ORLANDO – Nikola Vucevic has always found it difficult to sit and watch games while being out injured, so much that he often prefers to stay back in the locker room and watch on TV instead of being so close to action without being able to partake.
Wednesday night’s game, in particular, hit Vucevic hard as he’s always loved playing in big games with charged environments. Factor in that the 7-foot center has also had some of the biggest games of his career while facing LeBron James – a player he has tremendous respect for and considers to be the gold standard in the NBA – and it made the torture of sitting out another night even more difficult.
If things go according to plan on Friday, it will be the last game that Vucevic has to miss. Out since Nov. 20 with a lateral sprain in his right ankle, Vucevic has worked his way into a position that he could potentially play on Friday when the Magic (11-13) face superstar guard James Harden and the Houston Rockets (16-8) at the Amway Center.
``It felt good and I was able to go through all of (practice) and I felt good,’’ Vucevic said on Thursday after getting in a practice session and extra shooting and conditioning work. ``We’ll see how it feels the rest of the day (on Friday) and then go from there. Hopefully, if I can’t go (Friday) then Sunday should be a realistic date. We’ll see (on Friday) if I’ll be back out there.’’
The same goes for blossoming point guard Markelle Fultz, who was out on Wednesday because of the stomach flu, and is listed as questionable to play on Friday. Like Vucevic, Fultz hopes to return to the Friday morning shoot-around session and prove himself ready to play against the Rockets.
Vucevic, Orlando’s lone all-star from the past seven seasons, couldn’t be out there on Wednesday when the Magic fell into an early 24-point hole, clawed back to get the game tied at 71 early in the fourth quarter and then had little luck down the stretch in stopping James as the Lakers won, 96-87. Orlando’s second-leading scorer (17.6 ppg.) and its leading rebounder (11.6 rpg.), Vucevic likely could have given the Magic just what they needed in their bid to take down an L.A. team led by James, who had a triple-double with 25 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
Back on Dec. 31, 2012 – in Vucevic’s first game in Magic pinstripes while facing James – he forever earned the respect of the four-time league MVP with a record-setting performance against James’ then team, the Miami Heat. Vucevic broke Shaquille O’Neal’s franchise record that night seven years ago when he grabbed a franchise record 29 rebounds and he also poured in 20 points.
Performances like that flashed through Vucevic’s head on Wednesday as he yearned to be out on the floor doing battle against James and the Lakers’ very vocal fan base.
``Last night really made me want to be out there,’’ he admitted on Thursday. ``With those games, at the end of the day, they are just one win or one loss, but when you come into your own arena and there are all of these so-called Lakers fans here, it would have been fun to be out there and play.
``And you want to play, obviously, against the greatest player in the world (in James),’’ Vucevic continued. ``And (former Magic coach) Frank (Vogel) was there. It would have been fun to be out there and compete against them, but it is what it is, and I’ll see them in L.A. (in January).’’
Even without Vucevic, the Magic might have been in position to win on Wednesday if not for their shooting and rebounding woes in the early going and their blown defensive coverages late in the night. While praising his team’s effort and willingness to fight, head coach Steve Clifford showed his team those mistakes on Thursday. Those are areas that must be cleaned up if the Magic are going to get back on the winning track against Houston on Friday and in the four-game trip to the West starting on Sunday.
``Every team has their strengths and to me, we have positional size and we’re super smart. We weren’t smart (on Wednesday) night and that can’t be OK with any of us,’’ Clifford said. ``We’ve got to be the team that executes their sets, that executes their defenses, particularly in the fourth quarter. The nights we’ve done it, we’ve given ourselves a good chance to win, and we didn’t do that (on Wednesday) night.’’
For the most part, the Magic kept things afloat with Vucevic out the past 10 games, going 5-5 and winning four straight games at one point. Because so much of the offense usually flows through Vucevic’s diverse skill set, there were warranted concerns about how the Magic would be able to generate enough points without their shooting and passing big man.
In the 10 games since Vucevic rolled his right ankle on Nov. 20 in Toronto, several key players boosted their offensive production. Evan Fournier (23.8 points per game, up 6.7 points), Terrence Ross (15.5 points, up 4.5 points), Markelle Fultz (14.1 points, up 3.5 points), Mo Bamba (7.8 points, up 4.0 points) and Khem Birch (4.9 points and 7.2 rebounds, 1.7 points and 4.6 boards) greatly elevated their play with Vucevic out.
``It’ll be great to get Vooch back, but he probably won’t be full speed right away and he’ll probably be on some kind of minutes’ restriction, but he’s a great player for our team and our best player,’’ Isaac said of Vucevic’s potential return. ``Getting him back will be huge for us.’’
Maybe the most frustrating aspect of Vucevic’s injury, he said, was the fact that it came right as he started playing his best basketball of the season. In the three games prior to the injury, Vucevic averaged 21.7 points, 14.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.33 blocks per game while shooting 54.2 percent (26-48) overall and 66.7 percent (6-9) from 3-point range – numbers good enough to earn him the NBA’s Eastern Conference Player of the Week award. Also, those numbers were in line with last season’s production when the 29-year-old Vucevic played the best basketball of his career.
Vucevic said the frustration of being out was quelled somewhat by the inspiration he got from the way his teammates played during a four-game winning streak with victories over Golden State, Washington, Phoenix and Cleveland. Now, he’s hoping that he can return while not interrupting the rhythm that the team has established over the last three weeks.
``I thought the guys competed great and we had that stretch where we won four in a row, and we even played well in last two games against really good teams, but we just didn’t get the wins,’’ Vucevic said of his team’s 5-5 run during his absence. ``Things are looking better now for us than they did earlier, so hopefully I can help out when I get back.’’
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