ORLANDO, Fla. — Joel Embiid threw up a three in the waning seconds of the first half and didn’t even bother to see if the shot went in.
He took off fist-pumping his way down the court as the ball swished in, giving the 76ers their 70th point of the half. You can’t blame him because the game wasn’t worth watching anyway.
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“I heard all my teammates and the whole bench went, ‘Watch out, watch out,’ and I was like, ‘F this, I am going to shoot this,’” Embiid said. “As soon as I shot it, I knew it was going in. I felt like Steph Curry.”
The Sixers led by nine after one quarter, 21 after two, 30 after three and essentially dribbled the clock out in the fourth to a 118-98 win over the Orlando Magic on Thursday.
The victory was the Sixers’ fifth in a row to move their record to 41-30 and guarantee their first season of at least .500 ball since 2010-11.
• Six different players scored in double figures led by Ersan Ilyasova’s 17. Ben Simmons barely missed out on another triple-double. He had six points (on just four shot attempts) to go along with 11 rebounds and 10 assists in only three quarters of action. Embiid added 17 points and nine rebounds in only 20 minutes.
NBA
• The Magic were led by Rodney Purvis’ 19 points off the bench.
• The Sixers are now only one game behind the Cleveland Cavaliers for the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference.
• When the 76ers showed up for breakfast Thursday morning in Orlando, there was a giant poster of the Eastern Conference standings on the wall.
Coach Brett Brown put it there and said his players knew its significance.
"We're aware of where we're at," Brown said. "We control our own destiny. We aren't reliant on other events. I see the goal of home court and winning in the playoffs a lot more clearly."
Brown said the goal is to keep the current run of five straight wins going through the remaining three weeks of the season.
"We don't intend on letting what we built so far go easily," Brown said. "We want to go into the playoffs in rhythm and trending in the form that can equate to trying to win in the playoffs."
• Brown was asked a simple question in pregame: “Are rookies coming in better prepared on defense?”
He gave a simple answer: “No.”
Brown then elaborated saying that with the arrival of sports science and analytics, NBA rookies are overwhelmed.
“So, you take a 19-year-old kid and throw him into a man’s world with the strength and analytics and scouting and preparation, and they are floored," Brown said. "It’s a different sport, the language, the rules, the duration of the game. It’s not the NCAA, and it’s not FIBA, so no — and like an adamant no.”
• The Sixers play seven of their final 11 games against teams with losing records, but next up is Minnesota (41-31) on Saturday. It will be the second leg of a back-to-back for the Timberwolves, who travel to New York to play the Knicks Friday.