Orlando Magic down and defeated, trying to climb back out
The Philadelphia 76ers humbled the Orlando Magic and left them despondent and searching for a way out of a disheartening four-game losing streak.
The normally boisterous Victor Oladipo was quiet after the Philadelphia 76ers humbled the Orlando Magic 96-88 at Amway Center on Sunday night. Tobias Harris took on a softer-than-usual tone following the loss too.
| Score | Off. Rtg. | eFG% | O.Reb.% | TO% | FTR | |
| Philadelphia | 96 | 99.0 | 46.3 | 33.3 | 17.0 | 30.5 |
| Orlando | 88 | 93.8 | 45.8 | 26.0 | 13.1 | 23.8 |
Michael Carter-Williams (PHI) — 21 pts.; Nerlens Noel (PHI) — 13 pts., 12 rebs.
Victor Oladipo (ORL) — 23 pts.; Nikola Vucevic (ORL) — 19 pts., 17 rebs.
This was a game the Magic knew they should have had. This was a game the team knew it let slip through its fingers. A golden opportunity to re-affirm and rebuild confidence on its home floor for a critical stretch of the season — one that could determine if this is truly a team willing to make a Playoff push or one that is going to fade back into Lottery obscurity.
And so up 11 points with about seven minutes to play in the third quarter, the Magic were feeling good and thinking of the possibility of running away and winning a game without their best and most consistent stuff.
Maybe Evan Fournier‘s words from Friday night should have rung truer. If the Magic did not play harder than they did Friday night, they were going to get their asses kicked even by the 76ers.
They got their asses kicked in the final 19 minutes of the game. Philadelphia outscored Orlando 54-35 in that time. That 11-point deficit turned into a 14-point Philadelphia lead in that time period. The 76ers played harder, went after loose balls and attacked with a confidence the Magic lacked.
While they let mistakes brush off them, Orlando seemed stuck in the past letting each mistake compound and grow. The defense was not stopping dribble penetration at the point of attack, leaving Nikola Vucevic to try to clean up the mess and then go box out super-athletic stud Nerlens Noel, nor were the Magic able to get good looks to fall when they got them.
The Magic’s offense whimpered and sputtered and the Sixers were the ones who took advantage taking victory and taking the win while the Magic stood passive and watched.
It was, in short:
Dec 21, 2014; Orlando, FL, USA; Orlando Magic head coach Jacque Vaughn (right) with guard Evan Fournier (bottom), guard Elfrid Payton (left) and forward Maurice Harkless (21) during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Philadelphia 76ers at Amway Center. Philadelphia 76ers won 96-88. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
“Just a bad loss for us today,” Tobias Harris said. “It’s been a problem all year, getting a run and get up and then teams come back. It’s embarrassing. The bottom line, I think it’s embarrassing. People pay good money to bring their families to the game and we’re not putting on a good enough show for them. Tonight, it’s just a very bad game for us. We’ve got to get this thing going.”
The Magic appeared to have things going. It was clear early on the Magic were not going to have their absolute best game of the year. Shots were not falling, even when they were open. But the Magic kept control of the game. The Sixers turned the ball over a bunch and were playing sort of wild. The Magic had their opportunities to put this away.
Jacque Vaughn‘s decision to move Kyle O’Quinn and Elfrid Payton in to the starting lineup appeared to be a good one as the team played with more energy a physicality, something the team said it needed to do following Friday’s loss.
It did not immediately spark a lead, but the Magic held the Sixers to 14 points in the second quarter and seemed poise to put the game away. They just could not at the end of the day.
“I think our discipline on both sides of the basketball, that’s what it boils down to,” Jacque Vaughn said of the changes between building an 11-point lead and falling behind by 14. “Our ability to stay disciplined throughout the course of the game. We address it at that timeout and again, that’s going to be our challenge going forward.”
The Sixers made difficult shots in the third and fourth quarter to break the Magic’s defense. Three players for the Sixers recorded double doubles and the Magic were struggling to stop dribble penetration. The Sixers got off 44 shots in the paint, making 25. They recorded 20 fast break points, scoring 16 points off 14 Magic turnovers.
“It’s embarrassing. The bottom line, I think it’s embarrassing.” –Tobias Harris
Orlando was not making shots at the same rate. The Magic took 45 shots in the paint and made only 20. Nerlens Noel and the Sixers interior defenders changed several shots and made life difficult for the Magic. Orlando was driving often and not necessarily passing out of the double teams as the defense collapsed. Not that Orlando was making many shots (7 for 23 from beyond the arc, 21 assists on 35 field goals).
The ball eventually stopped moving as the defensive errors and missed shots continued to swell and snowball for a team sensing the “embarrassment” of this kind of loss.
“The biggest thing for us is just playing basketball and playing competitive and playing like it is your last game out there and having fun with your teammates,” Harris said. “I think earlier in the season, we were doing that. Everyone was getting involved. I think the big thing for us was we let our offense dictate our defense. And you see with the real good teams in the NBA, it’s the other way around.”
Harris said the team got away from its defensive principles in this stretch where the team has lost seven of its last eight games. Certainly, the team’s body language has shown that when the offense struggles, everything else will struggle. It is an issue Jacque Vaughn said the team has continued to try to address.
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Sir Charles In Charge
A lot of things have been going wrong for this team. The important thing is not to let these games define the team.
Slowly, however, it is. Slowly, the losses keep building up and the team continues to splinter.
The toughest thing to do is to keep believing that win streak is right around the corner.
“What I think is of great importance is that we stay together,” Victor Oladipo said. “Because in this league, I know from last year that if you don’t and we just veer off and do our own thing, we could go on a crazy losing streak in this league. It’s the NBA. If it’s the last place or the first place team in the league, it’s still the NBA. Everybody is here because they can play basketball. If we don’t stay positive, this thing could go negative really fast. When we say bring it together, we’ve got to really mean it and stay together so we can bounce back.”