looking at shots, obviously the three was there, but again, [Philadelphia] did a great job of packing the paint, the switching they did to try to keep us out of the paint. But I think our guys got a lot of good looks early on as well as late.

"If you look at probably 50 percent of our shots, they were wide open," Mosley added. "You want guys to step in and knock shots down, but we were getting the looks that we wanted. It wasn't necessarily them packing the paint so much that was the problem, it was just the fact that we had a ton of open looks that did not fall."

Orlando scored 34 points in the paint and attempted 17 free throws. Philadelphia scored 56 points in the lane and attempted 29 free throws.

Franz Wagner scored 30 — his eighth game of 30-plus points. Suggs had 22 points and Moe Wagner added 12 points and nine rebounds off the bench.

Paul George, who didn't play in Wednesday's game, had 21 points to lead a quintet of double-digit Sixers scorers.

Up Next

The Magic return to Orlando for a one-off home game Sunday night against the Phoenix Suns. Tipoff is 6:30 p.m. ET at the Kia Center.

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