VJ Edgecombe said he was "tweaking a little bit" Wednesday night, and the rest of the Eastern Conference Play-In game looked like the rookie was trying to sort it out at full speed. He still delivered when the Sixers needed him most, scoring 19 points and grabbing 11 rebounds as Philadelphia beat the Orlando Magic 109-97 at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Edgecombe shot 7-of-16 from the field and 1-of-5 from three, and he also turned the ball over four times, but the rookie’s energy was part of what pushed the seventh-seeded Sixers past the eighth-seeded Magic. He said after the game that he settled in as it went along and added, "If I gotta play wild for us to win, I’ll play wild."
The performance mattered because this was Edgecombe’s first postseason appearance, the kind of night that can expose a rookie if he wobbles. Instead, he kept coming. Nick Nurse said Edgecombe made "some … a little bit off-the-script decisions tonight with the ball," but praised how hard he was flying for rebounds and guarding. All 11 of his rebounds came on the defensive end, and Philadelphia needed them against a Magic team that finished 12th in the NBA in offensive rebounding percentage during the regular season while the Sixers were 26th in defensive rebounding percentage.
The game itself was physical from the start. Kelly Oubre Jr. delivered an obvious illegal screen to Franz Wagner early, then later got into a verbal fracas with Paolo Banchero that ended with double technicals. Philadelphia also forced six turnovers on Banchero, and one of the cleanest swings came in the middle of the third quarter when Paul George picked his pocket and flipped a pass ahead to Edgecombe with Jalen Suggs in his path.
Edgecombe attacked Suggs on the fast break and finished in a way that pushed the Sixers lead to 11, but officials reviewed the play and hit him with a technical for taunting. Edgecombe shrugged it off afterward, saying, "It got a little chippy early," and, "We’re out there hooping, I just thought my momentum took me all the way there." That was the tone of the night for Philadelphia: messy at times, loud at times, but good enough to move on.
For a rookie who has not hit a true wall this season, Wednesday was the first real postseason test. He did not play cleanly. He played forcefully. And for the Sixers, that was enough.