ORLANDO – With the games coming at a rapid-fire pace now following a week-long break for the NBA All-Star Game, the Orlando Magic will be put to the test in the coming days when they play four times in a six-night stretch.
After winning in Atlanta on Wednesday, the Magic face the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight at the Amway Center and then fly out to San Antonio, where they will play the Spurs on Saturday. After returning to Orlando following the second night of the back-to-back, the Magic will be back in action on Monday against the Portland Trail Blazers.
While head coach Steve Clifford would love to be in a position where he could give some of the starters on his team a break during this particularly hectic stretch of the season, that’s just not feasible with the Magic (26-32) in the fix for a playoff berth and hopeful that they can eventually move up to the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference standings.
``To me, your best players have to be on the floor,’’ Clifford said. ``If you have the type of teams where you can start saying, `We’re playing a back-to-back and we’re going to give this guy and that guy some time (off) …’ then you have a really good roster. With our team right here, guys have to play their minutes and when the subs go in, they’ve got to give us a chance. I’ve been around a couple of teams where you could mess around like that. When you can mess around with your playing groups, you are going to win 53 or 55 games. But in my experiences, that’s just not the way it works.’’
Orlando heads into tonight’s game against the Timberwolves (17-40) having won two straight and four of its last five games. That run has allowed the Magic to pull within a half-game of Brooklyn (26-31) for the coveted seventh seed in the Eastern Conference. The Magic rallied to beat the Nets on Monday in Brooklyn and they want to do whatever they can to move out of the final playoff seed in the East.
``That’s definitely the goal,’’ said Magic shooting guard Evan Fournier, who had 14 of his team-high 28 points in Wednesday’s win in Atlanta. ``I’m not going to lie to you, I don’t think anybody wants to play (top-seeded) Milwaukee. But the focus is on the next game. I’ve been saying that for a while because that’s how we’re going to do it – focusing on the next thing and the next thing is Minnesota.’’
Minnesota is without superstar big man Karl-Anthony Towns (fractured left wrist), but it pulled off a somewhat shocking 129-126 win over the Heat in Miami on Wednesday. In that game, D’Angelo Russell carried the Timberwolves with 26 points, seven 3-pointers, six assists, five rebounds and three steals. He burned the Magic earlier this season while playing for the Golden State Warriors (26 points, 12 assists, four 3-pointers and two steals on Jan. 18 in San Francisco) and he often did the same in the past while playing for the Nets.
``It’s his size and he doesn’t need a lot of room, similarly to (Atlanta all-star) Trae (Young), but (Russell) does it differently with his size and shot-making over the top,’’ Clifford said. ``It’s hard (defending Russell), plus he’s crafty and he’s got vision, he can make all the pick-and-roll passes and he gets to the free throw line.’’
Magic forward Aaron Gordon has similarly made things hard on opposing defenses with his arguably the best stretch of sustained play in his six-year NBA career. The hero of Monday’s win in Brooklyn with his 28 points and game-saving block of a Caris LeVert layup attempt, Gordon came back with 25 more points on Wednesday in Atlanta. Over the Achilles’ tendon, calf and ankle injuries that dogged him early in the season, Gordon has averaged 19.9 points, 9.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.3 steals while shooting 48.3 percent overall and 44.4 percent from 3-point range over his past 10 games.
The Magic know that they will need more stellar play from Gordon and others to weather one of their toughest stretches of the season.
``(On Wednesday) night, it came a lot of different ways for him. It was transition, spot-up threes and he scored, really, every different way,’’ Clifford said. ``He did it all within the context of good solid basketball with smart plays.’’
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.