Tobias Harris delivers Orlando’s first win at the buzzer

A game-winning shot at the buzzer was just about the only thing that could have saved tonight’s Magic-76ers contest from being a totally forgettable occasion, so Tobias Harris obliged with an incredibly difficult fallaway from 20 feet away to give Orlando their first win of the young season.

This game played out exactly as you would expect two winless teams with an incentive to remain in poor form as their sights on are set toward the future. More specifically, for two teams with young cores that have flashed competency in spurts in the early going, they fittingly took their turns playing horrendously so that the opposition could look like a functional bunch for a few minutes at a time.

But Harris’ jumper spared us another five minutes of perplexing play and allowed the Magic to escape with the victory. It was a pretty good night for Harris all things considered. Although he took 18 shots to get his 18 points, I thought he converted most of the looks that he should be making and missed shots that he wouldn’t be forced into on a more well-rounded team. Harris also finished with eight rebounds on the night, helping Orlando dominate the battle of the boards 51-38 over a Philadelphia team that was without Nerlens Noel for a good chunk of the night after he turned his ankle.

But even though Harris earned himself a spot in the highlight reel with his game-winner, as he pointed out in his post-game interview, the star of this game and the driving force behind the win was rookie point guard Elfrid Payton, who continues to impress night in and night out with his effort and ability. Payton finished with eight points, six rebounds, five assists, four steals and a block, the kind of big time all-around game that you love to see from your lead guard. And more importantly, Payton’s defense in the final two minutes resulted in critical baskets for the Magic and his drive and dish to Harris late in the game helped give the Magic their initial lead in the final minute before Harris ended up winning it a few seconds later.

Other Magic players had key moments and big spurts. Ben Gordon in particular poured in a string of key baskets in the third and fourth quarters, pulling off some really tough runners and pull-up jumpers. You’d prefer that your offense isn’t reduced to that, but the Magic are desperate for scorers at this stage in their rebuild, and if they are going to be competitive, Gordon may have to get 20 minutes or so a night to provide the kind of scoring punch he did tonight.

Nikola Vucevic was also solid on the evening, although the fact that he’s turned the ball over 11 times in the past two games (5 more tonight) is concerning. His lefty hook in the post has been killer, but as soon as he makes a couple of those in a row, teams send a second body at him and he’s done a poor job of diagnosing the weak spots in the defense. Vucecvic did have an uncharacteristically off night on the boards, pulling down only five rebounds, but Channing Frye helped pick up the slack with a game high 11 rebounds. Frye has been solid to start the season, but the Magic aren’t using him and Payton in pick-and-rolls together nearly enough.

And then, of course, there was the return of Moe Harkless. His puzzling absence from Jacque Vaughn’s rotation was snapped at least temporarily in this one as Harkless came in for a discombobulated Aaron Gordon in the first half and immediately contributed with his hustle on both ends of the floor with hustle plays and putbacks. Spacing will never be perfect with Harkless on the floor, but he’s a bit more comfortable slipping into the right spots off the ball than Gordon is right now, which makes him a superior option at the moment. Harkless had six points, four rebounds and a couple of steals, a pretty solid line for 17 minutes of action.

Kudos must be given to the 76ers for their performance tonight. As I’ve said, these are two bad teams, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few good things to pick out each night to get excited about.

Brandon Davies looks like a credible NBA player as he put in 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting tonight, even knocking down a three once he got into a groove. Tony Wroten came into the game as a 30% three-point shooter but found a rhythm tonight and buried four triples en route to an impressive 27 point, eight assist, five steal, two block performance, although he did have nine turnovers (this has always been his Achilles heel. And finally, perhaps the most promising sign for Philly on a night when Noel only played 17 minutes, was shooting guard K.J. McDaniels. McDaniels flashed a pretty shooting stroke and some stellar athleticism and he looks to be a solid rotation wing player in this league.

But outside of the individual blips of brilliance, this was a sloppily played game that saw the Magic turn it over 24 times and the 76ers cough it up 20 times. Luckily for Orlando, in one of the few games on their schedule that actually stuck out as winnable, they were able to come through in the end thanks to some stellar late-game plays by Payton and an impressive game-winning shot by Harris.