featured-image

Postgame Report: Magic vs. Clippers (2/5/16)

Josh Cohen
Digital News Manager

Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Orlando Magic. All opinions expressed by John Denton are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Orlando Magic or their Basketball Operations staff, partners or sponsors.

By John Denton

Feb. 5, 2016

ORLANDO – Last-second losers on Wednesday in Oklahoma City, the Orlando Magic didn’t have to worry about suffering a similarly cruel fate on Friday because of a sputtering offense and a defense that continues to regress.

The Magic are tied for the most games in the NBA decided by three points or fewer with 11, but that was never in danger of happening on Friday even though they made a couple of spirited runs in the second half.

Orlando trailed wire-to-wire, shot just 42 percent from the floor and didn’t have enough firepower to keep up with the star-studded Los Angeles Clippers in a 107-93 loss at the Amway Center.

``We’ve got to go back to realizing that (defense) is what is going to win us games,’’ said Magic shooting guard Victor Oladipo, who struggled through a poor shooting night and didn’t have much luck defensively checking the Clippers’ guards. ``It seems like when our offense isn’t going our defense isn’t going either. In all reality, no matter what is happening on the (offensive) end we’ve got to rely on our defense and know that our defense can pick us up. So we’ve got to get back to that.’’

Chris Paul scored 21 points, longtime Magic nemesis Jamal Crawford poured in 20 points off the bench and former Orlando guard J.J. Redick had 20 points and four 3-pointers for the Clippers (33-17).

Orlando (21-28) got within 71-68 and 75-73 of the Clippers late in third quarter, but it surrendered a buzzer-beating shot to Lance Stephenson (13 points) and 11 more points in the fourth quarter to the mercurial guard to break the game open.

The Clippers shot 54.1 percent from the floor and hit eight 3-pointers against a Magic team that has done nothing but go backward defensively for the past eight weeks. Despite turning the ball over 22 times, the Clippers led by as much as 16 points and never trailed.

Oladipo, who scored 37 points on Wednesday, got off to a bad start and never found his rhythm. He made just five of 12 shots and scored 18 points. Defensively, he surrendered an open 3-pointer to Redick on the first possession of the game and on the second possession he fouled the former Magic guard for three more free throws.

``We can’t afford to start a game and be unaware the very first play that we’ve already gone over and give up a three,’’ Magic coach Scott Skiles said. ``We’ve gone over that play, we weren’t aware of it and they banged a three. That’s kind of what’s happened to us, things snowball and we fight back into these game, but we’re just not consistent enough for long enough stretches.’’

Center Nikola Vucevic also had a rough night, missing from point-blank range on tip-in tries three times. He finished with 13 points and nine rebounds, but made just six of his 16 shots.

Evan Fournier chipped in 16 points, but only four of those points came in the second half. Orlando lost for a third straight time following last Sunday’s defeat of Boston at the Amway Center. And since the calendar turned over to 2016, the Magic have dropped 15 of 17 games – an almost unthinkable occurrence considering that they won 10 times in December.

Skiles is concerned now that a Magic team that has won just 20, 23 and 25 games the past three seasons is starting to fall back into bad habits. Skiles said it would be human nature for the Magic to have a ``here we go again’’ mentality, but it is up to the squad to resist those urges.

``I’m aware that the basically the last three years as this point in the season the season was over by maybe mid-January,’’ Skiles said. ``We’ve got to fight that urge to give in. Right now, we’re not doing that successfully.’’
The Magic lost forward Tobias Harris with 10:46 left in the game when he was accidentally hit in the face by an Oladipo forearm. Oladipo was coming down from a layup attempt and his arm and hand whacked Harris in the face, opening up a large gash over his left eye. The cut took seven stitches to close, and Harris’ availability for Sunday’s game is in question.

Harris was the victim of friendly fire a couple of times in the game. In the third quarter, he was accidentally tripped by Vucevic, causing his ankle to sprain. Harris stayed in the game following the ankle injury but did not return following the hit to the face and finished with 13 points and eight rebounds in 28 minutes.

Maybe nobody know what Harris was feeling more than Oladipo, who suffered a concussion in November after colliding with a teammate.

``I saw (Harris) and he’s doing just fine,’’ said Oladipo, who made sure to check up on his injured teammate after the game. ``I hit him accidentally as I was coming down. It could have been way worse than it was and thank God it wasn’t. On mine, I wasn’t bleeding as much as he was, but mine was internal. So I think (Harris) will be fine.’’

Orlando was playing for the first time since Wednesday’s heartbreaking 117-114 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Magic led that game by two in the final minute, but allowed Russell Westbrook to tie it with a layup and Kevin Durant to win it with a 27-foot 3-pointer with five-tenths of a second remaining.

In the teams’ first meeting of the season on Dec. 5, Orlando led L.A. by 10 points with 5:27 to play, but it crumbled late and lost 103-101. That defeat ended Orlando’s winning streak at five games – their longest winning streak in more than three years.

On Friday, Orlando trailed by eight at the end of the first, by 11 at the half and it made a charge to within four by the start of the fourth. But a 30-20 final period sealed Orlando’s fate.

``Throughout the game a team will give you a chance to put them away,’’ said Magic forward Aaron Gordon, who will compete in the Slam Dunk Competition at the NBA All-Star Game next weekend. ``It kind of happens once or twice per game and we need to take advantage of that. We just haven’t been doing it.’’

The Magic will be back on the practice court on Saturday before taking on the rival Atlanta Hawks in a rare home-and-home back-to-back on Sunday and Monday. Orlando will host Atlanta on Sunday with a special start time of 1 p.m. so that fans can get home in time to watch the Super Bowl. On Monday, the Magic will face the Hawks in Atlanta with that game not starting until 8 p.m.

The Magic got within a basket of the Clippers late in the third on a 3-pointer from rookie guard Mario Hezonja (nine points and five rebounds). However, the Clippers stole back the momentum on a buzzer-beater from Lance Stephenson to take a 77-73 lead into the fourth.

The Magic made a couple of charges in the third period to get within three and two of L.A., but it could never grab the lead back in the period.

Orlando trailed by as much as 16 in a poor-shooting first half, but it got within 55-44 at intermission despite some poor shooting. The Clippers helped out plenty by turning the ball over 14 times in the first two quarters.
Orlando starting five got off to a dreadful shooting start and it didn’t get much better as the game wore on. Oladipo, who made 13 of 19 shots on Wednesday, couldn’t find the distance early on and made just two of eight tries in the first half. Fellow backcourt mate Elfrid Payton continued struggled with his shot, missing all four of his tries.

Orlando’s starters made just eight of 31 shots (25.8 percent) in the first half. The Magic opened the game just five of 17 and shot 37.5 percent in the first 24 minutes.

Oladipo said he didn’t think the Magic lacked fired because of any sort of hangover following the heartbreaking loss to OKC on Wednesday night. Right now, the Magic simply need to pick up the intensity of their play if they want to dig out of this rut and finish the season strong.

``We’ve just got to win basketball games and I think this team is good enough,’’ Oladipo said. ``We can’t use any more excuses and there’s no need for them. We’re good enough and we need to figure it out.’’