By John DentonDec. 12, 2014
ATLANTA – The mission going forward for the Orlando Magic, as coach Jacque Vaughn succinctly put it over the last two days, is to not let one loss beat the team twice. Or, in this particular case, three times.
What Vaughn was referring to was the heartbreaking way that Orlando (9-15) lost on Wednesday night to the Washington Wizards and the inevitable hangover that follows a dispiriting defeat like that. The Magic blew a five-point lead with a minute to play and lost 91-89 when Bradley Beal converted an alley-oop layup as time expired on Wednesday.
After having a day off to try and pick up their spirits, the Magic now must face the Atlanta Hawks – the co-leaders in the Southeast Division and winners of eight games in a row – not once, but twice over the next two days.
``I think we’re in a great place right now,’’ Vaughn said before Friday morning’s shoot-around practice in Atlanta. ``We’re able to (move on) and I’m sure that our guys are capable of doing it and will do it tonight.’’
Orlando played some of its finest basketball recently in games against Golden State and Washington only to let significant leads slip away late in those games. But whereas Golden State surged ahead on the strength of its elite 3-point shooting, the problems for the Magic were mostly self-inflicted against Washington. The Wizards scored the game’s final seven points when Orlando missed its last three shots and turned the ball over on a controversial charge call. The sting from that loss lingered well into Thursday and Friday for the team, guard Evan Fournier said.
``That was a tough loss and I had a long night thinking about a lot of things,’’ said Fournier, who enters the game with a 29-game streak with at least one 3-pointer – the longest active streak in the NBA. ``That last play, of course, hurt, but I thought we did a pretty good job with how we played. If we want to beat these top teams we have to do a better job at the end of the game.’’
The Magic are hoping to see the return of standout center Nikola Vucevic, who has missed the past five games with a back sprain. Vucevic, Orlando’s leader in rebounding (11.7 rpg.) and its second-leading scorer (18.6 ppg.), went through some of Thursday’s practice and reported progress in how his back felt. Vucevic’s availability will be a game-time decision for the Magic.
``Every day I’ve been doing more and more stuff and (the back) has reacted well to all that I have done,’’ Vucevic said. ``It’s getting there and it’s heading in the right direction. I’m still day-to-day and (listed as) questionable depending on how it feels. But I’m getting there slowly.’’
A Hawks team that nearly stunned the Indiana Pacers in the playoffs last spring has been on the surprise stories in the NBA thus far. Riding the lethal pick-and-roll play of point guard Jeff Teague (16.9 ppg. and 7.0 apg.) and power forwards Paul Millsap (16.6 ppg., 7.7 rpg., 3.1 apg and 2.29 spg.) and Al Horford (13.3 ppg., 6.3 rpg.) and the shooting of Kyle Korver (13.7 ppg. and 56.1 percent from 3), the Hawks have the league’s second-longest winning streak (only to Golden State’s 14 wins) at eight games. The Hawks, who start the night a half-game back of Toronto for the top spot in the East, have beaten New Orleans, Charlotte, Boston, Miami, Brooklyn, Denver, Indiana and Philadelphia during their eight-game spree.
Horford said that the Magic could be the toughest challenge that Atlanta has had of late because of Orlando’s improvement and solid play against top teams of late.
``This is a good (Magic) team and they’ve played a lot of games this year – definitely more than us – and we know that they play hard,’’ Horford said. ``And it’s a division game, so this first game is very important to us.’’
Rare is it that teams in the NBA play each other in consecutive games, much less on back-to-back nights. After playing tonight in Atlanta, the same two squads will square off at the Amway Center on Saturday night. So not only will Orlando be trying to shake off the bitterness of Wednesday’s loss, but it will also be trying to take down one of the East’s best teams on back-to-back nights.
``I feel like we are over (Wednesday’s loss) and this is just another game that we have to play. If we’re still dwelling on our last game, that’s unhealthy for us as a team, so we have a new focus,’’ Magic forward Tobias Harris said. ``They’re another good team in the East and we have to bring it tonight. We have to learn from our mistakes, learn from the last game and keep moving forward.’’