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ORLANDO – To a man, the Orlando Magic’s players predicted that it was just a matter of time before the team got on track offensively and started making the open shots it was working so hard to create.
That finally happened on Friday, but because the Magic didn’t have the requisite grit defensively or on the glass, their offensive progress mattered very little at all.
Orlando hovered around 50 percent shooting most of the night – a huge improvement over how it has shot the ball much of the season – but it mattered very little very little because of the defensive struggles in a 120-95 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers at the Amway Center.
The Magic (2-6) lost for a fourth consecutive time since beating the Celtics in Boston on Oct. 22. Whereas many of their defeats this season have been because of an offense that ranks in the bottom five of the NBA in several major categories, the Magic’s issues on this night were on the defensive end on this night. L.A. standout Tobias Harris bedeviled his former team for 21 points and long-time Magic-killer Lou Williams poured in 28 points for the Clippers (5-4).
Williams, who had 16 points in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter, delivered a knockout blow for the Magic with 7:50 to play when he buried a step-back 3-pointer over the outstretched arm of rookie center Mo Bamba. Even when he missed, Williams scored as his 3-pointer later in the final period counted when referees ruled that Bamba had goal-tended an errant shot while grabbing a rebound. Television replays showed that Bamba should not have been called for basket interference on the play.
Orlando came into Friday having played the NBA’s toughest schedule thus far and the surprising Clippers won’t do anything to hurt the quality of Orlando’s opponents thus far. L.A. hit 47.7 percent of its shots, drilled 13 3-pointers and sank 25 of 33 free throws. Making the Clippers even more effective was their 50-40 rebounding advantage over the Magic.
Steve Clifford, who was hired as head coach of the Magic in late May, turned to some statistical data leading up to the game in hopes of keeping his team’s spirits high. Even after Friday’s game many of his primary points still ring true.
“What I want the players to understand is this: 82 games is a long time. Did we want to be 2-5? No. Have we played a lot of good basketball? Absolutely,’’ Clifford said. “We’ve played the fourth-most-difficult schedule and if you look at the advanced analytics of our quality of play, by our quality of shots and the ones we’ve given up, we should be 4-2-1. … We’ve played seven games and it’s all about making progress and all about getting better.’’
Orlando got 22 points and 11 rebounds from center Nikola Vucevic, while Evan Fournier showed signs of breaking out of a mini-shooting slump with 19 points on seven-of-12 shooting. D.J. Augustin chipped in 13 points, while Bamba added seven points, five rebounds, and three assists in 20 minutes.
The Magic connected on 44.4 percent of their shots despite making just four of 17 3-point shots. The four made 3-pointers were a new low for the season.
The Clippers, who lost 122-113 a night earlier in Philadelphia, came into Friday with a decided rest disadvantage, but that didn’t seem to have bothered them. They also came in having dominated the series against the Magic in recent years. L.A. entered Friday’s game at the Amway Center riding a nine-game win streak, four of them being in Orlando.
Orlando suffered what might prove to be a major loss just before halftime when second-year forward Jonathan Isaac inadvertently landed on the foot of L.A. center Boban Marjanovic and sprained his right ankle. Isaac’s rookie season was marred by a series of ankle injuries that limited him to just 27 games. He left the floor with 2:51 left in the first half, headed straight to the locker room and did not return. Isaac, who had career highs in points (18) and rebounds (12) earlier in the season in a Magic win in Boston, had just two points and a rebounds in 12 minutes on Friday.
The Magic will practice on Saturday in Orlando prior to heading to San Antonio where they will face the Spurs on Sunday. Tipoff for that game is 7 p.m. ET.
Sunday’s game is the start of a rather difficult back-to-back set of games and it continues a taxing stretch for Orlando. After playing in San Antonio on Sunday, the Magic will be back at the Amway Center on Monday night to host the Cleveland Cavaliers. It will be Orlando’s second back-to-back of the season. Friday’s game against the Clippers started a stretch that will see Orlando play eight games in the next 13 nights.
Down 13 at the half, the Magic got within nine points of the Clippers three different occasions in the third period. However, they were never able to maintain the momentum and L.A. pushed its advantage back to 87-72 by the start of the fourth.
Orlando’s offense showed some improvement in the first half, but the inability of its defense to slow the Clippers early in the game led to a 57-44 deficit at halftime. That was an ominous sign considering that the Magic came into the night 2-0 when leading at the half and 0-5 when trailing at the break.
It certainly didn’t help that Isaac – one of the Magic’s best defenders – went down midway through the second quarter with the ankle injury. Also, Gordon picked up two fouls in the first few minutes of the game, sapping him of some of his aggression on the defensive end of the floor.
L.A. shot just 44.7 percent from the floor in the first half, but it drilled four 3-pointers, sank 11 free throws and battered the Magic for 26 paint points. Harris, who starred for the Magic from 2013-15, burned the Magic from the inside and outside early on, hitting all six of his shots for 14 first-half points.
A Magic team that came into the game 30thin the NBA in scoring and shooting, opened the game by hitting 10 of its first 14 shots. Also, the Magic shot 55 percent in the first quarter, but did not attempt a 3-point shot – which was weird considering that they got up a franchise record 43 3-point attempts in each of the previous two seasons.
Orlando attempted eight threes in the second period, but it failed to connect on any of them. Six of those attempts were by reserves.
Vucevic and Fournier, teammates for five seasons, worked well together in the first half. Vucevic had 11 points and six rebounds in the early going and three of his five field goals were set up by Fournier passes (10 first-half points).
Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Orlando Magic. All opinions expressed by John Denton are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Orlando Magic or their Basketball Operations staff, partners or sponsors.
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