Sixers suffer a heartbreaking loss to Magic in final seconds

MORAL VICTORIES are something the 76ers can't overlook, especially when actual game ones will be so scarce.

So a monster block, a one-handed throwdown over a shoving defender or a perfectly executed play to end a quarter are the rewards this young Sixers team comes away with most nights.

Last night, the ultimate prize was seconds away. It was a missed rebound away. It was a better foul-shooting night away. It was still unattainable. Thoughts of coming to practice today for the first time this season, after five games, with winning grins on their faces, vanished in the form of a Tobias Harris jumper at the buzzer that gave the previously winless Orlando Magic a 91-89 win.

"That was a close game and we fought all the way through," said Brandon Davies, who scored 20 for the Sixers. "It's hard, it's definitely hard. We were right there. But there's a lot of positives we can take from that game. We haven't given up in any games. All the games we've played, even though we've lost, we've learned. We've grown every game and gotten better every game. We're a couple of plays away from getting things done and getting wins."

They still got their individual plays in. K.J. McDaniels had a tremendous alley-oop conversion from Tony Wroten with a one-handed throwdown while getting pushed on the waist. And Nerlens Noel, who later left the game with an ankle sprain, fed a behind-the-back pass to Alexey Shved for a layup early in the game.

Still, nothing beats a win. Now comes a very hard part in the schedule: home against the Chicago Bulls tomorrow, at Toronto on Sunday, then a three-game trip against the three Texas teams.

"They made a heck of a shot," coach Brett Brown said. "We were there, we contested the shot. I think what it does, more than anything for our young guys, is highlights just how there is no margin for error throughout the whole game for the group that we have. So you can talk to K.J. about a missed defensive assignment, a defensive rebound off a missed free throw. You can talk about three to five possessions of poor transition in the first half. For me, just to be able to take this experience and be able to teach out of it, you have to go back to defensive mistakes that cost us the game."

The winner came after Henry Sims tied the score at 89 with a 20-footer with 4.6 seconds to go in the game. Orlando then inbounded the ball and calmly found Harris coming off a screen, and he nailed it for the Magic's first win in five games.

Wroten scored 27 points for the Sixers to go with eight assists and got five steals, but he also was responsible for nine of the team's 20 turnovers. McDaniels came off the bench to score 12.

Though Orlando outscored the Sixers by only two in the final quarter, the Sixers' struggles in those final 12 minutes continued. They shot 5-for-13, turned the ball over 10 times and scored only 14 points.

It was only the second road win in 30 tries for Orlando, the other coming here last February. They were led by Harris, who dumped in 18. Nikola Vucevic added 17 points and Ben Gordon had 15 off the bench.

Nerlens Noel left the game midway through the third quarter with a left ankle sprain and didn't return.

"It's not too bad at all," Noel said. "I'll make sure I get this rehabbed in the next couple of days and get back on the court. I know there was someone next to me [when he sprained it]. I just came down on it and twisted it to the left. It wasn't that bad. I was able to walk on my own. It wasn't that bad at all. I'll just come to practice [today] and see how I feel and just get with the training staff early and get some rehab in.

For the second straight game, the 6-11 center/forward struggled on the boards, last night getting only two in 16 minutes. He finished his abbreviated night with four points and three assists. Since getting on the court in the two summer leagues the team participated in, Noel has battled through ankle and thigh injuries, as well as an upper-respiratory infection that cost him three preseason games.

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