Orlando Magic completely outclassed against Portland Trail Blazers

The Orlando Magic needed another strong effort to build a win streak. Instead they laid an egg and were embarrassed in their getaway game.

Sometimes you can win a game while being outhustled. Sometimes you can win a game while being outsmarted. If you are both, however, the result looks a lot like what happened Saturday night in Portland, as the Orlando Magic were completely dominated in a 121-84 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers at Moda Center on Saturday.

Victor Oladipo (ORL) — 18 pts.; Aaron Gordon (ORL) — 17 pts.
Damian Lillard (POR) — 19 pts., 10 assts.; Allen Crabbe (POR) — 18 pts.

Although the Blazers have been a feel-good story this season, they came into tonight’s game a bit cold and with some urgency, having lost four of their last five (with a refereeing mistake against the Washington Wizards helping them in their only win during that span) and with games against the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio spurs coming up. They knew they needed to take care of business in this one to maintain playoff positioning.

And they did.

After an opening 11-2 run by the Magic, the Blazers were +46 the rest of the way, absolutely eviscerating the Magic defense with precise ball movement that led to open threes (17 for 35 from distance) or close-range looks (50 points in the paint) disturbingly often.

The Blazers’ “everyone gets to be involved” culture of sharing the basketball was on full display, especially when the Magic tried to trap. There was no question the Blazers looked much fresher than the Magic, although it should be noted the Blazers also played yesterday (against the Golden State Warriors, no less). So any excuses related to the Magic being on a back-to-back do not hold much water.

Early on, Evan Fournier was aggressive, keying the Magic’s fast start. Victor Oladipo also was in a rhythm early (to some extent, there were some iffy midrange jumpers thrown in there), and the duo combined for 17 of Orlando’s first 19 points.

But Portland was quick to respond with Damian Lillard dishing out five assists in the first eight minutes, and the Blazers led 31-24 after one.

During the second quarter, the Blazers blew the game wide open and took a 63-42 lead into the half, recording assists on 20 of their 26 made field goals in the first 24 minutes of play.

The Magic offense sorely missed Nikola Vucevic, who likely would have been posted up whenever Orlando needed to stop the bleeding. Instead, the Magic got some clanked Jason Smith midrange jumpers (touches that otherwise might have gone to Vucevic) among other things.

The game’s outcome was never in doubt the rest of the way.

Orlando tried some zone defense in the third quarter, but the Blazers offense kept churning anyway.

The Magic just grew more and more frustrated. It was boiling over as the Magic saw their deficit grow.

One noteworthy sequence was Jason Smith (perhaps out of frustration with his normally reliable jumper) and Damian Lillard having a few words after Smith gave a hard elbow to Lillard while setting a screen. Later in the third, Blazers forward Ed Davis retaliated on Lillard’s behalf by hacking Smith hard on a drive to the hoop, earning a Flagrant 2 foul and an ejection in the process.

The fourth quarter felt like a rec center pickup game as the coaches emptied their benches, and the players put up quick shots knowing that the game was over.

For the Blazers, it was a good night at the office. Their backcourt of the future (Lillard and C.J. McCollum) was solid, Mason Plumlee demonstrated he is the good Plumlee brother, role players knocked down their 3s (Al Farouq Aminu 3 for 5, Meyers Leonard 3 for 5, Allen Crabbe 2 for 4, Gerald Henderson 3 for 4), and the Magic were held to 37.4 percent from the field.

There were not many silver linings for the Magic. The Blazers commentators mentioned that the since-traded Tobias Harris scored 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for the Magic in the last meeting between these two teams. Ersan Ilyasova was a game-low -33 in plus-minus and went 1 for 7 from the field. And Brandon Jennings did not play with a sore Achilles.

Dewayne Dedmon’s supposedly better interior defense (compared to Vucevic) did not seem to deter any Blazers from getting to the rim. C.J. Watson and Shabazz Napier (both went 1 for 9 from the field) were ineffective replacing the injured Elfrid Payton at point guard, missing his second consecutive game.

Maybe one silver lining is Aaron Gordon, who recently seems to be one of the few things Magic fans can get excited about. He showed great burst and double-clutch ability on three and-one plays in the first half (although he missed all three ensuing free throws), and looked comfortable shooting a few jumpers in the second half.

Any live-game reps for his jumpers are good ones for his progress as a complete offensive player.

The other silver lining was 27 minutes of run for rookie Mario Hezonja – if the Magic’s season is lost — and it certainly looks that way — heavy minutes for Hezonja would not be the worst thing for his development (with the possible added benefit of improved draft positioning for Orlando).

One game is always just one game, but it is hard not to mention the seemingly different trajectories of these two rebuilding teams. Portland looks to be ahead of schedule in its rebuild and has a backcourt that is ready to become one of the top units in the league soon.

Next: Orlando Magic's season is on the players

Orlando’s rebuild seems to be stalling out, with the backcourt being one of its major question marks. Today’s result reflected as much.