Tyrese Maxey, Sixers deliver messages after blowout loss to Magic

PHILADELPHIA -- Blowouts happen in the NBA. It's just the nature of an 82-game season when nothing goes right for a team and it ends with them being blown out.

The Philadelphia 76ers had one of those long nights on Tuesday when they fell to the Orlando Magic 144-103 in the NBA Cup. The Sixers dropped to 9-8 on the season as they were unable to get much of anything going outside of the first 11 minutes when they built a 7-point lead.

The Magic outscored the Sixers 51-25 in the second quarter as they just got whatever they wanted and forced Philadelphia into eight turnovers leading to 17 points. Orlando scored 30 points in the paint in the second frame and had 15 fast break points as the Sixers just had no answers.

"Flush it," Tyrese Maxey said when asked about what message he gives to the team. "Gotta flush that one. That's not who we are. Just flush that one. Get ready to play. Have good Thanksgiving and be ready to play."

Maxey has a point. The Sixers have been a tough-minded team all season long as they have shown a lot of mettle and resilience as they have rallied from double-digit deficits throughout the season. They just didn't have it against the Magic and that is something that has to be put in the rearview mirror.

"Two or three times a season, you're gonna have games like this where just like everything goes wrong," coach Nick Nurse added. "All of a sudden they get hot, they start throwing in 3s, and we start turning—we can't catch the ball, we can't get back, we can't grab a rebound. Just everything was really out of whack, right? And you can never really explain it, but you go through it."

To both Nurse and Maxey's points, these games do happen. Does it define who the Sixers are? Not really when one looks at the totality of the season thus far. Philadelphia has shown the ability to dig deep. It just didn't happen on Tuesday.

"Like I said, a few times a season when just nothing goes right, just like I told the guys, we got to be better," Nurse added. "It’s certainly not who we are out there tonight. Get rid of this one. Get ready to get rest and get treatment here over the next couple days, and get ready to get back to who we are the other 14-to-15 games of the year."

With that being said, when considering the injuries piling up, it's hard not to begin thinking about the 2024-25 season when the Sixers had to battle through a ton of injuries. They lost Trendon Watford to an adductor injury against the Magic and Justin Edwards left briefly with what looked like a foot injury. "The Sixers ensure that this loss isn't who they are after a miserable season the year before.

"I mean, the players who were here last year, we obviously don't want it to be like that when you see players go down," added Jared McCain. "I mean, I know firsthand, like, that's the worst feeling to know when people go down. So I hate seeing it, you know, TWatt, Justin going out for a little bit, but I think now it's just chalk this game up, understand that this isn't us. This isn't us. We're not going to go back to last year and trying to do our best to just get back to our personality, our character, and how we play as a team."

The Sixers will take on the Brooklyn Nets on Friday on the road.

This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Tyrese Maxey, Sixers deliver messages after blowout loss to Magic