ORLANDO – The Orlando Magic’s woeful 3-point shooting was so toxic and contagious on Friday night that it affected, first, their defense and then spread to their best player, who uncharacteristically missed two free throws that cost the team a chance to win a game that was somehow still within reach.
Orlando’s offense failed to gain much traction over the first 36 minutes as it misfired on 18 of its first 21 3-pointers and 21 of 25 at one point. Somehow, the Magic were able to craft a spirited run together over the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth period to get back into the game.
However, with the score tied and less than a minute to play, Nikola Vucevic – Orlando’s leading scorer and rebounder all season and its lone candidate to make the NBA All-Star Game – missed two free throws and its defense surrendered a Jeff Green layup seconds later that sealed a 95-91 loss to the Washington Wizards at the Amway Center.
``I missed two free throws with the game tied with (59.6) seconds left and a chance to win the game. I didn’t come through for my team at the end,’’ said Vucevic, who was otherwise Orlando’s lone bright spot with 28 points and nine rebounds. ``We fought our way back and we had a chance. I got fouled, two free throws and I should be able to make those. I failed us.’’
Perimeter shooting also badly failed the Magic, 20-29 and losers of five of the last six games. At the half, when the Magic had made just three of 21 3-point shots, head coach Steve Clifford said charts compiled by his coaching staff showed that 19 of those 21 shots were open. And as they were misfiring on 21 of their first 25 3-point shots, the Magic found themselves staring at an 18-point deficit to a Wizards team that didn’t arrive at their Orlando hotels until 4 a.m. after losing to the Golden State Warriors a night earlier in Washington, D.C.
A 19-2 burst by the Magic made a game out of it, but it couldn’t totally erase the shooting stink from earlier in the night. The individual numbers weren’t pretty as Evan Fournier (zero-for-six), Jonathan Isaac (zero-for-four) and Aaron Gordon (two-for-eight) struggled to knock down shots.
``We don’t have range shooting,’’ a frustrated Clifford said after his Magic made just seven of 33 3-point shots. ``If you look at our roster, that’s not a strength. There are going to be nights when we don’t make (threes). That’s where you’ve got to be able to defend.’’
The shooting frustration spilled over to the defensive end where Bradley Beal (27 points and five 3-pointers) and Green (24 points and six 3-pointers) repeatedly burned the Magic. Washington shot 44.3 percent from the floor, but it connected 15 of 27 3-point shots for – giving it a 24-point edge along the arc.
Green, who shot 35 percent from the floor and 27.5 percent from 3-point range in his one season with the Magic (2016-17), made nine of 16 shots and six of nine 3-pointers on Friday while being guarded primarily by Gordon and Isaac.
``It was just tough on my part, not being able to knock down a shot,’’ said Isaac, who didn’t make a 3-pointer after confidently burying a career-best four of them on Wednesday in Brooklyn. ``Then, allowing that to affect the defense is unacceptable and that’s what happened tonight. All things considered, we still had chances at the end. But that’s what makes it even more frustrating because if we – especially me – would have been better in the beginning, we wouldn’t have been in that position in the end. We just have to find a way to be better and not get to a point where we need to make a shot at the end to win.’’
Gordon rallied to finish with 22 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. Terrence Ross, who keyed Orlando’s second-half rally, finished with 16 on the five-year anniversary of his 51-point game for the Toronto Raptors back in 2014.
Rookie center Mo Bamba was a bright spot off the Magic bench, contributing six points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots 16 minutes. Two of his three blocks came during a 19-2 burst late in the third period that made it a close game.
Fournier, Orlando’s leading scorer each of the past three seasons, had another dismal night. He made just one of 10 shots in the game and had only two points.
One team playing at the Amway Center on Friday had played a hard-fought game the night before and didn’t arrive in Central Florida until 3 a.m., while the other team was well-rested from having the previous day off to prepare.
``We had some good shots early, but they are giving us problems with all of the switching (defensively),’’ Fournier said, referring to Washington’s small-ball lineup that has been one of the NBA’s best defensive units over the last five weeks. ``Every point that we got was from pounding them inside with (Vucevic).
``I could just never get into my rhythm or get into my game,’’ Fournier added. ``It feels like I was daydreaming, so it was just a terrible night for me. Not much to say, to be honest.’’
Vucevic gave Orlando a 91-89 lead with a hook shot with 1:37 to play, but Beal responded with a thunderous dunk seconds later after taking advantage of a defensive switch. Washington was forced to foul Vucevic on the next possession and the Magic’s 7-footer had a chance to give Orlando the lead again but whiffed on the two free throws. Green had a finger-roll layup with 42.8 seconds remaining that proved to be the winning points.
Gordon turned the ball over with 25 seconds to play and point guard D.J. Augustin (five points) passed the ball backward on the break to keep from having his layup blocked. It bounced out of bounds, allowing Washington to run out the clock and seal its eighth victory in 13 games since all-star point guard John Wall went out with a season-ending heel injury.
``The shot-making was slow all night and that slowed our defense down,’’ Gordon said. ``It’s not something that you can let happen if you want to win and we had opportunities to win this game.
``There were a couple of plays down the stretch that I missed and I need to make them,’’ Gordon added. ``On Jeff Green’s layup (to win the game for Washington), I’ve got to contest that or take a charge. I got caught in between and that’s just one of the plays that’s a winning play. I’m going to be kicking myself about that one until we play the next game.’’
Making the loss even more painful for the Magic is the fact that the two teams came into the day separated by just a half-game in the standings. Also, Washington now has a 2-1 edge in the season series – something that could loom large if the final playoff slot that both teams are fighting for ends in a tie.
``Like I said, every game is very important for us,’’ Fournier said. ``And then when you play against teams that you’re fighting against to get in (the playoffs) makes it even worse, for sure.’’
The Magic will be back on the practice floor on Saturday before flying to Houston later in the day. Orlando faces superstar guard James Harden and the Rockets on Sunday (tip time: 7 p.m. ET).
The Magic notched one of their biggest wins of the season against the Rockets two weeks earlier by rallying in the fourth quarter. Harden had 38 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds, but he tied an NBA record by missing 16 3-pointers. He finished 11 of 32 from the floor and one of 17 from 3-point range.
Down 15 at the half, Orlando twice fell into two 18-point holes – at 64-46 and 73-55 – before putting on a stirring run to get it back into the mix. The Magic used a 14-2 run – capped by a 3-pointer from Ross with seven-tenths of a second remaining – to get within 75-69 by the start of the fourth.
Orlando’s run extended into the final period as Ross had an alley-oop dunk and a 3-pointer that pushed its run to 19-2 with 15 consecutive points. Bamba played a major role in the run, swatting two shots to key two fastbreaks.
In the end, what the Magic will remember most was the unsightly start and the poor finish. Once again, they allowed the offense struggles to affect the defense and those issues cost them a shot at stealing a game that should have been very winnable.
``I don’t think we played a terrible game, but we definitely could have done better,’’ Isaac said. ``Allowing Jeff Green to get off six (made) threes is ridiculous on my part. We’ve just got to find a way to put this one behind us and try to go get Houston (on Sunday.)’’
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