The Philadelphia 76ers and Orlando Magic have both been plagued by injuries this season to the best players on their respective squads. The Magic, however, have fared a lot better than the Sixers.
The Philadelphia 76ers are barreling towards the midway point of the season with morale lower than low. The number of losses keeps going up and the amount of games left to right the ship in any meaningful way is shrinking.
The Sixers are coming off one of their most egregious losses of the season, falling to the then 7-31 New Orleans Pelicans — even without Zion Williamson, who was suspended by the Pelicans for one game earlier in the day for being late.
Now, they visit an Orlando Magic team that has faced similar bad luck themselves in terms of injuries, but have handled it a hell of a lot better. The 15-21 Sixers and the 22-18 Magic are set to tip off in Orlando at 6 p.m. ET Sunday evening.
There’s nothing else going on in Philadelphia around that time, right? (Go Birds.)
Joel Embiid, who has missed the last three games with a foot sprain, is listed as questionable for the contest. Andre Drummond, Kyle Lowry, KJ Martin and Jared McCain are out. For Orlando, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is probable and Jett Howard is questionable. Franz Wagner, Moritz Wagner, Jalen Suggs and Gary Harris are all out.
If you think the Sixers have had bad injury luck, look no further than the Magic. Don’t let their above-.500 record fool you, this team has been beaten up from top to bottom of their roster. First, it was their leader Paolo Banchero suffering a torn oblique just five games into the season after getting off to a red-hot, 29-point-per-game start to the campaign. Then it was Franz Wagner, the hero that stepped up to carry the Magic in Banchero’s absence, who suffered an oblique tear of his own in early December and remains sidelined. Later that month, Franz’s brother Moritz Wagner suffered a torn ACL and had his season ended prematurely as he was averaging a career-high 12.9 points per game. The hits just kept coming as Jalen Suggs, third-in-command for Orlando in terms of scoring behind Banchero and Franz, was next to fall. Suggs suffered a back injury on Jan. 3 after taking a hard fall during a game and remains out as well.
Crucially, however, Banchero is back on the floor leading this resilient Magic squad. The 22-year-old forward returned to game action this past Friday for his first contest since Oct. 30, 2024 — you wouldn’t have known that if you watched him, though. Despite falling to the Milwaukee Bucks by three points, it was an absolutely triumphant return for Banchero, who scored 34 points on 11-for-21 field goal shooting and 5-for-8 shooting from the perimeter. I’ll simply say this: after CJ McCollum demolished the Sixers’ from beyond the arc last Friday evening, the prospect of Banchero letting it fly from long range at a high clip is terrifying.
Even more terrifying is facing a team with Banchero supported by a roster of players that have adopted a potent “next man up” mentality that has continued to bring the Magic, currently fifth in the Eastern Conference, success even in the worst of times.
That must be nice.
I know the tone of this has been pretty negative for a game preview, but I think all Sixers fans are feeling the same pain right now. The hardest part is that each individual game is starting to lose meaning the further into the season the Sixers continue to struggle. Every win means a little less when they’re bookended by demoralizing losses. Even the few victories are often a bit bittersweet, with the Sixers typically just getting the job done after blowing comfortable leads and letting opponents back in games that should be as good as over. At 11th in the Eastern Conference, Philadelphia is somehow not far off from a Play-In Tournament spot — but it doesn’t feel like it matters all that much if they are going to play this poor of level of basketball once the Play-In rolls around anyway.
There just doesn’t feel like there’s much for the fans of this team or the team themselves to feel good about or even invest themselves in. I say all this to explain that we are running out of phrases to say that this team is “trying to gain some momentum” or is “looking to get things back on track” with each passing game. This train is already off the tracks and headed toward the cliff, the only thing that can save it is a complete 180 degree shift in the quality of basketball the Sixers are putting out on the floor every night. They need to take the page on resiliency out of Orlando’s book.
Frankly, one win against the Magic on Sunday evening doesn’t make that shift happen, but it could be a start. At least, one could hope — at this point, it feels like all fans have left anyway is blind hope.
The Sixers and Magic tip off at 6 p.m. ET.
Game details
When: 6:00 p.m. ET
Where: Kia Center, Orlando, FL
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
Follow: @LibertyBallers