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By John DentonApril 8, 2016
ORLANDO – Nights like Friday, when the Orlando Magic display plenty of fight and determination throughout and come through in the clutch against a playoff-bound foe, remind of the talent and vast potential on hand.
Sadly, too, it also reminds the Magic that regardless of their stellar 19-13 start to the season and a stirring finish that has made them suddenly one of the hottest teams in the East, there will be no playoffs come next weekend.
None of that mattered to the Magic on a noisy Friday at the Amway Center when they fought the hated Heat all night, absorbed another devastating injury and used a clutch play from Evan Fournier and Nikola Vucevic to gut out a 112-109 defeat of Miami.
With a crowd of 18,152 at a fever pitch following Joe Johnson’s game-tying 3-pointer with 30 seconds to play, Fournier took a pass coming off a screen, drew shot-blocker Hassan Whiteside to him and dished to Nikola Vucevic for a game-winning dunk. From there, Orlando (34-45) did just enough to hang on for its first defeat of Miami (46-33) in the Amway Center in more than four years.
Continuing to fight the way they have down the stretch even after being eliminated from playoff contention, the Magic – winners of five of the last seven games – showed they still have plenty of grit and purpose. The win also made them wonder what might have been possible if not for a 2-15 stretch through January and into early February.
``When we play like we did (on Friday) then we’re a pretty good team,’’ said Vucevic, who finished with 29 and six rebounds in another masterful performance against the Heat. ``That’s how we played early in the year, but then we lost it. For us to play 48 minutes like we did against the Heat, it’s great for us because they are a great team. … This win means a lot for us.’’
And the loss meant a lot for the Heat. Miami came into the game tied with Boston for the fourth and fifth seeds and trailing Atlanta by a half-game for third. Boston beat Milwaukee on Friday to pull a game ahead of the Heat. Miami still has to play Orlando again on Sunday, but it then will close the season at Boston’s TD Garden on Wednesday night in a game that could be for home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Upset with how he played in Wednesday’s 108-104 home loss to the Detroit Pistons, Fournier responded on Friday with 28 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in 46 minutes. And on the biggest play of the night, Magic head coach Scott Skiles put the ball in the guard’s hands and looked for him to make the right play. After running off a triple-staggered screen, Fournier did just that by attacking the middle of the floor before flipping the ball to Vucevic for the dunk in traffic.
``It was a good atmosphere tonight, a good crowd, and it got me going. It’s another game where you’ve got to give everything,’’ said Fournier, who made seven of 12 shots, hit two 3-pointers and connected on 12 of 15 free throws. ``I had the ball in my hands against Detroit (on Wednesday) also and I had a bad shot so I wanted to redeem myself. I think I made the right play. Shooting over Whiteside is kind of hard and Vooch was open.’’
Orlando lost standout Victor Oladipo to a concussion and a cut over his left eye when he was hit by a Whiteside elbow in the third quarter. Oladipo, who scored 13 points, needed six stitches to close the cut and he could be lost for the remainder of the season.
Still, the Magic had others step up to make the win possible. Point guard Elfrid Payton had 16 points and 10 assists, while reserves C.J. Watson (five of his seven points in the fourth) and Devyn Marble (a steal with three seconds remaining) also came up big.
``We just made some timely plays,’’ Skiles said. ``C.J. went down and banged a three and made a layup, so at least we were able to answer. I brought (Marble) in for a defense and he made a great play.’’
Dwyane Wade scored 17 for the Heat, but he made just seven of 19 shots against Fournier’s defense. Whiteside had 13 points, 16 rebounds and four blocked shots, but he was whistled for a key technical foul with 3:08 to play – a moment when Orlando stretched its lead from 98-97 to 102-97.
The Heat shot just 45 percent, but they outrebounded the Magic 53-37 for Orlando’s most lopsided showing on the boards since Jan. 4 in Detroit (54-30). The Heat also had 23 offensive rebounds, resulting in 18 more field goal attempts, but that did little to slow down hot-shooting Orlando (52.4 percent from the floor and 21 of 28 from the free throw line).
``We’re not giving up, that’s for sure,’’ said Magic center Jason Smith, who had six points and three rebounds off the bench. ``We’re not folding this season. We’re continuing to play hard every night. We really want to go out and finish this season with a bang.’’
Orlando came into Friday’s Sunshine State showdown having lost 14 of the past 15 games in the series, including seven straight at the Amway Center. Finally, at long last, that streak is over for a Magic team that very much needed a big victory of any kind.
Skiles said as much prior to the game, pointing out once again how the Magic could very well be in the playoff race right now if not for their mid-season swoon.
``Right now, we’re all frustrated by (the way the season has unfolded) because we felt like we were really moving in the right direction,’’ Skiles said. ``We’ve had a hard time really pin-pointing exactly what happened to us. It was a little bit schedule-related (during the six-week swoon in January and early February) because the opponents got a little tougher.
``But a team shouldn’t be 19-13 and then without any major injuries or anything have a stretch where they go 2-15,’’ Skiles continued. ``That’s so inconsistent and there’s something that knocked us off our season and we struggled to get it back.’’
There’s a chance that the Magic won’t get Oladipo or forward Aaron Gordon back the rest of the season after both suffered concussions in the past three nights.
Gordon was hit in the left side of his head by an accidental elbow on Wednesday and was out on Friday. Oladipo, who suffered a concussion earlier on Nov. 11 when he collided with teammate Dewayne Dedmon, talked on Friday morning of knowing the pain that Gordon was going through. Then, he suffered a similar fate again when he got cracked across the head by a Whiteside elbow.
``It’s tough anytime someone goes down and Vic is a big part of this team – emotionally and mentally and he’s a very good player for us,’’ Vucevic said. ``It’s tough to see him go down after we’ve already lost Aaron. Somebody else has to come in and step up.’’
The Magic and Heat will square off again on Sunday night in Miami in the final meeting of the season. Orlando’s final home game will be Monday night against the Milwaukee Bucks. The Magic will close out the regular season on Wednesday in Charlotte against the Hornets.
Vucevic, a reserve the past 17 games because of a groin strain and being brought back slowly following the injury, returned to his usual starting gig at center. It was the first start since March 5 for Vucevic – Orlando’s leading scorer and rebounder a second straight season.
And in the end, he came through with the big dunk off the feed from Fournier. It was the third game-winning basket of the season for Vucevic counting the two buzzer-beating shots that he made against the Lakers and Hawks. This one, Vucevic said, felt even sweeter because it came on a night when the Magic got contributions from so many different players to beat their hated rivals.
``Evan made a good play when Whiteside went up to him and he found me and I just wanted to finish strong at the rim,’’ Vucevic said of his game-winning dunk. ``Then, on the other end, Devyn made a helluva play stealing that ball for a guy who only played a few minutes before that. That’s big time for us.’’