Magic at 76ers
The Orlando Magic were streaking up the standings and racking up some impressive victories, but consistency still eludes the team. The Magic will try to bounce back from a disappointing loss and earn another win over a team above them in the standings when they visit the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday.
Orlando knocked off Golden State and Indiana in consecutive games to move into the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference but fell flat on Sunday, dropping a 107-93 decision to the Cleveland Cavaliers. "It's another bad loss, man, and I just feel like we were too casual with everything," guard Evan Fournier told reporters. "Too casual on offense, too casual on defense and the execution wasn't good enough on either end of the floor. It never felt like we had any juice or energy and never built momentum." The 76ers are sitting in the No. 4 spot in the East and nearly knocked off the defending-champion Warriors on Saturday despite All-Star center Joel Embiid (knee) sitting out his fifth straight contest. Embiid is expected to return sometime this week but is questionable for Tuesday.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Florida (Orlando), NBCS Philadelphia
ABOUT THE MAGIC (30-35): Orlando's last three wins came against some of the best teams in the league in Toronto, Golden State and Indiana while its last three losses came against the bottom three teams in the East - Chicago, New York and Cleveland. "We're not consistent with our stuff," All-Star center Nikola Vucevic told reporters after falling to the Cavaliers. "To us, the opponent shouldn't matter, whether they have a winning record, a bad record or what they are playing for. We should approach each game the same way. All that matters is what we do, but we just didn't bring enough tonight on either end of the floor." The Magic are in a virtual tie with the Charlotte Hornets for the No. 8 spot in the East, a half-game ahead of the Miami Heat entering play on Monday.
ABOUT THE 76ERS (40-23): Philadelphia remade its roster at the trade deadline and is still working out some of the kinks with the new players. The 76ers had a chance to knock off the Warriors on Saturday but suffered a series of unforced errors down the stretch. "There's so much situation stuff that we really haven't had a chance to go through with our new guys," 76ers coach Brett Brown told reporters. "Whether you need a 3 on a sideline, whether you're trying to miss a free throw and position people around, whether you want to foul or don't you foul type stuff. Even though these are great players, have been around the league a long time, every coaching staff is sort of different."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. 76ers SF Tobias Harris scored 20 or more points in each of the last six games.
2. Magic SG Terrence Ross went 1-of-12 from the floor on Sunday after scoring 23 points in Saturday's win.
3. The home team took each of the first two meetings, with Philadelphia grabbing a 116-115 victory in front of its own fans on Oct. 20.