TORONTO – Even though his Orlando Magic notched a stirring Game 1 victory and rode the feel-good vibes that followed for two days, head coach Steve Clifford silently worried that if his team’s offensive struggles weren’t soon solved, they could lead to disaster in Game 2.
As is often the case with the veteran coach of 19 NBA seasons, Clifford was unfortunately right on the money on Tuesday night. What followed, in an unsightly Game 2, were results that were as disastrous as they were predictable.
Now, on the heels of falling in an 11-point hole within minutes of the start and losing 111-82 to the Kawhi Leonard-fueled Raptors in Tuesday’s Game 2, the Magic will head back to Central Florida and pin their hopes on a homecourt advantage at the Amway Center that has helped them not lose a home game since Feb. 22.
``I’m not concerned, but I’m just disappointed in the way we played offensively,’’ said Magic guard Evan Fournier, who finished with just 10 points after making only four of 12 shots and turning the ball over three time. ``They kicked our (rear) and it is what it is, but we played poorly. Now, we’re going back to Orlando and (1-1 in the series) is not a bad position to be in. It just feels bad tonight, because we played poorly.’’
That the 58-win, second-seeded Raptors played with great desperation in Game 2 on Tuesday was hardly surprising. The fact that an Orlando team that has played with so much confidence over the past six weeks looked so shaky was somewhat shocking. Orlando played like a rattled and unsure team offensively all night against Toronto’s ball pressure, often struggling to even get into their offense or get clean looks at the rim. The Magic shot a woeful 37 percent from the floor, turned the ball over 17 times and trailed by as much as 34 points in a runaway second half. Toronto made the Magic pay for their mistakes, converting the 17 turnovers into 26 points.
``Obviously, their defense set the tone in the first quarter and then I thought we regrouped well the rest of the first half,’’ Clifford said. ``Going in (to halftime) down 10, (they had) the tempo was where we needed it and we had been down as much as 16.
``But the second half surprised the heck out of me,’’ Clifford stressed. ``I thought we’d make a run and at halftime I thought we had settled down. But the beginning of the third quarter, they were good and, frankly, we were awful, in my opinion. We were not the team that we had been. They had something to do with it, but we certainly didn’t stay with the game and play the kind of basketball that we’ve been playing.’’
Just as troubling was the Magic’s struggles on the defensive end of the floor as Leonard carved them up for 37 points on 15 of 22 shooting. He played a major role in Toronto having a 52-36 advantage in paint points while also burying four of his eight 3-point shots. Toronto got what it wanted and even got a big night from Game 1 goat Kyle Lowry (22 points, seven assists and two 3-pointers). Pascal Siakam added 19 points as the Raptors gashed a Magic defense that was strong in Game 1 for 48.3 percent shooting.
``Just all of us buying in, wanting to win and feeling like we didn’t play our best basketball in Game 1,’’ Leonard said of the mindset the Raptors had from the start while opening the game with an 11-0 burst. ``And it was just us wanting to protect home court, really.’’
Orlando had little offense at all outside of Aaron Gordon’s 20 points and the 15 that Terrence Ross pumped in off the bench in the first half. Gordon made all three of his second-half shots in 12 minutes, while Ross failed to connect on any of his three tries after halftime.
``They have a lot of talented, long defenders and they do a great job of helping off the ball and we’ve got to be willing to give the ball up a little sooner,’’ Gordon said. ``I thought the ball was sticking a little too much for us tonight. They had a level of physicality, and for us to make this a long series, we’re going to need to be stronger with the ball. It’s as simple as that.’’
Added Ross: ``We didn’t match their intensity. For sure (that’s disappointing). If we had made better plays, been better with the ball and kept our turnovers down, we would have been in a great position to win tonight. That would have been great coming out of here 2-0.’’
All-star center Nikola Vucevic continued to struggle mightily against the defense of Marc Gasol, giving the Magic just six points and six rebounds in 25 minutes. He also turned the ball over four times after uncharacteristically struggling with his passes out of double teams in the post.
``A lot of the turnovers that we had were just careless and we didn’t play well enough on either end,’’ said Vucevic, who is now averaging 8.5 points and shooting 28.6 percent (six of 21) in the series – well below the team-best 20.7 points and 51.8 percent he posted during the first all-star season of his career. ``The turnovers hurt us and that’s something that we talked about and we started the game with two turnovers. We just have to be better.’’
Game 1 hero D.J. Augustin, who had 25 points and the game-winner three days earlier, struggled to get much space for open looks and scored just nine points on one-of-six shooting. What he did get right was his prediction going into Game 2.
Said Augustin in the lead up to Tuesday: ``This next game is probably going to be the toughest game we’ve played all season.’’
Fournier (10 points on four-of-12 shooting) and Jonathan Isaac (five points on one-of-eight shooting) also weren’t very effective against Toronto’s swarming defense, causing Orlando’s offense to sputter from start to finish.
Clifford said he had a hard time recognizing the team on the floor especially since the Magic looked nothing like the gutsy squad that closed the regular season 22-9 and racked up numerous big wins in difficult situations.
Orlando certainly looked little like the team that brazenly grabbed a 1-0 lead and homecourt advantage in the series with its 104-101 victory in Saturday’s opener. Augustin capped a 25-point night by drilling a tie-breaking 3-pointer with 3.4 seconds remaining to lift the Magic to one of the most significant victories that the franchise has notched in years.
On Tuesday, the Magic instead backpedaled on both ends of the floor.
``I thought our decision-making was terrible, especially at the beginning of the third quarter,’’ Clifford fumed. ``(The Raptors) did a good job with their help and that’s ball got to move (out of double teams). That’s something that we struggled with early in the year and we’ve been better at that lately. Two to the ball and it was sticking and that wasn’t the way we played (Saturday) night. Their defense had something to do with it, but I thought we got back to how we were playing in October and November.’’
The best-of-seven, first-round series now shifts back to Orlando, where Amway Center will serve as host to playoff games for the first time in seven years. Games 3 and 4 will be played on Friday and Sunday, and Gordon is expecting a fanbase hungry for success to be raucous with noise and vigor.
Orlando won its final nine home games of the regular season. Also, the Magic won 13 of the final 14 home games to push their record at the Amway Center to 25-16. That’s the best home record the franchise has had since the 2010-11 season when it won 29 times at home.
``Oh man, Amway’s going to be rocking from the jump to the buzzer,’’ Gordon said. ``It’s been seven years or something (since Orlando’s last playoff game), so it’s going to be crazy. … (Magic fans) really did a good job of giving us that energy and that sense of urgency, understanding when it’s a big moment. We felt that and we capitalized.’’
Toronto coach Nick Nurse was asked prior to Tuesday’s game if his team would play with ``desperation,’’ and his squad ultimately responded with the kind of effort that certainly took on that tone. He said his team tries to treat all games the same, but there was certainly a heightened sense of urgency after falling in a 1-0 hole.
``Well, I think 1-0 or 0-1, I think we throw everything at them to try and win the game,’’ Nurse said. ``At this point in the season, you do whatever you need to do. Whether it’s 3-0 or 0-3, 2-1, 3-1 or whatever it is, these games are all here to be played to win because they count for an awful lot when it isn’t just a game where you can move up in the standings. This is a series and it’s the first one to four. So, you need to win tonight.’’
Down 51-39 at the half, Orlando’s hopes of a rally quickly dissolved in a third quarter that saw it get outscored 39-27. Leonard had 17 points in the first half and another 17 in the third quarter. He hit seven of nine shots – including two 3-pointers – in that 12-minute stretch as the Raptors built their edge to as much as 24 points.
``It looks like they’re using him a little more than they did in the regular season and in the last two games his usage rate,’’ Gordon said of Leonard. ``He’s taking advantage of that and he’s using the pick-and-roll (plays) well. He’s getting to his spots and knocking down shots. He played a really efficient game tonight and I’ve got to do my part to make it more difficult for him going back to Orlando now.’’
The Magic trailed 51-39 at the half, and quite frankly, they were fortunate to be that close considering how poorly they played on both ends of the floor. Things started terribly with Orlando falling in an 11-0 hole after missing its first six shots and turning the ball over four times in the first 4 ½ minutes.
Sadly, it wouldn’t get much better the rest of the night. The Magic will now have two days to try and pick up the pieces and get themselves right before hitting the parquet floor at the Amway Center on Friday for what should be a noisy Game 3.
``Amway is going to be beautiful, it will be rocking, and it will be louder than it’s been in seven years,’’ Gordon predicted. ``It’s going to be beautiful having the whole city of Orlando behind us and we’ll feed off that crowd. We like that energy. It was nice to come up here and steal (a victory) all in all, and now we’ll have a chance to go back to Orlando and protect our home court.’’
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.