Three Thoughts after Orlando Magic’s 97-92 loss to Indiana Pacers

The Orlando Magic fell to the Indiana Pacers with some continued signs of good and continued signs of concern as the preseason continues.

The Orlando Magic continued to show some unevenness with flashes of what Scott Skiles surely wants the team to be with the kind of lapses the young team is trying to avoid and grow out of. It will remain a part of the learning process as the preseason continues.

Nearing the halfway point, the Magic would probably like to see less and less of that.

The Magic were still relying on their young players to close the game out in Indianapolis and it showed as they could not get the job done this time. The Magic made just two of their final eight shots after pulling the starters with about three minutes left in a four-point game.

The Pacers took advantage completing a second-half comeback and defeating the Magic 97-92 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Thursday.

Victor Oladipo (ORL) — 15 pts.; Tobias Harris (ORL) — 12 pts., 13 rebs.
C.J. Miles (IND) — 14 pts.; Glenn Robinson III (IND) — 14 pts.

Tobias Harris scored 12 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead the Magic. Victor Oladipo continued his efficient shooting with a game-high 15 points on 6-for-12 shooting. Shabazz Napier scored 13 points off the bench.

Building a lead and letting it slip

For the third straight game, the Magic were able to take control of the game and let the lead slip.

Orlando had a strong second quarter and beginning to the third quarter in building a 14-point lead. Nikola Vucevic helped establish the base and the Magic were off to a good start. They led by eight at the half and opened up to 14 points early in the third quarter.

Indiana though responded with a 14-2 run and took the lead back with C.J. Miles and Glen Robinson III providing a big boost during the run.

It was going to be an up-and-down game from there and close while both teams had their starters in the game.

There are both positives and negatives to this occurring. First, the Magic are playing well enough in long enough stretches to open these kinds of leads. They have done so in each of their three games. What they need to learn is how to close out these leads and expand them out to 20 or put games out of reach. Preseason may be a good time to learn this.

It is certainly not a time though to repeatedly let teams back into games. That is a habit the Magic had throughout the last three seasons when they built leads. It is a big step for a young team to put these kind of games away. One the Magic have not quite grasped yet.

Mario Hezonja still adjusting

Mario Hezonja has generally been pretty good on the offensive end. He is at least doing the things you could expect from him. He is hitting shots and making solid offensive plays.

Again he scored well with seven points on 3-for-7 shooting. He can undboutedly put the ball in the basket if a defense is not ready for him. He showed off his passing in transition too feeding a nice no-look pass to Victor Oladipo for a layup.

Hezonja though still clearly has a long way to go. He committed four personal fouls and continues to struggle some on defense.

Probably worse at this point are his turnovers. He had four turnovers and they were not good turnovers. A travel here. A foot on the out of bounds line there. They were young player mistakes that need to be cleaned up. And cleaned up fast.

Hezonja will be fine in the long run. He will make shots when the opportunities come. It is just the little things they need to continue cleaning up.

The free throw problem

Scott Skiles did make a point to say the Magic needed to get to the free throw line more. He thought a more aggressive offense would help the team get to the line more.

So far, free throws have been a little hit or miss. And it is preseason so that is not a good sign.

Also not a good sign is the Magic took just eight free throw attempts in Thursday’s game. That was none in the second half either. The Magic were just not getting to the line.

Scoring in the half court is hard enough, it only gets more difficult when a team cannot get some free points from the foul line. That is a sign of something. Something not good for sure.

That will be a point of concern for Skiles coming out of this game. Maybe it is just a random outlier. Maybe it is a sign of some bad habit of aggression the Magic need to break.

Next: Andrew Nicholson hoping to return to his rookie year form