The Philadelphia 76ers led the Orlando Magic at home by as many as 18 points in the second quarter, 14 at halftime and still by double digits, 94-84, with 8:30 remaining in the game. Joel Embiid, who was introduced as “The Process” prior to the game, continued to dominate in ways almost unimaginable.

If ever the Sixers were to end their miserable streak of 39 consecutive losses before December — dating back to Nov. 22, 2013 — it was in this moment against another winless perennial lottery team.

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And then they reinvented the losing game. Again.

Orlando’s 9-0 run in three minutes midway through the fourth quarter trimmed a 10-point deficit to one with 5:13 left. Players not named Embiid or Dario Saric — we’ll call them “veterans” — missed their last nine shots, including four layups, to finish scoreless after a Sergio Rodriguez 3 at the 8:31 mark.

This … this is not good, people. Somehow, the rookies kept Philadelphia afloat. Embiid collected five points and four rebounds after checking back in with 5:34 remaining, which combined with a 17-foot jumper from Saric and six straight Magic misses, gave the Sixers a 101-97 lead with 1:38 on the clock.

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Even these 76ers couldn’t blow this one, right? Wrong. So wrong. It all went downhill from there, even for Embiid. A Serge Ibaka put-back cut the lead in half, and Embiid’s travel with 36.6 left gave the ball right back to Orlando. An Evan Fournier runner tied the game, and still the Sixers had 27.7 seconds to avoid disaster. Then, unfathomably, one of the worst stretches of basketball you’ll ever see unfolded.

First, Embiid dribbled right into Magic guard Elfrid Payton’s hands, committing his second turnover in as many possessions, and providing Orlando ample time (5.7 seconds) to draw up the game-winner.

Philadelphia’s Robert Covington responded quite well, actually, pressuring Nikola Vucevic at the top of the key off the inbounds pass and tipping the Magic center’s pass attempt into a sea of four Sixers jerseys. Incredibly, unthinkably, un-freaking-believably, Embiid’s attempt to dive on the ball somehow sent it into the hands of an awaiting Ibaka underneath the basket. That’s when this happened:

Sixers guard T.J. McConnell nearly decapitated Ibaka, committing a flagrant foul that handed the Magic two free throws and the ball back. Game over. The result was a 103-101 final in favor of Orlando and a 40th straight defeat in the months of October and November for Philadelphia in the past three years.

In the final minute, the 76ers had two possessions — and really three, if you consider the ball that landed between four Philly players to be all theirs — and didn’t even manage to get off a single shot.

There’s an old saying about young teams learning how to close games before they can be successful, but it’s hard to educate oneself on winning when you’re teaching everybody else new ways to lose.

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The Sixers have 16 games remaining this month, including clashes with the winless Washington Wizards and Phoenix Suns, and the emergence of Embiid offers real hope for the future, but after watching Tuesday’s loss to the Magic, you wonder if any November lead is ever safe in Philadelphia.

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach