SIXERS NEWS

Fresh off their dominating victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, the Sixers got a chance to knock off the Atlantic division leading Orlando Magic, which would have been even more special. The game itself was a special kind of back and forth thriller, an epic battle to the finish if you will, but unfortunately despite their best efforts the Sixers fell just short in the end. Offensively, six Sixers scored in double figures (Andre Iguodala, Andre Miller, Willie Green, Thaddeus Young, Samuel Dalembert, Louis Williams) with Miller's 23, to go along with 11 assists, leading the way. Defensively, neither the Sixers nor the Magic were much of a factor as the game was a shootout throughout with both teams shooting over 50% from the field, although Orlando did have a bit of a size advantage with behemoth Dwight Howard pulling down 14 rebounds to generate a 42-33 rebounding advantage in favor of the Magic. Not surprisingly it would be this size advantage that eventually got Orlando the win. Through the first quarter of play, It was all knotted up at 33 with both teams getting off to a fast start. By the half the Sixers had eked ahead by 1, with the score 60-59. In the 3rd quarter Orlando jumped ahead by 3, with the score 87-84. Finally in the 4th quarter it came right down to the wire. With just over a minute and a half to play Iggy tied it at 106 with a layup. Unfortunately, Iggy followed that up by fouling Hedo Turkoglu with 2 seconds to play. Turkoglu calmly sunk two free throws and Orlando led 108-106. The Sixers immediately called a timeout and had one final chance to inbound the ball and score for a tie or the win. Andre Miller attempted to throw it in to Dalembert for the tie, but couldn't throw it in over the taller Magic, and instead Dwight Howard stole it and ran out the clock for a 108-106 Magic victory. So the Sixers drop to 18-29 overall, but remain in 4th place in the Atlantic division.