ORLANDO – While much of the Orlando Magic’s season has been marred by injuries and inconsistencies, there has been one area where they have been consistently solid throughout.
The Magic went into Wednesday night’s home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder an impressive 18-1 in games where they either led or were tied after three periods. To put that into perspective, the Magic’s .947 winning percentage in those instances ranks second in the NBA only to Milwaukee’s .972 winning percentage. The East-leading Bucks are 36-1 when either leading or tied after three periods.
The Magic’s one loss in games that they led after three periods is also tied for first in the NBA. Powerhouse teams such as the Clippers (two losses), Lakers (three losses), Nuggets (three losses), Heat (three losses), Celtics (four losses), 76ers (five losses), Rockets (five losses) and Jazz (five losses) have stumbled far more times in the fourth quarter than the Magic. The Hawks (eight losses) have the most losses when leading or tied after three periods, while five teams (Mavericks, Spurs, Warriors, Bulls and Pelicans) have seven losses in the fourth quarter.
``I had no idea (about the 18-1 record), but that’s good because it means that as a team we are growing,’’ Magic guard Evan Fournier said. ``Closing games out in this league is hard. You have a lot of good players that you are facing, and fourth quarters are tough to handle because teams are going to make their run. But it’s defense for us and we win with our defense. When we are locked in, we’re just that good.’’
Unlike last season, when the Magic had 11 victories when trailing or tied after three periods – tied for the most in the NBA – they are just 3-22 this season when behind at the start of the fourth quarter. Wednesday’s opponent, the OKC Thunder, far and away lead the NBA in fourth-quarter comebacks for wins, doing so 12 times prior to Wednesday.
The Magic often know even earlier in the night than the end of the third quarter whether they are headed for success or not. They are 17-7 when either leading or tied at halftime. And if they make it to the start of the fourth, the Magic have shown a distinct toughness in putting foes away for victories.
``That comes with the experience that we have now and learning from something that we struggled with in the past,’’ Magic center Nikola Vucevic said of closing out games with the lead in the fourth quarter. ``When we’re up going into fourth, if our defense is good throughout the game, it’s usually going to stay good in the fourth as well. That experience of finding a way to close out games in this league is so important. That’s a great number and now we just have to make sure we have the lead by the end of every third quarter.’’
REMEMBERING A COACHING LEGEND: When legendary high school basketball coach Morgan Wootten died on Tuesday at the age of 88 years old, it hit Magic point guard Markelle Fultz hard because of his friendly relationship with the former DeMatha Catholic (Md.) coach.
Fultz, one of the most highly acclaimed players to ever come out of DeMatha, knew all about the legendary coach from playing in the gymnasium named after Wootten and from his interactions with the coach at the school. Wootten coached at DeMatha Catholic in Hyattsville, Md., from 1956-2002 and went 1,274-192 (an .869 winning percentage) in his career. In 2000, he became just the third high school coach ever to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
``I got a chance to meet him and he was an unbelievable guy,’’ Fultz said. ``The things that he taught a lot of people, not just me, but so many people before me and it ended up getting passed down to me, was amazing. I used to see him every day when I was in high school … and he used to talk to me about staying with working hard, being myself and listening to what my coaches had to say. He was an unbelievable guy and he still had great spirits at the time (when Fultz was at DeMatha). He was always smiling and cracking jokes still. I can only imagine the excitement guys had playing under him. People that got to play for him, he left that legacy.’’
DeMatha Catholic had such success under Wootten that players such as Adrian Dantley, Kenny Carr, Danny Ferry, Sidney Lowe and Adrian Branch ultimately made it to the NBA from his program. As for Fultz – the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft – he stressed that Wootten had a major influence on his game even though he never officially coached him.
``He had the building named after him, everybody respected him and everybody in the area knew who he was,’’ Fultz recalled. ``Even nationally, people knew him. You’d say Dematha and they’d say, `Oh, Coach Wootten used to coach there.’ Even when I was there in high school, our coach, Coach Mike Jones, used to play videos of things that (Wootten) used to say and (repeat) his mottos and stuff like that.’’
DONOVAN BACK IN CENTRAL FLORIDA: Billy Donovan, who led the Florida Gators to NCAA National Championships in 2006 and ’07 and was briefly the Magic’s coach for six days in June of 2007, returned to Central Florida on Wednesday with one of the NBA’s most surprising teams. After Oklahoma City traded away superstars Paul George and Russell Westbrook back in July, many thought the Thunder would be in rebuilding mode this season while positioning themselves for the lottery.
However, the Thunder have been one of the NBA’s most surprising success stories. Despite starting 1-4 and 6-11, the Thunder came into Wednesday’s game at 25-19 and seventh in the rugged Western Conference. The Thunder have already won 12 times this season when trailing at the end of three quarters, easily the most such wins in the league. They did just that on Monday in Houston when they rallied from 15 points down in the fourth quarter for a 112-107 win.
``The group has been a great group to work with, and the one thing that I always respect and appreciate is they always fight to the end,’’ Donovan said. ``They’re always trying to compete. I sometimes look at it the other way – why are we down that much at that point and time in the game? There are over 100 possessions in a game and you’re going to have some moments when you aren’t playing particularly well, but when those guys aren’t playing well or we’re not playing well they do a pretty good of staying in the game staying present in the game, course correcting and finding ways to get themselves back to give themselves a chance. So, some of those games could have gone either way and we’ve been fortunate in some games, and sometimes you need that, and it’s happened for us.’’
UP NEXT: The Magic will be back on their own practice court for a full-scale work out on Thursday for the first time in nearly three weeks. The Magic will be prepping for Friday’s 7 p.m. showdown against the Boston Celtics.
Friday’s game will be the first of the season against Boston. To this point, the Celtics and the Minnesota Timberwolves are the only two teams in the NBA that the Magic have yet to face at least once so far this season.
The Magic swept the three games against the Celtics last season, including two wins that they captured in Boston. Orlando won 116-108 in Boston on April 7 to clinch its first playoff berth since 2012.
This season, the new-look Celtics have been impressive after adding Kemba Walker and Enes Kanter to their team. They are 17-5 at home and 11-9 on the road behind the scoring of Walker (22.1 ppg.), Jayson Tatum (21.5 ppg.) and Jaylen Brown (20 ppg.).
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