Bitter night for the Philadelphia 76ers (9-7). On Jimmy Butler’s debut, the Sixers gave the team a 16-point lead and finally lost 106-111 (BOXSCORE) to Orlando Magic (7-8). Terrence Ross becomes the hero of the landlords.
After months of changing theater around Jimmy Butler, the Shooting Guard finally gave his debut for his new team: He was allowed to play in the Philadelphia 76ers together with Ben Simmons, J.J. Redick, Wilson Chandler and Joel Embiid from the beginning. Markelle Fultz moved to the bank as expected.
It took just over two minutes for Jimmy Buckets to register in the Sixers scorer list for the first time. After a good backdoor cut, Embiid served his new teammate, who finished with a difficult layup.
Otherwise, it was almost exclusively the center that caused the furore at the beginning. Embiid was responsible for 11 of the first 13 sixers counters and even hammered three threes through the cage in the early minutes. It took until the middle of the second quarter, however, until the visitors were able to withdraw for the first time (41:31).
But on the other hand, Nikola Vucevic made it clear that he hadn’t just come to watch. The Big Man of Magic defended himself with 19 points in the first half (8/11 FG) with all means against the guests and led his team to a 13:2 run. Afterwards it remained balanced until the half-time break (53:52 Magic).
In the third quarter, Philly first shifted up a gear defensively, making life difficult for the landlords. However, Embiid cooled down enormously on the other side. Only towards the end of the run did the Sixers gain a 12-point lead thanks to Redick’s hot hand (4/7 threesome).
A few minutes later Embiid also spoke again. The Big brought his team into the front with 92:76 in an unapproachable threesome. However, the Magic could not be shaken off with it yet for a long time. With a fast 14:0 run everything was open again – a trio of Terrence Ross brought Orlando back into the front!
From nowhere, the hosts gave the Sixers 21 points in a row, the Magic were suddenly in front with 97:92. But then Wilson turned Chandler up – the 31-year-old scored 9 of his 14 points in the final section. So Philly approached again, until the final minutes it remained enormously exciting.
About 9 seconds before the end it was finally Ross who put on the icing on the cake for his strong evening and welded a trio ice cold to the 109:106 lead through the cage. Although Redick also sunk a triple afterwards, the sniper was whistled back. Shortly before the throw Redick stood with the ball on the sidelines – Turnover.
On the other side, Vucevic (30 points, 8 rebounds) increased the lead from the free-throw line to 5 points, a final attempt by Butler to narrow the game again failed on the ring. The newcomer to the Sixers was thus forced to suffer an annoying defeat on his debut. Butler showed a solid performance and scored 14 points (6/12 FG).
Best thrower of the guests was Redick with 22 counters. Embiid played a triple-double (19 points, 13 rebounds, plus Career-High with 10 assists), but he was too far down in halftime two. On the other side, besides Vucevic, Ross (15 and 7) was the most outstanding man. Also Aaron Gordon attracted attention with 17 points, 6 boards and 6 assists.
Orlando Magic (7-8) – Philadelphia 76ers (9-7) 111:106 (BOXSCORE)
Terrence Ross. During the whole game the Shooting Guard was in a very good mood, so no wonder that he took over the scepter from the weak Evan Fournier in Crunchtime. His last of 3 threes brought his team victory, the climax of a strong performance with 15 points (6/9 FG) and 7 rebounds.
Ben Simmons. In Butler’s first game, Simmons obviously took a step back and almost the entire game was overshadowed by Embiid and Jimmy Buckets. There was too little to see of the Australian, in the end he had only 9 points, 6 assists and 3 rebounds.
On Jimmy Butler’s debut in the Sixers jersey, there were still some coordination problems with the new colleagues to be observed. In one situation or another, the 29-year-old was particularly offensive and still looked like a foreign object. But Head Coach Brett Brown understood very well how to use Butler in clever backdoor cuts. Thus he came again and again to easy conclusions and could leave an altogether good impression.