Orlando Magic’s quarter of doom makes victory harder

The Orlando Magic came out struggling against the Washington Wizards. It continued an ongoing trend of the team collapsing for a quarter, making wins harder.

In almost every loss for the Orlando Magic this season, there seems to be one 12-minute frame where the team falls apart and finds itself giving up a lead or burying itself in a hole. For the most part of this early quarter of the season, it has been the latter.

In several games, the Magic would disappear on both ends of the floor for a quarter and find themselves trailing by large deficits and margins, trying desperately to dig out with an offense that just is not capable of outscoring anyone.

Inevitably, the Magic reach a devastating drought. And for a team with one of the worst offensive ratings in the league, that will seemingly come at least once per game. Managing those moments will be the difference between blowouts and close games and wins and losses.

It was Friday, turning what may have ended up being a solid offensive night — at least for the Magic a 97.0 offensive rating is solid — and another strong defensive performance — the sixth straight game holding an opponent to less than 95 points — into a loss.

Orlando cannot get over this one impediment to their success, seemingly capable of playing 36 minutes of Playoff-level basketball and one 12-minute quarter of basketball belonging to the worst Lottery teams.

Perhaps that characterization is unfair. The Magic have done better about limiting these bad quarters.

Then again, in a game Jeff Green described as a “must-win” on Wednesday, the team came out flat. It laid its egg and dug its hole in the first quarter with a lifeless, inefficient mess that brought them down 19 points from the beginning and made the rest of the game — even when they took a four-point lead in the fourth quarter — an uphill climb.

“It’s disappointing,” said Nikola Vucevic, who scored 17 points and grabbed 17 rebounds but started 2 for 7 in the first quarter. “We can’t start a game the way we did. It’s hard to get back into the game. Even though we came back, we were kind of a step behind. At the end of the game, we were unable to make plays. That’s what it came down to. Our start had to be better. It would have put us in a much better position.”

The Magic undoubtedly have a small margin for error.

As good as the team’s defense has become, the offense just has not caught up. Orlando is as adept at holding teams to less than 95 points as the team is inept at scoring 95 points.

The first quarter was one of the worst quarters the Magic have put together since they were a defensive sieve in the beginning of the season.

The Wizards shot 11 for 21, turned eight Magic turnovers into nine points and caught the Magic playing lackadaisical. Frank Vogel said he had to get on Elfrid Payton for walking the ball up too slowly in the first half and failing to initiate the team’s offense. This was the nightmare scenario.

This was the nightmare scenario.

The Magic were late on rotations on defense. They allowed the Wizards to score 12 of their 26 points in the paint in the first quarter. Washington blitzed Orlando into a 19-point lead very quickly. The Magic recovered late to trim the deficit to 12.

Orlando was worse on offense than it was good on defense. The ball got stuck. The team made just 23.8 percent of its shots. Throw on the eight turnovers — the team finished with 19 total — and the Magic were deservedly in a deep hole.

And that failure is a symptom of a larger problem.

“We started the game slow and its’ frustrating,” Bismack Biyombo said. “We have more than enough to get it done. We’ve got to figure this out. Before we realize it, it might be too late. We’re still slipping. We’ve got to figure it out. We’ve got to start deciding who we really want to be. Do we want to win or do we want to continue to be that team that starts slow and fights our way back into the game.”

The Magic’s current starting lineup has a net positive rating. But with only an 89.4 offensive rating. In the first quarter, the Magic’s current starting lineup posts an 84.2 offensive rating and a 68.9 defensive rating. The team is typically good at getting off to strong starts.

They certainly did against the Milwaukee Bucks earlier in the week. But even then too, the team collapsed with turnovers in the second quarter, giving up a once-14-point lead.

Inevitably, though, the Magic’s brief moments of offensive brilliance — and they are brief and unpredictable — dies down. And that leaves the Magic relying solely on their defense to buoy the team and keep things competitive.

For the most part in the last two weeks, the defense was able to hold its end of the bargain. It is a testament, no matter the competition, to this defense that the Magic have been able to remain competitive despite the Magic’s anemic offense.

A certain type of mistake though causes things to unravel. Turnovers and fast break opportunities beat the defense before it gets set. And forces the Magic to go up against a set defense on the other end.

The Magic do some things well still. They have been able to remain competitive despite their poor offense.

But that quarter or half-quarter of the game where things fall completely off the rails, that is the difference for the Magic. That is the difference between wins and losses for this team.

That is the part where the Magic find it hard to recover.

“We’re showing good competitive spirit which I am proud of,” coach Frank Vogel said. “We got down early in the game by not doing what we’re preaching and not doing what we are supposed to do. I’m disappointed in our guys for that. It got us down. But to our credit, we battled and gave ourselves a chance. But you can’t get down 19.”

The Magic have done just about everything to put themselves in a position to win. In a really good position to win.

They still have not made that perfect 48-minute effort. There are still too many times the Magic play less than their best.

Next: Grades: Washington Wizards 94, Orlando Magic 91

And with this team’s makeup, that makes all the difference.