ORLANDO – Clearly disturbed by the Orlando Magic’s recent slide and still embarrassed by the manner in which they lost 24 hours earlier, coach Frank Vogel spoke from the heart on Wednesday while appealing to players’ prides and demanding that the group continue to fight the rest of this season.
Addressing the state of his team as it came in riding a five-game skid and agitated by a 36-point defeat that capped a winless, 10-day road trip, a fiery Vogel gave his team an impassioned speech about fight and grit approximately two hours before tipoff on Wednesday. Asked later about his message, Vogel said he was ``strongly reminding them of the importance of what we’re doing, quite frankly, and that we’re going to turn it around.’’
As it turns out, Vogel’s message hit home with a Magic team that was clearly motivated to do something on Wednesday night about their poor play of late.
Orlando played one of its most complete games of the season less than 24 hours after playing one of its worst, hitting 18 3-pointers and riding stellar performances from guards Jonathon Simmons and D.J. Augustin in a 126-117 defeat of the Milwaukee Bucks at the Amway Center.
For Vogel, who became just the 67th coach in NBA history to notch at least 300 victories in a career, the performance was proof that the Magic still have plenty of resolve and determination in trying to end their frustration-filled season on a positive upswing.
``I talked about how important the rest of our season is and our guys understand very clearly that the basketball right now is very important,’’ said Vogel, who improved his career record to 300-282 in 5 ½ seasons with the Indiana Pacers and nearly two seasons in Orlando. ``What we do right now is very important on the basketball court. It’s a time of growth. We’re giving some of our younger guys bigger-than-usual opportunities for them to grow, but it’s also an important time for our veterans to grow within our system as well and develop habits. There’s going to be carry over into next year and everything we do right now is building toward that.
``We’re going to turn this thing around here,’’ Vogel continued. ``Obviously, we’re not making the playoffs this year, but what we do (on Wednesday) and the rest of the season is important for our franchise.’’
The Magic (21-48) were able to end a five-game losing streak by getting a career-best 35 points from Simmons and 32 more from Augustin to beat the Bucks (36-32) for the first time this season in three meetings.
The Magic shot 50.6 percent from the floor and drilled 18 of 34 3-pointers – a franchise record for 3-pointers at a home game. A night earlier, Orlando mustered just 72 points in tying their season low in field goal percentage (34.1 percent). The offensive outburst was especially surprising considering that Orlando was once again without leading scorers Aaron Gordon (concussion) and Evan Fournier (knee sprain) and they averaged just 90.4 points on 41.2 percent shooting over the previous five games – all losses.
``It feels good, we found some energy and made some shots tonight,’’ said Simmons, who made 11 of 22 shots, seven of 12 3-point shots and six of seven free throws in bettering his previous career high by one point. ``Shots just went in. It’s not about having it or not having it. It’s the NBA and we work every day. It’s just that shots went in tonight.’’
They went in at a much higher rate because of significantly better ball movement (30 assists on the first 40 field goals) and a toughness in answering every Milwaukee run with a run of their own. Orlando had a 13-0 burst in the first quarter, a 14-0 surge in the third and a 13-2 sprint in the fourth to seal to defeat of yet another playoff-bound foe in the Eastern Conference.
Also factoring in the manner in which Orlando teamed up in guarding Milwaukee superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo (38 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists), it responded to Vogel's pointed message with a sense of pride.
``Once we stepped on that court, we all played with pride and showed how much we wanted to win,’’ said Augustin, who made nine of 15 shots, six of nine 3-pointers and hit all eight of his free throws. ``All of the guys on our team want to win, want to do the right thing and have pride, so we bounced back. (Tuesday) was a rough game for us and it happens to everybody now and then. We just got ready for tonight and it showed.’’
Augustin had two fourth-quarter 3-pointers after Milwaukee had closed to within 101-90 and 108-99. Center Nikola Vucevic, who a night earlier admitted his frustration over another lost season, was brilliant in several ways, giving the Magic 22 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. After narrowly missing the second triple-double of his career, Vucevic talked about how Vogel appealed to the team’s pride prior to tipoff on Wednesday.
``He came in and made sure that we understand that we have to try and finish this season off the right way,’’ Vucevic said. ``I don’t think it ever crossed anybody’s mind that we were going to just give in and do whatever these last 14 games. We have pride and we want to compete each night. I know the playoffs are done for us and we’re not playing for much, but we have our own pride. It doesn’t matter what you are playing – it could basketball, video games, board games or whatever – we’re competitors and we want to win. We’re going to try and do our best that we can to represent the Magic and our fans who are always there for us through these hard seasons.’’
Just 24 hours earlier, the Magic were embarrassed in a 108-72 loss in San Antonio – a game in which they trailed by as much as 42 points. That game was the last of a five-game trip that spanned 10 nights for the Magic. The team didn’t arrive back in Central Florida until just after 2:30 a.m. and tipped off Wednesday night less than 24 hours after starting the game in San Antonio. As if the odds weren’t already stacked enough against the slumping Magic, the Bucks came in well-rested from having Tuesday off.
``This is the most difficult game on the schedule when the schedule comes out (last August),’’ Vogel said, sharing a thought he’s had for months. ``We fought very hard to not go winless on that trip and it was difficult to finish the way that we did. I’m just happy that our guys came back and were able to pull out a (win).’’
Magic rookie Jonathan Isaac scored four points, grabbed four rebounds and held up defensively against Antetokounmpo for the most part. Khris Middleton scored 22 for the Bucks, who have won just three of their last 10 games. Eric Bledsoe chipped in 20 points and eight assists.
Orlando will be back in action on Friday night when it hosts the injury-ravaged Boston Celtics. Wednesday's game was the start of a season-long, seven-game home stand that will stretch over 17 days. In the 29-year history of the franchise, the Magic have had one eight-game home stand (7-1 in 1999-00) and two seven-game home stands (5-2 in 2010-11 and 2-5 in 1992-93).
Up 61-50 at the half, Orlando lost the lead in the third quarter when the Bucks made a spirited run behind Antetokounmpo and Bledsoe. However, the Magic responded well to adversity this time around, using a 14-0 burst to end the third period to build a 91-80 lead by the start of the fourth.
How diametrically different was Orlando’s offense from one night to the night. On Tuesday in San Antonio, the Magic mustered just 37 points in a one-sided first half in which they trailed by 26. On Wednesday, they had 36 points in the first quarter alone and 61 by halftime when they held a nine-point lead at intermission.
Augustin and Simmons took turns dominating the action, while Vuevic was solid all throughout the first half. Augustin had 16 points and two 3-pointers in the first period – one in which Orlando used a 13-0 burst and quarter-closing 27-7 run to grab the lead.
Simmons scored 11 in that first quarter and kept it going in the second quarter with 10 more points. Not only did he made seven of 10 shots in the first half, he connected on five of his first six 3-point shots. In addition to Simmons scoring 21 points, the Magic were a plus-21 on the scoreboard in the guard’s 18 minutes on the floor in the opening half.
Isaac said the speech given by Vogel prior to the game played the pride of each member of the Magic. There was no way the team was about to roll over and give away Wednesday’s game, the rookie said.
``We had a meeting beforehand and (Vogel) addressed it,’’ Isaac said of the team’s need to continue to fight. ``He just reiterated that (the season is) not over and that we had to keep playing hard. We showed that tonight and got a big win.’’
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