The Magic were not going to let the lackadaisical play from Friday night carry over into the second game of this West Coast road trip. That much became clear as Orlando built a 16-point lead and put on a defensive clinic.
Of course, the Magic were not going to play a game without any problems to give anyone pause. No game is every perfect. And the lesson the Magic learned is that they still need to pay attention even with a big lead and even after turning back the first attempt at their lead. As the Suns increased their intensity and tried their best to close the gap on the Magic, the Magic wilted, unsure what to do.
Some timely shooting — Tobias Harris draining a lofty fadeaway over a double team and Nikola Vucevic getting away with a travel and flipping in a shot over Markieff Morris — and some free throws (along with a technical foul from Jeff Hornacek) kept the Magic ahead and gave them just enough to win the game 93-90 at U.S. Airways Center on Sunday.
| Score | Off. Rtg. | eFG% | O.Reb.% | TO% | FTR | |
| Orlando | 93 | 93.0 | 49.3 | 23.8 | 20.9 | 32.9 |
| Phoenix | 90 | 89.2 | 44.1 | 22.9 | 17.0 | 21.2 |
This was a lesson without losing.
The first lesson was the Magic having to respond to the dismal effort Friday night. They did just that by swarming on defense and doing a good job switching on perimeter screens and cutting off the dribble penetration. That is not an easy thing to do with Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe in the opposing backcourt — and a ton of shooters surrounding them.
Even when the Magic were down early trying to figure their offense out, the defense was making things difficult for the Suns. Phoenix was nearly held beneath its season low of 88 points — the late run of 3-pointers with Gerald Green draining a few 3-pointers to cut the lead down alarmingly fast.
The Suns shot 40.0 percent from the floor.
Orlando found a reason to get angry with the Suns taking a few cheap fouls on Magic fast breaks. Tobias Harris was shoved in the back in one instance and then Elfrid Payton was hit on a flagrant one foul. That seemed to awaken the offense and the Magic opened up a double-digit lead heading into the locker room.
Payton was a particular spark plug with seven points, nine rebounds, four assists and two steals. He was able to get into the paint and made some nice dishes to teammates, running the offense very well. He got his lesson as a rookie though later in the game as he had some crucial turnovers trying to run the Magic late in the game. These are lessons he has to learn though.
Orlando is undoubtedly still learning how to finish games and that became clear throughout the second half. Orlando committed 14 of its 23 turnovers in the second half. The Suns scored 17 points off those turnovers. Eight of those 14 turnovers came in the fourth quarter, with five of those eight coming in the final five minutes.
At one instance, Victor Oladipo had the ball taken from him at the elbow on an aggressive double team with the Suns desperately trying to come back. Elfrid Payton had the ball taken away from him too as he was looking back to get the play from Jacque Vaughn. Learning to win is not easy, especially against a team that understands all too well how important every win can be.
The Suns put the pressure on the Magic time and time again in the second half, really testing the young team’s mettle.
Phoenix cut the lead in the third quarter to as low as five. The Magic though responded and built the lead back out to 16 points. Jacque Vaughn called a timeout and got his players to calm down and re-focus defensively. When Orlando was able to get its defense set, Phoenix had a tough time scoring. Payton again led the way, helping the Magic start their break and they received timely buckets from Oladipo, Channing Frye and Tobias Harris.
Harris ended up leading the team with 21 points. Vucevic had 18 points and eight rebounds on 7-for-15 shooting.
Unfortunately for Orlando, they could not find that calm when Phoenix really kicked it into high gear and fed off the chaos of the end of the game. The Magic struggled to execute or run plays to set Vucevic up in the post against the smaller Morris and the team was struggling to prevent turnovers.
Phoenix is a team comfortable playing at a breakneck pace and that became very clear as they desperately tried to get back into the game. Orlando struggled to find calm in those crucial moments and had to desperately hang on to maintain its lead.
The Magic had enough time and enough plays to eke out the win. Hornacek drew up a brilliant play to give Gerald Green a decent look at a 3-pointer on the final play. He thought someone was in the corner and rifled a pass into the Magic’s bench as time expired to give the Magic the win.
Again, this was a lesson without losing.
Orlando is still seeking the right combination late in games and they have had precious little experience closing games out or playing in close games. The Magic needed these struggles to learn some of that — including the coach. The good news is they got that lesson without taking a loss.