ORLANDO, Fla. — Brett Brown spent a lot of time, as usual, explaining the Sixers’ rebuilding process to reporters before his team played the Orlando Magic, and made it a point to single out Dario Saric.
“If Joel Embid wasn’t in this league, a lot of people would be talking about Dario as a candidate for Rookie of the Year, and justifiably so,” Brown said. “He is the one of the pieces that gives us hope.”
Saric made his coach look prophetic, scoring a career-high 24 points, grabbing eight rebounds and contributing just enough defense in the final three minutes. That effort, along with a T.J. McConnell pull-up jumper with 5.8 seconds remaining, helped the Sixers rally from a seven-point deficit to get a 112-111 victory on Thursday night (see Instant Replay).
“I am so excited right now,” Saric said. “You work so hard and to see it finally pay off, you feel proud, just so proud.
"I have been trying to do something more than just score and tonight I feel like I did. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this happy. Maybe I’m wrong, but that is how I feel.”
Saric’s night, and that for most of his teammates, was a testy one. He missed his first few shots and didn’t have a basket until the final 2:29 of the first half when he poured in 12 points. That lit a fire under him and the Sixers, who trailed by 15 at one point in the first quarter, but rode Saric’s hot hand to a 55-48 halftime lead.
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“Sometimes games gives you open three-point shots, open layups and nothing goes in and then, all the sudden, you make a couple and everything goes your way,” Saric said. “Games change very quickly and that is what happened for me tonight.”
The game certainly changed quickly for the Sixers in the second half. They blew a nine-point lead in the third quarter, battled Orlando evenly in the fourth, but allowed the Magic a 7-0 run that made it 105-98 with just over three minutes to go.
Brown sent out an unlikely five to finish the game — Saric, McConnell, Ersan Ilyasova, Robert Covington and Nik Stauskas — and the rally was on (see featured highlight).
“We needed points, so we put more shooters on the court and we just sort of scrambled on defense,” McConnell said. “That turned out to be the right decision.”
Covington and McConnell started the rally with driving layups. Ilyasova and Saric contributed five points from the free throw line before Saric put in a layup to give the Sixers a 110-109 lead with 35 seconds left.
Nikola Vucevic got the lead back for Orlando with a short jump hook, but the Sixers got one more chance and McConnell made it count with a floater in the lane.
“I think this is my second so-called game-winner in how many years of playing basketball, so I can’t be that clutch,” McConnell said. “This was just a great team win for us. I think the games we lost, we sort of stopped fighting, and tonight we could easily have given up, but we fought and fought and got a good team win on the road.”
Bench strength
The Sixers got 65 points from their bench and all five reserves finished with a plus-rating for the night.
“We don’t win this game without our bench,” McConnell said. “Our starters struggled but our bench was just unbelievable. They came in and really picked us up, so all credit to them.”
Quick dustup
Nerlens Noel got into a tussle with Magic forward Serge Ibaka with just under five minutes left in the game that led to a lot of pushing, shoving and shouting, but no real damage to either team (see video). After a very long review, both players were assessed technical fouls and the game went on.
“He hit me in the jaw and that’s not anything that is necessary, so I’m not going to have that,” Noel said. “He was talking crazy. I don’t know why they gave me a technical.”