Orlando Magic strike last in game of runs against Brooklyn Nets

The Orlando Magic closed the game on a 10-0 run as part of its 32-point fourth quarter to defeat the Brooklyn Nets.

For three quarters Wednesday night, it looked as though the Orlando Magic would mail it in. But Orlando came out strong in the fourth quarter to atone for three quarters of mediocre basketball.

The Orlando Magic had trouble executing and forcing turnovers most of the night, but the team would close the game on a 10-0 run to notch its 12th home victory of the season and defeat the Brooklyn Nets.

The game was an ugly affair which the Magic easily could have lost, but Nikola Vucevic and Tobias Harris came through down the stretch. Victor Oladipo helped seal the game at the line for a 100-93 Magic win at Amway Center on Wednesday.

Brook Lopez (BKN) — 24 pts., 15 rebs.; Bojan Bogdanovic (BKN) — 20 pts.

Nikola Vucevic (ORL) — 20 pts., 9 rebs.; Evan Fournier (ORL) — 17 pts.

“We had a hard time all night getting anything going,” Scott Skiles said. “We were kind of in slow motion. So we had to try to find a way at the end. Somebody needed to make plays for us, and those two guys [Tobias Harris and Nikola Vucevic] made two good plays.”

Those two good plays came when Nikola Vucevic drew a double team in the post and found Tobias Harris cutting hard to the basket for a layup with 45 seconds left. It also came when Harris found Vucevic on back-to-back possessions to keep the Magic within a single possessions as the prelude to the team’s final 10-0 closing run.

The game was far from easy for Orlando to find that kind offensive cohesion. The team had just 21 assists and played all but about five minutes without Elfrid Payton, nursing both two sprained ankles and an illness. Skiles said he could not return to Payton because he was not moving well laterally, and he too was a bit lethargic hanging off of players.

All the Magic players were.

That may have led to some of the Magic’s defensive and offensive lethargic play through the first half for sure.

The Brooklyn Nets had just one turnover in the first half and Bogan Bogdanovic had a monstrous second quarter, scoring 11 of his 20 points in the period as Brooklyn went up by seven at the half. The Nets opened up a 9-0 run through the late first and early second quarters and put together another 7-0 run to go up by as many as 13 in the second quarter.

“A lot of times we let our offense affect our defense,” Nikola Vucevic said. “Tonight our offense wasn’t very good, our defense was kind of up and down but at the end of the game we really turned it up and made some big plays defensively. It was great to see. We hope to be able to do that. We always talk about if the offense isn’t working, you have to be able to defend. I think we did that at the end of the game and it shows growth.”

But Orlando would fight back as it began to force turnovers to get out in transition.

Aaron Gordon came up with two blocks and a steal as the Magic had 10 blocks/steals in the game. The youngster was effective and had three of his seven rebounds on the offensive end of the court as Orlando came up with 17 offensive rebounds in the game.

The Magic were plus-13 on the glass in this game, which was one of the factors that allowed the Magic to stick in it with the shots just not falling.

Orlando finished the game shooting 43.9 percent from the floor but the team shot just 39 percent from the field in the first half. The Magic also had no fast-break points in the first half of the game, and Orlando managed five fast-break points in the second half.

The Magic bench connected on 14 of 31 (45 percent) from the floor while the starters were just 22 of 51 (43 percent).

Andrew Nicholson and Jason Smith each saw just seven minutes, while Dewayne Dedmon made a rare six-minute appearance in the game too.

The main source of production for the second unit was Gordon and Victor Oladipo. Evan Fournier and Vucevic both shot the ball well on a night when most of their teammates were misfiring.

It affected the teams defensive play to some extent. It was not until the Magic turned up the ratchet on defense that the game turned around.

“That’s the key for us, especially if our shots are not falling, even if the ball isn’t moving the way it should, is to be locked in defensively,” Tobias Harris said. “It’s obvious, we’re a better defensive team when we’re playing better offense. I think that’s just human nature for basketball players. It’s something we’ve got to get better at.”

The Magic’s defense was not strong in the first half and the Magic had to slowly chip away as their energy picked up throughout the game until they could pull away at the end.

Nicholson had a little flurry of scoring activity in the second quarter that helped the Magic stay in it, but Skiles opted not to use him any more after that.

Fournier would finish with 17 points and three triples, and Vucevic would hit all but one of his nine made shots in the paint. The Magic and Nets both hurt each other most on the interior with the points in the paint even 42-42.

Oladipo finished the game with a +15 plus/minus.

“We just have to come out a little bit stronger,” Victor Oladipo said. “Not every game is going to be perfect. Sometimes you have to grind it out and that’s what we did today.”

The Magic did not execute well, but they showed enough signs of life in the second half to correct themselves on a night that easily could have resulted in a loss. The Magic did a good job of getting to the line and knocking down their free throws (19 of 21), rebounding well and playing tough defense down the stretch to close this game out.

The Magic improved to 19-13 on the season and gained a 2-0 edge in the season series with Brooklyn.  The Nets are just 9-23 on the season and appear at this point to be on the fast track to the 2016 draft lottery.

It is still early in the season, but it was nice to see the Magic get a win that could have evaded them against a Nets team that is reasonably horrible.

“I think we’re starting to believe in ourselves,” Jason Smith said. “I think we’re getting confidence that we know that the system works and that the coaching staff is really pointing us in the right direction. I know that I’ve said it from day one that this coaching staff has done a great job with us, really giving us a sense of direction, a plan to follow and go out there and execute to get wins. I think we’ve done that so far.”

Next: Passing has become key to Orlando Magic offense

Philip Rossman-Reich contributed to this post.