The Philadelphia 76ers have had many low points this season. However, the Sixers may be best remembered for their performance on Feb. 26 against the Orlando Magic. More accurately, the Sixers may be best remembered for how Doug Collins acted after their horrendous loss to the horrendous Magic.
Almost two weeks after Collins’ postgame rant, the Sixers will get to face the Magic again on March 10. Since Orlando won in Philadelphia on Feb. 26, neither team has done very well, just like they weren’t before their last meeting.
The Magic had lost 10 road games in a row and had only won 15 games overall before beating the Sixers. Yet it didn’t propel them to better things, since they promptly got blown out by the Sacramento Kings at home 24 hours after winning in Philadelphia.
Orlando has only won once since that game, just like Philadelphia has. Both the Magic and Sixers managed to threaten the Miami Heat during that span, yet the Magic took the Heat to the wire on March 6 while the Sixers collapsed after three quarters on March 8.
By that standard, Orlando has done slightly better than Philadelphia after their last meeting. In any case, they had both destroyed their seasons long before that game and have only dug themselves deeper into infamy ever since.
Nevertheless, everyone expected the Magic to fall apart like this without Dwight Howard. That very trade brought Andrew Bynum to the Sixers and was supposed to make them contenders, but it didn’t turn out that way. As such, Philadelphia is technically having a worse season than Orlando, despite still having a better record for the moment.
The Magic’s problems haven’t inspired coach Jacque Vaughn to throw his team under the bus in a press conference, like Collins did to the Sixers two weeks ago. Still, neither Collins’ fire nor Vaughn’s comparative calm have done their teams any good, both before and after Feb. 26.
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