Orlando Magic Grades: Minnesota Timberwolves 123, Orlando Magic 107

The Minnesota Timberwolves dominated from the beginning, carving up the Orlando Magic’s defense to a 30-point lead. The rest of the game was moot.

The game was over quickly after it began. And not in the way the Orlando Magic expected or wanted coming off Monday’s disappointing game where players were admitting their own lapses in effort.

The Minnesota Timberwolves took it to the Magic from the opening tip in a 123-107 victory at the Amway Center on Wednesday. They opened as much as a 30-point lead, making the Magic defense look like mincemeat. The Wolves attacked the basket at will and collapsed the defense enough to free up for 3-pointers. They had nine 3-pointers in the first half and finished with 13 in the game on 23 attempts.

Minnesota ended up shooting 51.7 percent for the game. Orlando? The Magic struggled on offense and continued to do so Wednesday, shooting 43.9 percent in the first half, salvaged somewhat by a 30-point second quarter. Orlando was missing shots around the basket and could not build any momentum.

Even on made shots, Minnesota was rushing down court and beating them for dunks. After made baskets.

That is a sign of a lax effort and a team in need of a jump start of some kind.

“They’ve got some big-time shooters who got red hot,” coach Frank Vogel said. “And we didn’t stay with them well enough. They were more upset with their 1-5 start than we were with our loss to the Bulls the other night. They had more desperation and urgency and that was disappointing.”

Orlando did not seem to snap back to some form of life until the second half when the deficit was already a ridiculously large amount. They cut it down to 11 points behind Nikola Vucevic‘s second-half resurgence, the Timberwolves cooling down and the Magic finally playing with a measure of intensity.

Winning the second half is only a small consolation, if any at all. Orlando got outplayed at home and run off the floor essentially.

No team should give up 39 points at home in the first quarter. The Magic again put themselves in a deep, deep hole that they could not dig themselves out of. They fought back, but the deed was done by halftime as boos began to rain down from the Amway Center.

“They had every right to boo us,” Nikola Vucevic said. “We played terrible. We were down by a lot and weren’t playing with enough effort and enough pride. They had the right to boo us.”