Exhausted Magic Get Blown Out By Pistons; 109-86

The Orlando Magic faced a long hill to climb playing their fourth game in five nights. The Detroit Pistons made them pay for their fatigue.

Coming off of a huge win in South Beach Monday night the Orlando Magic could not muster up the energy to match the suddenly rejuvenated Detroit Pistons as they fell 109-86 at Amway Center.

Jodie Meeks (DET) — 34 pts.; Andre Drummond (DET) — 17 pts., 22 rebs.
Victor Oladipo (ORL) — 16 pts.; Tobias Harris (ORL) — 15 pts., 8 rebs.

The Magic had a chance to have their first three-game win streak since the Dwight Howard era but they could not manage to find themselves on their fourth game in five nights to make it happen.

The Detroit Pistons were led by big man Andre Drummond who racked up 17 points and 23 boards in three quarters and sharpshooter Jodie Meeks who scored 34 points including 9 of 11 from 3-point range. The Magic were led by Victor Oladipo who scored 16 points on 14 shots.

The warning signs were there for the Magic early as the Pistons hammered the Magic on the offensive glass from the get go. Offensively the Magic showed a little fight early behind Tobias Harris and Nikola Vucevic who combined to score 10 of Orlando’s 21 first quarter points. Even the initial Magic defense played well but that was all negated as Pistons big men Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe feasted on the offensive glass combining for six offensive rebounds in the first quarter alone.

After the first quarter however, the Magic defense fell apart. Jodie Meeks entered the game went six of six from deep on wide open looks as DJ Augustin and Andre Drummond ran Stan Van Gundy’s patented system to perfection. The trio of Meeks, Augustin, and Drummond scored 28 of Detroit’s 34 points in the second quarter as the Pistons grabbed a 7 point lead going into the half.

The second half was much of the same as the Pistons kept attacking the glass, and the Magic got beat to every spot on the floor. Late in the third quarter the Magic made a run to cut the Pistons lead to eight but it was short lived as Jodie Meeks checked back in and dismantled the Magic.

The bottom line here is that it was Orlando’s fourth game in five nights and the team was gassed. Combine that with the Pistons’ sudden resurgence and confidence sans Josh Smith and this was the perfect storm of events for the Magic to rack up a so called “bad loss” or “schedule loss.”

Game Notes:

• Head Coach Jacque Vaughn looked as mad at the officials as I have ever seen him tonight. He ran off the bench during Channing Frye‘s spat with Greg Monroe and yelled right in the refs face to “CALL THREE SECONDS”.
• The Pistons out shot the Magic at the free throw line 29-10.
• Victor Oladipo turned the ball over three times in the first quarter, which makes eight total in the past two games in the first.
• I did not like what I saw from a responsibility standpoint tonight. Oladipo was given way too much to do with the ball and Elfrid Payton was not given nearly enough.
• Nikola Vucevic looked to be the player most affected by fatigue. He did not box out and was short on most of his second half attempts.

Rookie Report:

Elfrid Payton: Payton struggled like the rest of the Magic tonight. He made some lazy passes that were intercepted and put up some shots that were woefully short. He still did a decent job of running the offense but Jacque Vaughn called for a lot more Oladipo tonight. My guess is that this was just an off night for the whole team and Jacque was looking for something to stick.