Sixers vs Magic Tactical Breakdown: 3 Ways Philadelphia Can Beat Orlando

If the Sixers could win a Play-In game purely with smiles and mood, they might not have to even show up to Wednesday's matchup with the Orlando Magic.

One team has a backcourt duo launching a partnership with TJ Maxx because of how well their names play off one another. The other can't decide whether halftime adjustments entail tactical changes or simply playing harder.

One team has one of its most important players finishing strong after a lengthy in-season suspension. The other played its big offseason acquisition just 17-and-a-half minutes in a game that had postseason seeding on the line.

But the game will be won on the court, the good and bad of the regular season irrelevant to the task at hand now.

What can the under-manned Sixers do to beat the Magic?

Don't over-help on defense

Orlando's profile, in a lot of ways, plays right into the Sixers' hands. The Magic don't take or make a lot of 3s. The Sixers love to pinch driving lanes and dare opponents to make 3s. But you might bring out the worst version of the Magic by flying in the face of the principles you've followed all season.

By staying home when the ball is in the hands of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, you are daring Orlando's two highest-usage players to make decisions off the bounce. And by staying home on the off-ball players, you are denying Orlando's most dangerous 3-point shooters—Desmond Bane and Tristan daSilva—the space to catch and shoot and dedicating the attention necessary to protect against them cutting.

Banchero and Wagner are both big-bodied shot creators. They are both adept shot creators for teammates, ranking on the top 25th percentile of players in passing creation volume, per BBall Index.

But as ball-dominant as both are, neither is an efficient one-on-one shotmaker. In not over-helping, the Sixers would be enticing them to play to their weaknesses. If Philadelphia makes Orlando's two most featured players beat them, ironically, the Sixers should increase their chances of winning.

And if those two happen to connect on shots that they've missed left and right, long and short all season long, so be it.

Get Paul George screening the ball

If the Magic are going to run the offense through one or two players in most of the lineups they deploy, the Sixers have to make them work on both ends of the floor. Philadelphia can make them work by forcing them into decisions. That has to mean using your best wing as a screener for your guards.

Are the Sixers going to get him to set screens as often as they're going to use him as a leading shot creator? Probably not. Can they get him balancing his time spacing and setting ball screens? It would help.

If the Magic switch the action, there's probably a size mismatch because it likely means Jalen Suggs is taking on George, who has three inches of height over him. It could also mean someone like Banchero is guarding a Tyrese Maxey or VJ Edgecombe in space. Better move those feet. If the Magic don't switch, Suggs is chasing one of Maxey and Edgecombe through a pick, sending Orlando into rotations.

Perhaps Orlando's tactical Chess move is to feed the George-Suggs mismatch so that a two-man game loses its advantage. If that happens, it's an opportunity for Nurse to prove what he has in the screen-the-screener section of his playbook. Might I recommend some Spain pick-and-rolls?

Be open to small lineups

It's easy to fall for Orlando's size in the middle and commit to rotations that feature one of Andre Drummond and Adem Bona at all times. But Orlando's big rotation—Wendell Carter Jr., Goga Bitadze and sometimes Jonathan Isaac—isn't all that flexible in the archetypes they can guard.

Orlando is likely going to win the battle on the glass if the Sixers try to play a traditional brand of basketball. But by going small—say, with lineups that have Jabari Walker at center or feature Maxey, Edgecombe, Quentin Grimes and George—the Sixers would force the Magic into a decision. Do they hang back at the rim and funnel the Sixers into mid-range shots? Or do they play up in coverage and risk being blown by?

Both teams are rather uninspiring in rim defense. But the Magic allowed better shooting at the rim than the Sixers did this season. In going small, the Sixers would theoretically put a guard or wing on the second side of the floor and create an advantage at the rim on the back side of their actions. Or, more traditionally, they'd be putting their best floor-stretching big on the floor in Walker. The Magic will have to decide to either concede open 3s to him or step away from the rim to guard, risking shots at the basket.

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