NBA London 2016: A retrospective

It has been one week since the Orlando Magic played the Toronto Raptors in the NBA Global Games. Our Sean Guest provides his thoughts on NBA London.

So, the NBA came to London last week and both the league and the teams involved put on quite a show.

The Toronto Raptors and Orlando Magic gave us a game that exceeded expectations, even if the former did outplay the latter for the most part.

Despite a lackluster first half, the Magic held the Raptors to just 35 second half points and even rallied late to force overtime. Unfortunately they came up just short in the end, losing 106-103, much to the disappointment of a large portion of the crowd at the sold out O2 arena.

Still, this trip was about far more than picking up a W and, for the most part, the Magic gave a good account of themselves, some ugly play in the first half notwithstanding.

The players and coaching staff got out into the community, took in the sights and even went to a Chelsea F.C. game, at the behest of NikolaVucevic, who just so happens to be a big fan.

For Vucevic, Evan Fournier and Mario Hezonja, the trip to London was practically a home game, and all three seemed to enjoy being in the spotlight, as did the rest of the team.

And rightly so, as the trip represented an opportunity for the ball club to raise its profile with an international audience for the second time this season.

With this in mind, it was heartening to see so many wearing pinstripes as they queued to enter the arena. As expected, a lot of them featured Dwight Howard’s name and number, although there were also plenty of Shaquille O’Neals, Anfernee Hardaways and Tracy McGradys on display too.

Once inside, it was clear that fans of all 30 NBA teams had turned out in force, although Raptors’ red was the dominant color as the game got underway.

Despite a fairly open first few minutes the atmosphere in the arena was a little tepid to begin with – something additional security checks prompted by the Paris attacks probably failed to help. But as the Raptors found their stride the crowd began to warm to proceedings, clapping along to the in-game audio and applauding the jump shots that fell.

In my experience a dunk or two always helps, and the second quarter delivered — first with a Terence Ross breakaway jam, followed not long after by a Tobias Harris throw down.

For Magic fans that, and the 16 points Jason Smith made in the second quarter, turned out to be the highlights of a first half marred by turnovers, fouls and a lack of defensive execution.

But in the second half the Magic turned it on and found a way back into the game thanks largely to the efforts of Victor Oladipo, who led the team in scoring with 27 points, and Evan Fournier, who overcame early foul trouble to finish with 21.

It was Oladipo who made some big shots down the stretch, including a step back three on Kyle Lowry that drove the crowd wild and an ill-advised leaner in the paint that tied the score at 96 with 32.9 seconds to go.

Speaking of ill-advised shots, Oladipo took another that could have won the game, opting to pull up for three with just four seconds left on the clock, rather than attack the paint. Following a shotclock blooper on the successive inbounds play (which Twitter assured me was the fault of the Magic’s crew rather than that of the arena), Jason Smith forced up a final shot that hit the side of the backboard sending the game to overtime.

On the one hand this was extremely disappointing, as had Oladipo made his shot or had Tobias Harris succeeded in inbounding the ball at the first attempt the Magic could have pulled off an impressive comeback win. But on the other, given this was our one NBA game of the year, it was extremely exciting to be given a little extra basketball, even if small portions of the crowd did leave the arena at the final horn, presumably assuming (as in soccer) a draw was the final result. [eds. note: I am assured it was not a confusion over the result, but rather the need to catch public transportation before it closed]

Unfortunately they got lucky, as the anticipation leading up to the extra period far outweighed the excitement it delivered, for Magic fans at least.

That might not have been the case had Vucevic’s half-court heave fallen at the death, but as Orlando had ridden its luck all night double overtime was a step too far and before we knew it those of us in pinstripes were left to reflect on what might have been.

Next: Mid-Season Orlando Magic Report Cards

Here is hoping the Magic return to these shores soon.