TORONTO – If an Orlando Magic team that has brazenly charged back into postseason contention with some of its best basketball of the season in recent weeks ultimately misses the playoffs, it will assuredly look back to the final six minutes of Monday’s first half with great regret.
Up as much as 11 points in the first half and in possession of a seemingly safe seven-point edge late in the second quarter, the Magic suffered a meltdown of epic proportions over the final six minutes over the opening half.
As it turns out, that poor stretch of offensive offense cost the Magic a basketball game in Toronto on Monday. Their hope, now, is that it didn’t also cost them a shot at making the playoffs for the first time since 2012.
When the Magic repeatedly turned the ball over, it jump-started a 19-2 Toronto run to close the first half, and the Raptors never looked back the rest of the way in whipping Orlando 121-109 at Scotiabank Arena.
``It was just about the physicality, to be honest,’’ said Magic guard Evan Fournier, pointing to Toronto picking up its defense and leading to the offensive breakdowns from late in the first half. ``They outworked us. They picked up the intensity late in that second quarter and we never did respond. It was that simple.’’
Orlando (38-40) missed a golden opportunity to pick up ground in the playoff chase when the No. 8 Miami Heat (38-39), No. 7 Brooklyn Nets (39-39) and No. 7 Detroit Pistons (39-38) all lost on Monday. The Magic, 2-2 on their four-game, eight-night road trip through Miami (win), Detroit (loss), Indiana (win) and Toronto (loss), remain a half-game back of the rival Heat with four games remaining in the regular season. The Heat, who have played one game fewer than the Magic, face the Boston Celtics again on Wednesday – this time in South Florida.
``Obviously, it was a tough game for us playing here, but it’s good that the other teams lost, so (the standings) don’t change too much and we’re still in the same position,’’ said all-star center Nikola Vucevic, who had 13 points and 13 rebounds but struggled mightily (five-of-14 shooting) against the defense of Toronto center Marc Gasol. ``Now, it’s on us, and these next two games at home are going to be very important for us.’’
While Orlando’s offense was to blame for the collapse over the final six minutes of the first half – one-of-10 shooting with five turnovers – it was also mostly defenseless in the second half, negating any chances of a comeback. Toronto (55-23) drilled 19 of 37 3-point shots, getting a season-best night from Danny Green. The veteran shooting guard, who was included in the Kawhi Leonard trade from San Antonio to Toronto, drilled 11 of 15 shots and seven of 10 tries from beyond the 3-point arc for 29 points.
Toronto’s 19 3-pointers tied for the most the Magic have allowed this season. The last opponent to do so was Brooklyn on Jan. 18.
``I just think, to be honest with you, we’re not defending – even the first quarter when our offense was good,’’ Magic coach Steve Clifford fumed. ``We’ve just got to know who we are. You play a good defensive team two nights in a row, well we ain’t scoring 115 every night; we don’t have that kind of roster.
``We have to defend whether we’re scoring or not. That was the message (Saturday) night (in Indiana) – that our defense wasn’t good enough and it wasn’t good enough in Detroit. We played about 15 minutes of defense in Indiana and the offense was good enough. But that’s just not going to work for this (Magic) team. We’ve got to get into the defense like we were before.’’
From Jan. 31 through Saturday, the Magic had the NBA’s best defensive rating. However, the Raptors got most everything they wanted throughout Monday’s game. Toronto shot 50 percent from the floor, 51.4 percent from the 3-point line and had a 19-6 edge in second-chance points.
``When we play good, we play good defense and we have to know that,’’ said Fournier, who led the Magic with 21 points, four rebounds and four assists. ``So, it has to be every game (with the focus on defense).’’
Orlando opened the game with some stellar offense, making 13 of its first 17 shots and five of seven from 3-point range. However, the struggles defensively allowed Toronto to stay close. And when the hot shooting faded and the defensive woes continued, the Magic disappointingly saw a 10-point halftime deficit swell to as much as 24 in the third period.
Forward Wes Iwundu scored a career-best 16 points off the bench, helping the Magic surprisingly get within eight points of the lead late in the night.
Terrence Ross, who spent the first 5 ½ years of his career playing in Toronto, struggled throughout and made just two of 10 shots and scored only six points. Jonathan Isaac had two 3-pointers in the game’s first four minutes, but he finished with only eight points. Aaron Gordon defended well against Leonard (15 points), but he finished with just six points and four rebounds in nearly 28 minutes.
``Danny (Green) got hot, Danny got really hot, and started making all kinds of threes,’’ Gordon said. ``To a man, we just didn’t get enough stops and didn’t play well enough on defense.’’
The Magic came into the game holding a 2-1 season series lead on the Raptors, having won convincingly twice after losing the first meeting on a buzzer-beater by Green. After Toronto won 93-91 in Orlando on Nov. 20, the Magic got a small measure of revenge by winning 116-87 on Nov. 28 and 113-98 in Toronto on Feb. 24 when the Raptors rested Leonard.
Orlando’s early-season success had Toronto coach Nick Nurse wondering before Monday’s game if the Magic might prove to be a difficult matchup for his team if they got paired up in the playoffs. With Toronto likely locked into the East’s No. 2 seed, the only way the Magic and Raptors would likely face one another in the coming weeks would be is if Orlando climbed to the No. 7 seed. The Magic are still just one game back of No. 7 Brooklyn with four games to play.
``We’ve had a lot of problems with them,’’ Nurse said of the Magic. ``They’ve gotten us twice and we were lucky to get them the one time that we got them. We hit a shot at the buzzer and they outplayed us that night, too, I thought. I’m hoping that this isn’t just a really bad matchup problem, because sometimes you just run into that in the NBA where you’ve beaten everybody else, but you can’t beat this team. Hopefully we’ll get over that a little bit (on Monday).
``It’s a talented, long team that is pretty committed to playing hard,’’ Nurse added about the Magic. ``They’ll guard you and their (defensive) numbers speak for themselves.’’
Orlando was scheduled to depart Canada immediately after the game and return to Central Florida at approximately 3 a.m. The team will get a much-needed day off on Tuesday after being on the road the last nine nights. It will host the New York Knicks on Wednesday night. Orlando’s final home game of the regular season will be Friday against the Atlanta Hawks.
``We’ve got to pick it up, especially defending our home court,’’ Gordon said. ``That’s our mindset, getting our minds right for that next game and hopefully being better on defense.’’
Down 10 after the disappointing first half, Orlando saw things get even more depressing in a one-sided third quarter. The deficit swelled to as much as 24 points as Green continued to pour in 3-pointers. By the end of the third quarter, Orlando disgustingly looked up a 95-76 Raptors lead. Through three periods, the Raptors drilled 18 of their first 33 3-point shots – led by Green’s season-best 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting with seven threes in 10 tries.
Through three periods, the Magic had been outscored 54-27 at the 3-point line. Green (seven 3-pointers) had nearly as many threes as the Magic (nine) over the game’s first 36 minutes.
It was as if the Magic played two entirely different ways early in the game and, oddly they found themselves in a 62-52 hole at intermission.
The Magic made 13 of their first 17 shots and five of seven from 3-point range in the early stages of the game to lead by as much as nine points in the first quarter. That lead would grow to as much as 11 in the second quarter and Orlando had a seemingly safe 50-43 lead with 6:08 left in the first half.
However, the Magic’s offense badly melted down at the worst time, allowing Toronto to cobble together a 19-2 run to close the half. Orlando didn’t score over a stretch of five minutes and 37 seconds, and it went just one of 10 from the floor with five turnovers over the final six minutes of the half.
After the game, Clifford used his news conference with the media to try and send a message about improved defense to his team.
``We’ve got to get into the defense like we were before and that’s why were in this position,’’ Clifford said of Orlando’s playoff push being fueled by its defense. ``If we don’t (improve defensively), it’s going to be disappointment again on Wednesday. We’ve got to defend.’’
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