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Magic vs. Pelicans: Postgame Report

Dan Savage
Director of Digital News

By John Denton
Jan. 18, 2017

NEW ORLEANS – Already down in the standings following an uneven start, the Orlando Magic knew full well that their 12-night, six-game road trip would not only test them mentally and physically, but it would also serve as something of a make-or-break moment in the season.

On Wednesday, following yet another humbling loss – the fifth of the highly disappointing trip – the Magic sounded very much like a broken bunch trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces of its shattered season.

Forced to stomach a 118-98 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans in a game where they gave up 46 paint points, 38 on the fast break and a whopping 15 3-pointers, many Magic players had raw emotions pour out of them like a torrent rushing through a fractured dam.

Two players, center Nikola Vucevic and veteran forward Jeff Green, let loose on the Magic’s cavalier approach to games and the refusal to adhere to team-wide principles.

Orlando (17-27) has dropped three games in a row and nine of 11 to put its hopes of a playoff run seriously in danger if things don’t change soon. And the strain is starting to show among a group of frustrated players.

``We don’t play the right way,’’ Vucevic said, referring to the team’s lack of ball movement offensively and the defense’s inability to communicate. ``We can play as hard as we want, but as long as we keep playing like this, this is how it’s going to be. It’s hard for guys to keep telling guys to give effort when we don’t do the right things out there. We take bad shots, we play selfish. It’s embarrassing.’’

And then there was this from Green, who had 13 points off the bench on Wednesday: ``We can’t worry about how many games we’ve had on the road trip. We only had one back-to-back, we’ve had days in between, we’ve had days to rest and there are no excuses for the way we’ve been playing. It’s poor effort and it’s not what we came here to do. We all want to win, but we’re not all giving an effort to win. That’s the result right there – we’re losing, we’re losing by 20 and it’s embarrassing.’’

New Orleans (17-26) came in losers of two straight – primarily because of an offense that ranked 22nd in the 30-team NBA in scoring, 26th in field goal percentage and 24th in 3-point accuracy. None of those areas were issues on Wednesday against Orlando’s sluggish and sloppy defense. The Pelicans shot 49.5 percent from the floor, drilled the 15 threes and placed six players in double digits in scoring.

And the defensive dings didn’t stop there for the Magic. New Orleans had a 54-46 advantage in paint points and a 38-24 edge in fast break points and it led by as much as 28 in a lopsided second half.

Magic coach Frank Vogel angrily said ``there is no woe-is-me’’ mentality allowed now for his team, and he’s preaching that the group stays together and continues to fight going forward.

``We’ve got to figure it out. We’ve got to stay together and keep our heads up and keep believing in who we are and who we can be,’’ Vogel said. ``Nobody is happy with how we played – I’m not, they’re not and we’ve got to work together to figure it out.’’

Aaron Gordon scored 14 points, grabbed eight rebounds and handed out four assists for a Magic team that shot 44.3 percent from the floor. Vucevic had 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists, while Serge Ibaka chipped in 11 points, seven rebounds and five blocked shots. However, they were no match for Pelicans’ superstar Anthony Davis (21 points, 14 rebounds and four assists), Tyreke Evans (18 points and four 3-pointers) and Langston Galloway (18 points and four 3-pointers).

``It’s a challenge (defensively) and tonight we weren’t anywhere near good enough,’’ Vogel said. ``We didn’t respect their shooters and their non-shooters got hot. So we’ve got to do better.’’

The Magic were without leading scorer, Evan Fournier, for a third consecutive game because of a bruised left heel that has hampered him for the better part of the past three weeks. Orlando then lost his replacement, Jodie Meeks, midway through the third quarter with a dislocated thumb injury. Meeks, who had five points in 15 minutes, did not return to the game and could be lost for a significant stretch. Meeks left the arena with a split over his thumb and he said he’ll undergo a MRI on Thursday to check for ligament damage. Thumb X-rays taken at the arena were negative.

``I was trying to reach for a steal and Anthony Davis’ knee came up and knocked it out of place,’’ Meeks said. ``I have no idea (how long he will be out). It’s the first time it’s happened to me and it’s unfortunate that it happened to my thumb because I do everything with my (right) hand. So we’ll see after the MRI.’’

Wednesday’s game wrapped up a 12-night, six-game, five-city road trip for the Magic – their longest such odyssey of the season. Orlando spent the first five days in Los Angeles, losing to both the Lakers and Clippers. They played well from start to finish in a win in Portland and then saw a chance for a second victory slip away in the final four minutes in Utah. Orlando fell flat defensively in Denver on Monday and then concluded the trip in the Central Time Zone on Wednesday.

The road-weary Magic will get a day off on Thursday and they will be back at the Amway Center on Friday night to host the Milwaukee Bucks. Earlier in the day, the franchise will induct Anfernee ``Penny’’ Hardaway into the Magic Hall of Fame. Hardaway, a two-time First-Team All-NBA player during his six seasons in Orlando, will also be honored before fans during the Magic-Bucks game.

``There shouldn’t be a message,’’ Green said angrily. ``If you’re not mad by the next game, if you aren’t going to come out and play hard, then you shouldn’t be on this team and you shouldn’t be out there on the floor, plain and simple. If you’re not upset with how we’ve been playing then there’s no reason to go out there on the floor.’’

Down 13 at the half after giving up two 30-plus-point quarters early on, the Magic had zero luck in trying to get back into the game because of the inability to mount any sort of defensive stand. New Orleans boosted its lead to as much as 20 in the period and took a commanding 92-73 edge into the final 12 minutes.

From there, it would only get worse for the defenseless Magic. When Vogel signaled for yet another timeout with 5:38 to play, Orlando was staring at a 109-82 deficit courtesy of 14 3-pointers by the Pelicans.

``We’ve got to be more connected,’’ Green said of the defensive woes. ``That’s the problem – we’re not connected on the defensive end. We’re just not playing hard enough on the defensive end, plain and simple.’’

Orlando was smashed in the first half – something made even more troubling by the fact that Davis played just 17 minutes because of pain in his hip from a fall earlier in the week. The Pelicans had 32 paint points and 29 fastbreak points in building a 65-52 halftime lead on the Magic.

That poor start set a bad tone for the night and, not surprisingly, it continued in an unsightly second half. Now, Vucevic said, the Magic need to do some self-reflection as to why the team continues to struggle and the season is slipping through its fingers.

``I’ve been asking myself that every day, and I have no idea why we can’t do the right things,’’ Vucevic said of the messages of offensive togetherness and defensive cohesion not getting through to the team. ``Basketball is a very simple game and if you keep it simple, it works. The best teams keep it simple and they don’t do complicated stuff. … We don’t play that way. We try to play pickup. We play pickup.’’

As for Vogel, he said the Magic’s only way out is to stick together, preach the right things and work harder – both in practices and games.

``You keep working at it – that’s the only thing you can do,’’ Vogel stressed. ``It’s not about (pushing) buttons (with lineup changes). You keep grinding, trying to figure out the puzzle and improve the things that you know work for you. … There is no woe-is-me. We’re going to try to work to figure it out. It’s that simple.’’

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