Orlando falls to 4-7 in a loss to the Wizards

There were several times throughout Saturday night’s game when it felt like the Wizards were a couple of baskets away from blowing the game open and putting the Magic away for good. But with each and every opportunity that the Wizards squandered, the Magic fought back from 12 down, 10 down, eight down, continuously grinding their way back into the game, even cutting Washington’s 11-point lead to five with a minute left in the game. But credit the Wizards. Though they never had enough firepower to put the game out of reach, they bent but never broke, and held on to capture their seventh win of the young season, marking their best start in decades.

It’d didn’t feel as if the Magic played all that well throughout the game because of many times they appeared to be on the being blown out, but they ended up shooting 47% from the field and 41% from three. Victor Oladipo, who started in place of Elfrid Payton, overcame a slow start to put up 18 points (on 18 shots) with seven rebounds and seven assists, Nikola Vucevic notched another double-double (14 points and 11 rebounds) and Tobias Harris had one of his more efficient games of the season, scoring 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting while pulling down eight rebounds.

But there was just too little rim protection, as the Wizards put up 98 points on 50% shooting with only three made three-pointers, and as good as the Vucevic/Channing Frye duo looked offensively, they were frequently bested on the other end.

John Wall was the catalyst for the Wizards. He seemed to dart up the floor after every Magic miss, and in spite of his poor shooting performance – 6-of-17 from the field and just three free throw attempts – his 10 assists and 15 points were big for Washington. The Magic also got dominated by the Washington’s two power forwards. Nene had 16 points, including a dirty baseline drive on Tobias Harris that resulted in a monstrous dunk, and Kris Humphries had his best outing of the season with 16 points on 8-of-14 shooting, including a circus lay-up at the end of the shot clock with 41 seconds left that finally put the Magic away for good.

Jacque Vaughn had a curious evening. I thought we got too much Willie Green (14 minutes), an appropriate amount of Ben Gordon (five minutes) and not close to enough Maurice Harkless. The team just seems to find a different gear with Harkless on the floor and that was certainly the case against Washington, but it wasn’t enough for Harkless to see the floor in the second half after his six minute stint in the second quarter.

Perhaps more concerning than Vaughn’s rotation is the fact that Payton has hit the rookie wall over the past five games after his encouraging start to the season. The demotion to the bench was not surprising and I’m a bit afraid to say that Vaughn may even make him the third string point guard if he continues to trend this way (Luke Ridnour did not play in this game for personal reasons). He was just 1-of-6 from the floor in his 16 minutes and tallied only one assist.

Over the past five games, Payton is averaging just two points and four assists per game and he’s shooting just 20% from the field. Payton isn’t getting to the foulline either, so outside of sturdy defense, a quality that Oladipo can provide without the offensive issues, Payton hasn’t been bringing much else to the table. In what is clearly a rebuilding year, you’d like to see your rookies get as much experience as possible, but the Magic have been feisty in the first part of this season, so playing for wins until it becomes clear you can’t steal a playoff spot isn’t such a bad idea, so Payton’s dwindling role makes sense for now.

The Wizards are an interesting team. They are clearly a good defensive team, but they don’t seem to have another on the other end, particularly without Bradley Beal, to be a true contender in the East, which should be their goal in a very open conference.

Paul Pierce was their big off-season acquisition, and though he played well, contributing 10 points, six rebounds and four assists, it’s clear he’s not the same player he was for the Celtics. The Wizards have done well to keep him at around 28 minutes per game this season (the figure he was at last year for the Nets), but he hasn’t been shooting the ball well at all, with his percentages dropping 35% from the field and 29% from three. Pierce was still a very effective scorer last season with 45%/37%/83% splits, so there is hope for this early season rut to reverse itself in the long run, but if it doesn’t, it’s hard to see the Wizards taking that big of a step forward in a year that they could have very much become a contender in the East.