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By John DentonNov. 26, 2014
ORLANDO – As crushing as it was to see otherworldly guard Steph Curry and his torrid Golden State Warriors teammates make shot after shot on Wednesday night, it was equally disheartening for the Orlando Magic to stomach the response that they offered up.
Frustrated by the lopsided nature of an unsightly loss that ended up at 111-96 in favor of the Warriors, many Magic players tried to launch their own comebacks with one-one-one plays that ended with low percentage shots far too often. An Orlando team that had 33 assists in a whipping of the Detroit Pistons slightly more than a week ago ground to a halt on Wednesday when player movement and ball movement grew stagnant as the game wore on and the deficit soared.
The tenor of the game – one that started 10-0 by the surging Warriors and saw Golden State go ahead by as much as 27 points – could be felt in the assists statistical category. While Golden State (12-2) churned out 30 assists to boost its NBA-leading total, Orlando (6-11) managed just seven assists in the first half and 21 for the game. More troubling, the starting five mustered just eight assists – something that head coach Jacque Vaughn said was unacceptable after the lopsided loss.
``Unfortunately, I ruined the taste of some turkey dinners tomorrow with some of the play that we had, but that’s a part of this process,’’ said Vaughn, who took the blame for Orlando’s defensive miscommunications and its lack of offensive continuity. ``We have to have those guys to play together. The overall theme – and hopefully the guys saw it – there’s not one all-star on this team. … Our success is going to be found in us playing together and playing as a unit. Hopefully we saw that as a team tonight.’’
Golden State, winners of seven straight, took the starch out of a 17,702 Amway Center crowd – one that included former Magic center Shaquille O’Neal, two-time Masters champ Bubba Watson, Dodgers’ second baseman Dee Gordon and Miss Universe Puerto Rico Gabriela Berrios – with a 10-0 burst to open the game. From there, they smothered a mini-run by the Magic in the second quarter and ultimately buried them under a hail of high-arching 3-pointers.
While Golden State was swinging the ball around, finding open shooters and cutters to get to 51.8 percent from the floor, 12 3-pointers and 46 points in the paint, the Magic slogged their way to just 41.4 percent shooting.
Since hitting 13 3-pointers in the Nov. 17 defeat of Detroit – a game that pushed Orlando to the top of the NBA in 3-point shooting at 41.9 percent – the Magic have made just 26 of 93 (27.9 percent) tries from beyond the arc. Some of that has to do with four-fifths of the starting lineup – Victor Oladipo, Channing Frye, Tobias Harris and Evan Fournier – missing time because of injuries. And some of it, again, is a lack of ball movement and trust within the offense.
``They made a lot of shots and we didn’t respond. They dictated the pace the whole game and whatever they wanted to do out there they did it,’’ said Harris, who bounced back from a two-game absence because of a right calf strain by scoring 16 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. ``We haven’t played together too much, but numbers and results don’t lie – when we move that basketball from side-to-side and play together, we’ve been successful. I don’t know why, but we keep deferring from that. That’s the most disappointing part.’’
The Warriors shredded Miami a night earlier in South Florida and came into Friday first in the NBA in field goal percentage and field goal percentage allowed. Curry had 12 field goals and eight 3-pointers for 40 points on Tuesday in Miami, and he needed just three quarters to hit nine of 13 shots and six of eight 3-pointers on Wednesday for another 28 points.
Said first-year Golden State coach Steve Kerr: ``I always think he’s going to make every shot. That’s what you expect. He’s got the most beautiful rhythm to his shot that I’ve ever seen. It’s like a shock when his shot doesn’t go in.’’
An Orlando team that is still getting used to having all of its pieces healthy at the same time lost a third straight game and proved to be no match for the best from the West. Whereas Golden State got efficient shooting nights from Curry, Harrison Barnes (6 of 7, 14 points) and Klay Thompson (6 of 14, 12 points), Orlando standouts Victor Oladipo (4 of 17, 12 points) and Nikola Vucevic (4 of 15, 11 points) struggled through off nights.
``As we keep growing together and gelling together, we can’t point fingers or start doing our own things. I’m sure that’s not going to happen, but we just have to stick together,’’ said Vucevic, who grabbed 13 rebounds (seven offensive) for his NBA-best 13th double-double. ``We have a tough stretch now. We might get on a winning streak now and we just have to keep grinding and keep playing.’’
Fournier, who suffered a bruised quad in Monday’s lopsided loss in Cleveland, chipped in 10 points. Power forward Kyle O’Quinn – out since the season-opener with a sprained ankle – got into Wednesday’s game in the fourth quarter and finished with six points and seven rebounds.
A week after keying an Orlando comeback victory from 23 points down in Charlotte, rookie point guard Elfrid Payton had an impact by attacking the rim. He finished with 13 points and five assists. Last Friday, Payton scored 16 points last Friday as Orlando wiped out a 23-point deficit and won 105-100 to equal the third-largest comeback in franchise history.
And now an already difficult schedule is about to get even more challenging for the Magic.
Not only was Wednesday’s game the Magic’s 17th of the season – the most in the NBA so far, but they are also about to begin an arduous roadtrip that will extend their league-leading spree of road games. Orlando, which has already played 10 games away from home, plays in Indiana, Phoenix, Golden State, the Los Angeles Clippers, Utah and Sacramento over the next 10 nights. The rematch against the Warriors is on Dec. 2.
Down 65-52 at the half, Orlando fell into a hole as deep at 27 points in the third quarter. The Warriors made 55 percent of their shots through three quarters, including 11 3-pointers.
Golden State seemingly picked up where it left off a night earlier in a thumping of the Heat by racing out to a 10-0 lead in the opening minutes. The Magic would fight back and take their first lead of the night 38-36. But all that seemed to do was inspire the Warriors, who ripped off a 29-14 run over the last minutes of the second quarter to spring to a 65-52 halftime lead.
All the Warriors did in the first half was shoot a torrid 56.5 percent from the floor, while making seven of 12 3-pointers. And Golden State carved Orlando up on the inside by scoring 28 points in the paint in the first 24 minutes.
Curry was once again feeling it, and going right at Orlando defensive aces Oladipo and Payton. He made his first five 3-point shots – a couple of them with Oladipo’s hand in his face – and had 25 points by the time the teams headed to the locker room for intermission.
Shooting, both by the Magic and against them by the Warriors, seemed to dramatically swing the emotions throughout the game. Vaughn believes that there’s a lesson in Wednesday’s loss for his young and impressionable Magic.
``I think the ability to not let your offense affect your defense is even more important,’’ Vaughn said. ``To have the mind frame that everything is not going to be perfect every offensive trip down (is important). I can’t let that affect my assignment on the defensive end of the floor. I felt that there were multiple possessions tonight where that happened.’’