Orlando Magic woes continue with limited progress

The Orlando Magic lost their fourth straight game, seeing some progress on the defensive end but still falling short thanks to a cold-shooting night.

The Indiana Pacers were going to grind the Orlando Magic out. That is what the team does. The defense is just suffocating and prevents much from getting into the paint.

Victor Oladipo, playing at near his best for the season, was almost singlehandedly bringing the Magic from the brink of a 10-point deficit with 2:23 to go. Indiana had pulled back up by five with 50.3 seconds left and Oladipo and the Magic had the ball.

They smartly ran through one of their sets and got Oladipo the ball on a curl at the top of the key, giving him momentum and room to drive to the right side of the basket and into the paint. He got to the spot he wanted.

Then the Pacers defense closed in. They swarmed and crowded Oladipo. Their quick hands knocked the ball loose and forced a wild and rushed shot at the rim. It bounced hard off the back iron and went beyond Ian Mahimni’s reach.

Monta Ellis and Andrew Nicholson chased the ball back to the perimeter with about 40 seconds left in the game, and Nicholson got it.

Orlando had to move quickly and got the ball back around the horn again to find an open shot. They did, dishing the ball back out to Nicholson for an open three.

It was the perfect play. The desperate energy needed for that closing kick had coalesced into an opportunity. And the Magic had plenty of those throughout the game.

The energy and effort were certainly better, but not all the way back. The 3-pointers were missed opportunities throughout the game as the Indiana Pacers won 95-86 at Amway Center on Wednesday.

Paul George (IND) — 20 pts.; Monta Ellis (IND) — 19 pts., 7 assts.
Victor Oladipo (ORL) — 20 pts.; Evan Fournier (ORL) — 13 pts., 4 assts.

“We’ve got to trust the process,” Evan Fournier said. “We’re working very hard. There’s no way we’re going back to losing like last year. We’ve got to trust each other and believe it’s going to be all right.”

Scott Skiles said before the game he wanted to see progress from his team, certainly to be better than it had been for much of the previous three games. He saw that for the most part as the defense did enough to give the team an opportunity to win, coming back from the double-digit deficit and giving themselves a chance to win.

Oladipo caught on fire in those final two minutes as he led the team 20 points on 7-for-13 shooting, making four of his seven 3-point attempts. Playing his second straight game as the starting point guard, Oladipo was aggressive and in attack mode.

It was just tough to find anyone else to join him or for the Magic to get enough offensive efficiency to stick with him.

Orlando made just 6 of 31 3-point attempts in the game — a paltry 19.4 percent — and committed 17 turnovers for 17 Indiana points. The shotting let the Magic down in several areas throughout the game. Open looks from Evan Fournier (5-for-14 shooting and 1 for 6 from beyond the arc) and Tobias Harris (3-for-12 shooting, 0 for 6 from beyond the arc) just would not fall.

The Magic started missing their first 12 3-point attempts. Yet, they stuck in the game.

“I think defensively we were pretty good other than some fast break points and fouling and obviously the rebounding wasn’t good,” Vucevic said. “I think we were pretty aggressive, we were in the right spots. We just got to keep it up. It comes from just the energy, the will and the focus on the little things.”

Both Fournier and Vucevic said they felt the team made progress from the recent downturn defensively. The numbers would back that up even if the overall result was not good enough.

Defense finally became something of a backbone for this team again. Indiana shot 42.1 percent from the floor and committed 16 turnovers for 18 Orlando points too. The Magic were able to cut off dribble penetration well and corral offensive players.

Skiles said he was generally pleased with the team’s defense in the first half. The team played harder and while the Pacers, like the Magic, may not have missed all those shots because of their defense, but the energy was significantly better.

Indiana largely went where Orlando wanted them to go. At least for the first half where it was a 38-37 Magic lead at halftime. This was an ugly offensive game with lots of missed shots and a better defensive game.

The Pacers though took control as the Magic came out sloppy in the third quarter, getting to the foul line for 26 attempts in the second half alone. Indiana was in the bonus nearly five minutes into the third quarter. It helped them take full control of the game and begin to put distance between them and the Magic.

Orlando was struggling to come back without the offense clicking.

“We are capable of doing that as well,” Victor Oladipo said. “We have to get back to clicking, getting everyone healthy and doing what we do best. I believe that we will. We work too hard not to. Just got to be patient and keep playing well, and it will come.”

Skiles said the team was not all the way back for sure. There were injuries for sure — the Magic played without Elfrid Payton for the second straight game and Evan Fournier played with an ingrown toenail that almost kept him out of the game.

There was still the opportunity to win.

The team had a couple opportunities with momentum building on Orlando’s end to get back into the game where Indiana beat a flat-footed Orlando player to a loose ball or a rebound, a big hindrance during the Pistons loss.

And Orlando was very sloppy with the ball, giving up opportunities for points in transition.

There were still moments when the Magic did not have the same energy and precision. There were times when the Pacers beat them to the ball in critical moments and certainly times when the Magic’s bad habits from the last three games crept in.

On one key play with the Magic down three with a minute to play, the Magic successfully trapped George Hill in the corner but Evan Fournier, in trapping, left Monta Ellis open. He got the ball and had a free run to the lane. Fournier recovered late and was forced to foul.

With even someone standing in the paint briefly, it could have given the Magic time to recover.

“When the game is within five points and the building starts to get into it a little bit and momentum is starting to shift and maybe we can wrestle the lead from them, and shots go up and we got guys standing flat footed while they got guys jumping, that’s not progress,” Skiles said. “In some areas, we were a little bit better tonight. This is a game I didn’t feel like Indiana played that well and they were still able to beat us.”

There is still a long way to go. And the Magic, now on a four-game losing streak for the first time this season, are feeling a bit of the pressure of the congested Eastern Conference.

The belief has not gone away, but Orlando is searching for answers as the losses pile up.

The team is searching for some confidence, Harris said. And a win would be really good for the team. But it will not be easy. It never is.

Next: Orlando Magic need to fill energy gap to get back on track?

“Any time you lose a game, you are really just focused on whether you won or lost,” Harris said. “A big reason we lost the game was we didn’t make shots. You just got to re-evaluate it and get ready for the next.”