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Magic vs. Nuggets: Postgame Report

Dan Savage
Director of Digital News

By John Denton
Jan. 16, 2017

DENVER – Nikola Vucevic is Orlando’s longest-tenured player, but in 4 ½ years he’s yet to be a part of a winning season or even a playoff run in Magic pinstripes.

Vucevic totally thought this was the year that both of those streaks would come to an end after the Magic went out and hired head coach Frank Vogel and acquired loads of veteran talent to put around him.

Sadly, Vucevic knows what it feels like to see a season slipping away and that’s the vibe that he’s getting once again now that the Magic have fallen on hard times again. On Monday, Orlando put up very little fight defensively, allowing a season-worst 76 points in the paint and falling 125-112 to the Denver Nuggets at the half-full Pepsi Center.

The Magic had a variety of reasons to blame for this particularly flat performance – one in which they allowed the Nuggets to get dozens of point-blank looks and shoot 58.4 percent – such as the early start time (3 p.m. locally), the schedule (a third game in four nights) or travel fatigue (the fifth game of a six-game, 12-night trip). Instead, Vucevic sees issues that lie much deeper and revolve around a defense that doesn’t communicate or rotate well enough and an offense that doesn’t always share the ball.

At 17-26, Vucevic sees a Magic team that is failing to play with the urgency needed to get back into the playoff chase. He feels the Magic are at their make-or-break point – that is, if it hasn’t already come and gone – in what is quickly becoming another frustration-filled season.

``We better stop it,’’ said Vucevic, who had 17 points and four rebounds on Monday, of an Orlando skid that has seen it lose eight of the past 10 games. ``It’s not even about winning and losing; it’s just about trying to play the right way right now. We’re not doing that at all.

``We all hope so,’’ Vucevic said when asked if he still thinks his team has a run in it. ``We better figure it out soon, otherwise it’s going to be all over for all of us.’’

Magic coach Frank Vogel came in hoping the Magic could win Monday in Denver and Wednesday in New Orleans to salvage a .500 record on their longest road trip of the season trip. At 1-4, that is no longer a possibility – not after the Magic got little production or pizazz from their starters, offered little defensive resistance and fell flat in a one-sided third quarter.

The humbling result left Vogel’s Magic wondering what happened to the positive momentum they have built up of late with some solid play in Los Angeles, Portland and Utah.

``We came across a hot team that we just didn’t play with enough energy against,’’ a subdued Vogel said. ``They’ve been scoring that way against everybody that they play. We didn’t have great energy. We didn’t play this team hard enough and you saw what you saw.’’

The Magic used their ``us-against-the-world’’ mentality to rack up big road wins in San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Atlanta, Washington and Detroit early in the season, but that seems to have left them now. Orlando has lost four of five on this trip, dropping it further off the playoff pace.

Two things about the lopsided loss to Denver (16-23) were most troubling for the Magic: The Nuggets got inside for dunks, layups and point-blank looks at will for 76 paint points. That was the most allowed since the season-opener when Miami shelled the Magic for 74 points in the paint.

``That was very disappointing,’’ said Magic guard Elfrid Payton, who had 20 points and 12 assists in the loss. ``I just thought (the Nuggets) continued to make the extra pass and they got into the paint with penetration. Then, they were able to make that dump off (for easy baskets).’’

Then, there was this: Most of the damage came on Monday against Orlando’s starting five of Serge Ibaka (15 points), Jodie Meeks (11 points), Aaron Gordon (four points), Payton and Vucevic. That group had played especially well of late, allowing the Magic to blow out to big leads against Portland and Utah. But that group had little energy or precision on Monday, getting outscored by 25 points when it was on the floor in the game’s first three quarters.

That group rallied a bit in the fourth to trim the deficit somewhat. But by then the result was already long since decided. Denver shot 58.4 percent from the floor. The Magic connected on 50.6 of their attempts – well enough to win – but not when considering the lack of defensive grit.

``There was a little bit lack of energy on my part. I liked the fight toward the end, but throughout the entirety of the game, we weren’t there and we weren’t there for each other,’’ said Gordon, who missed four of his six shots. ``Especially on my part, I need to do a better part defensively.’’

Bismack Biyombo scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench. D.J. Augustin had 14, while Jeff Green chipped in 13.

Denver center Nikola Jokic scored at will all night for the Nuggets, racking up a career-high 30 points on 13 of 19 shooting. He also had 11 rebounds, five assists and three steals. Jameer Nelson, Orlando’s all-time leader in assists and its fourth-leading scorer in history, had 18 points and four assists in extending playing time created by an ankle injury to starter Gary Harris.

Both teams came into Monday battling fatigue from the NBA’s marathon-like schedule. The Magic were playing their fifth game in a 12-night, six-game road trip – their longest such odyssey of the season. They will conclude the trip on Wednesday with a game in New Orleans against Anthony Davis and the Pelicans.

``We’ve got to get a win,’’ Vogel said. ``We’re behind the eight ball with where we are in the standings. It doesn’t matter – home, road or whoever we’re playing, we’ve got to get a win.’’

The Nuggets were playing their first game following a trip to London for the NBA Global Games. Denver routed the Indiana Pacers 140-112 on Thursday and didn’t return to Colorado until Friday night. Following a day off on Saturday and a practice on Sunday, the Nuggets were back in action on Monday for the first of two games in as many nights. They were scheduled to fly to Los Angeles on Monday night to face the Lakers on Tuesday.

Monday’s matinee wrapped up the season series against the offensively potent Nuggets. Denver took advantage of a Magic team playing on the second night of a back-to-back on Dec. 10, winning 121-113 at the Amway Center. The Nuggets swept the season series a year after the Magic did the same to them.

Orlando was fortunate to be within eight of Denver at halftime, but the Nuggets took care of that in the third period by breaking the game wide open. The Nuggets made seven of their first eight shots of the third quarter – four of them on dunks or layups – to extend the lead out to 85-65. Denver had 100 points before the end of the third quarter and headed into the fourth quarter up 17.

``We just had a slow start in the third and they made a couple of big shots and got out in transition,’’ Payton said. ``We had a couple of turnovers and they were able to pull away.’’

What proved the most troubling for the Magic was that most of Denver’s production came against Orlando’s starting five. Through three quarters, Orlando had been badly outplayed with Ibaka (minus-26), Gordon (minus-25), Payton (minus-23), Meeks (minus-22) and Vucevic (minus-15) on the floor.

Much the way they did back in December, the Nuggets gashed the Magic offensively in a variety of ways. Not only did Denver hit 60.4 percent of their shots and four 3-pointers, they scored 40 points in the paint in the first half for a 69-61 halftime lead at intermission.

Jokic, one of the game’s best young players, did as he pleased in the early going, making six of eight shots for 16 first-quarter points. And by halftime he already had 22 points by drilling nine of 13 attempts.

Like Vucevic, Vogel could feel that the Magic lacked energy and enthusiasm on Monday. He too is deeply concerned that the squad is starting to dig too deep of a hole to get out of and make a serious playoff run. Vogel said despite there being several factors working against the Magic on Monday, they can’t afford to play the way they did against the scorching-hot Nuggets.

``There was a weird vibe in the building,’’ Vogel remarked. ``It was an afternoon game, there was nobody in the stands and I don’t think there was a lot of energy with either team. It was just one of those days in the NBA. That’s what the game felt like, but with where we are in the standings, we can’t have that.’’

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