ORLANDO – Amid the Orlando Magic wildly inconsistent play this season, center Nikola Vucevic has been a rock of consistent effort and production on a nightly basis.
Vucevic, an all-star for the first time in his eight-year NBA career this season, is now on the verge of reaching some rarified air in Magic history this season.
He came into Thursday’s game against Cleveland averaging 20.6 points and 12 rebounds a game – career highs in both categories. If he can maintain those numbers up over the final 12 games of the season, he would become just the third player in franchise history to average at least 20 points and 12 rebounds in a season. The others, of course, were Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard.
O’Neal did it twice – 23.4 points and 13.9 rebounds in the 1992-93 season and 29.3 points and 13.2 rebounds in the 1993-94 season. Howard did it four times – 20.7 points and 14.2 rebounds in 2007-08, 20.6 points and 13.8 rebounds in 2008-09, 22.9 points and 14.1 rebounds in 2010-11 and 20.6 points and 14.5 rebounds in 2011-12.
Also, there is another statistical category that Vucevic is climbing in with his dynamic all-around play this season. In his seven-plus-year Magic career, Vucevic has compiled 13 games where he recorded at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists – eight of which have come this season. In addition to averaging career-best numbers in scoring and rebounding, Vucevic���s 3.9 assists are also a career high.
Vucevic needs just two more 25-10-5 statistical nights to equal the 15 instances that O’Neal recorded those gaudy numbers from 1992-96 while playing for the Magic. Tracy McGrady, who played for the Magic from 2000-04, is the franchise’s all-time leader in the 25-10-5 performance category, compiling 29 of them.
Vucevic has more 25-10-5 nights this season (eight) than Dwight Howard (six), Penny Hardaway (four) and Nick Anderson (four) had in their Magic careers.
STILL IN THE HUNT: As poor as the Magic have played of late, losing four of five before Thursday’s game against Cleveland, the Magic still find themselves in the hunt for a highly coveted playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Orlando hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2012 and is hopeful of ending the longest drought in franchise history this April.
In addition to getting themselves right during a five-game home stand that opened Thursday night, the Magic might be able to bank on the difficulty of the remaining schedule of the teams around them.
On Wednesday, sixth-seeded Brooklyn lost the first game of a seven-game road trip – one that has four playoff-bound foes remaining. Seventh-seeded Detroit lost its previous two games in lopsided fashion and it leaves for a difficult five-game trip on Monday (against Cleveland, Phoenix, Portland, Golden State and Denver).
Eighth-seeded Miami has difficult home games against Milwaukee and Charlotte coming up following by a four-game trip (against Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Milwaukee and Washington) and two remaining games against Boston. Meanwhile, Charlotte – which opened Thursday in a virtual tie with the Magic – must play at Washington and Miami this weekend and then it must go to the West Coast for four games. Also, the Hornets still have two games remaining against Toronto and they end the regular season on April 10 against the Magic.
Orlando is hopeful that the finale in Charlotte will be meaningful. It hit the break for the NBA All-Star Game with a five-game winning streak, but since then it has struggled to a 4-6 start.
``We came back from the all-star break with 23 (games to go), and from there you’ve got to get better and you’ve got to make progress,’’ Magic coach Steve Clifford said. ``If you looked at the six teams (fighting for three spots in the East), if there’s one thing that you knew – to me – it was that Miami would be playing better at the end than they were then. That’s the one certainty because that’s just the way that they are. We can still be that other (playoff) team, but again it’s the challenge of these nights like (Wednesday and Thursday). (Cleveland) is here and we’re tired and we have a lot of guys who played a lot of minutes (Wednesday) night (in Washington). But these are the type of games that you have to be able to play well. That’s what this league is all about and you can’t hide from that. It’s where we haven’t always been up to it so far this year. But we have a chance here, there are 13 games left and plenty of time left. But it has to start tonight, though.’’
ISAAC’S STREAK: When Magic forward Jonathan Isaac heated up in Wednesday’s third period, drilling three straight 3-pointers, it continued a long stretch of him showing off his much-improved stroke from beyond the arc.
In his last 15 games, the nearly 7-foot Isaac has hit 31 of 67 shots from 3-point range (46.2 percent). Those numbers would be impressive for just about any player in the NBA, but they are downright eye-popping when considering where the second-year forward started.
As a rookie, Isaac shot just 37.9 percent from the floor and 34.8 percent from 3-point range. Then, over his first 48 games played this season, Isaac connected on just 26.5 percent of his 3-point shots.
Isaac’s torrid 15-game run – one where he has averaged 12.6 points per game – has helped to boost his 3-point accuracy to 32.8 percent for the season.
UP NEXT: After playing two games in as many nights, the Magic will get Friday off. The team will practice on Saturday before hosting the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday at 6 p.m. It will be the second game of a five-game home stand for the Magic.
Orlando is 2-0 this season against the Hawks, winning twice in Atlanta already. The Magic won 122-103 on Jan. 21 by 29 points from Evan Fournier and Vucevic. On Feb. 10, the Magic won 124-108 in the midst of their longest winning streak of the season at five games.
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