No backstop, no stopping Stephen Curry for Magic

The onslaught started from the opening tip when Andrew Bogut found Harrison Barnes cutting down the lane for a dunk. It continued with every Stephen Curry 3-pointer and missed rotation and missed shot and missed opportunity. The Warriors are too tough a team to climb back against when the defense is not doing its job creating opportunities and when the offense is not generating good shots.

The frustration was palpable. And, maybe at last, it was expressed as the Magic lost their third straight game after the 23-point comeback against the Hornets last week. This was the second loss in blowout form. The execution from this Magic team was not there consistently and Orlando could not rely on what was supposed to be its identity to bail it out.

The bottom line after the Warriors, a team with incredible ball movement and cohesion, not to mention Curry’s shoot-from-everywhere ability, defeated the Magic 111-96 at Amway Center on Wednesday, something has to change.

“They made shots, but we don’t lose the game like that,” Evan Fournier said. “We lose the game because we played selfish. We don’t move the ball, we’re just standing there looking at it. We have to play better than that. If we play like that, we’re not going to win any game. It was so much fun to play in a game like Detroit. Now, I think we had five or six assists at halftime. There is no way.”

Fournier was in a no excuse mood. It was not about the team’s youth. It was not about teammates being in and out of the lineup with injuries (Fournier had just come back from an injury himself to score 10 points on 4-for-9 shooting). It was about the team failing to execute and failing to play the way that had made it successful.

That 30-assist game last Monday seems so long ago after these losses.

It was replaced Wednesday with a seven-assist first half — not as bad as Fournier thought — and 21 assists on 36 field goals for the game. The Magic shot 41.4 percent from the floor and scored only 13 points in a decisive third quarter. The Magic trailed 10-0 out of the gates and clawed their way back. They took the lead at 38-36 in the second quarter, but allowed the Warriors to go on an 18-5 run to take firm control of the game.

Golden State made things worse in the third quarter and took as much as a 27-point lead. The Magic were trying too hard to finish the game on their own and the defense was not coming along for the ride.

“I think the ability to not let your offense affect your defense is even more important,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “To have the mind frame of everything is not going to be perfect every offensive trip down, but that can’t affect my assignment on the defensive end of the floor. I felt like ther were multiple possession tonight in the third quarter where that happened.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55fUKMaFrLI

Orlando’s offense came in fits and starts. Good enough to keep the game close for a half, but ultimately what was going to let them down. The awful third quarter — the Magic scored just 13 points and shot 5 for 23 from the floor.

Victor Oladipo seemed a bit too excited and was rushing his shots. He had numerous layups miss because they were shot too hard off the glass. For the night, he finished 4 for 17 from the floor on his way to 12 points.

Nikola Vucevic was decent in the post and cleaning up the glass, but struggled particularly in the third quarter to establish himself and bring calm to the Magic offense. He made just 4 of his 15 field goal attempts on his way to 11 points and 13 rebounds.

It was just tough to find a way to get the Magic offense going. By the time Elfrid Payton and Ben Gordon took over for the fourth quarter — Gordon scored 10 of his 13 points and Payton had six of his 13 in the fourth — it was too late.

The same lineup of Payton-Willie Green–Maurice Harkless-Ben Gordon-Kyle O’Quinn played the entire way. The Magic closed the gap a little, but the Warriors’ starters did not need to play after the domination of the third quarter.

Stephen Curry scored 28 points on 9-for-13 shooting and 6-for-8 3-pointers. Some of those were the Magic failing to be in the proper coverage coming out of the gate, according to Jacque Vaughn. The team lost Curry on a few occasions and left Curry completely alone. That is too much for a shooter of his caliber.

The Warriors shot 51.8 percent from the floor. Some players hit 3-pointers the Magic were willing to live with — Draymond Green had two and Andre Iguodala hit three of four. But overall, the Warriors got what they wanted offensively, scoring 46 points in the paint and getting 20 fast break points on eight fast break field goals.

Golden State was a significantly better team Wednesday night. That still does not excuse or allow for the Magic to fall so far behind and struggle so much just to compete.

It was the cohesion and execution of the gameplan that mattered in the end. Every player seemed accountable to it. They all knew they could and have to play better.

“Numbers don’t lie, results don’t lie, when we move the basketball from side to side and play together, we are successful,” Tobias Harris said. “I don’t know why, but we keep deferring from that and that is the most disappointing part of it. When we play together, not just offensively, when we play together defensively, and we are playing for each other on the defensive end, we win basketball games. Tonight, we got away from that.”