Deja Vu, Orlando Magic Fall Late to Toronto Raptors Again; 95-82

I swear I have seen this game before, and it was just as painful to observe this time as if was the first.

The Magic for the second consecutive game against the Raptors failed to hold a second-half lead and fell to the Raptors 95-82.

Eerily similar to last game was Toronto’s bench dominance. The Raptors bench outscored the Magic 44-25. The Raptors most impactful contributions came from former Magic free agent target Patrick Patterson and James Johnson. Patterson knocked down two 3-pointers and tallied six assists, while James Johnson scored an efficient eight points and terrorized the Magic defensively. The Magic were led by Tobias Harris who scored 18 points, however 16 of those came in the first half.

The story of the first half was when Raptors forward Tyler Hansbrough elbowed Magic guard Evan Fournier in the face. Fournier was seen spitting blood onto the court and the wound reportedly required seven stitches to sow.

Now after the elbow (no foul called) the game got very interesting as the Magic went on a ferocious 16-4 run lead by arguably their best defensive quarter of the season. Orlando trapped hard on screens and scrambled around on defense quick enough to contest Toronto’s myriad of shooters.

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The second half once again is where the Magic fell short.

As I said earlier, possibly the biggest reason for Orlando’s loss was bench differential however their were a multitude of reasons for Orlando’s meltdown.

Let’s start with the lack of ball movement. Four out of Orlando’s first five possessions coming out of the half consisted of two passes or fewer. The Magic completely quit sharing the ball and the Raptors were able to lock them down on the perimeter thanks to their plus defenders Kyle Lowry and Terrance Ross.

In addition to Orlando’s lack of ball movement, the team also turned the ball over way too many times in the second half. The Magic committed 12 of their 19 turnovers in the second half including eight in the fourth quarter. For the Magic to take the next step they have to consistently hold onto and move the ball on offense.

Game Notes:

• Ben Gordon has looked like a solid player this year. His 3-point shooting could use work, but this might be his best defensive effort of his career.
• Channing Frye is a liability right now. He was not close on most of his shots, he is taking poor shots and not swinging the ball. That is just on the offensive side of the ball. Defensively and on the glass it’s even uglier.
• I cannot get behind Elfrid Payton only playing 14 minutes. The Magic really struggle to get look;s with Victor Oladipo running the offense. The ball just does not move enough.
• Maurice Harkless finally got to play again. He had some nice defensive plays, but offensively he looked like he did not trust his jumper and on the first few PnR’s he defended he didn’t seem to know what the plan was.
• TYLER HANSBROUGH IS THE WORST.

Rookie Report:

Elfrid Payton: Payton looked good in the first half. He created some nice shots for teammates including a no look pass to Evan Fournier under the basket. The most impressive play by Payton today in my opinion was his change of speed on semi fast-break dunk. He screamed by Greivis Vazquez then froze Patrick Patterson on the way to an uncontested dunk. In the second half Elfrid did not get much playing time although he did have a nice ally-oop to Harkless that Harkless could not convert.