The Orlando Magic put together a strong middle two quarters and looked to find their identity again. But the San Antonio Spurs proved to be too much.
The Orlando Magic showed those glimpses again. Victor Oladipo ripped the ball away from Danny Green on consecutive possessions and helped the Orlando Magic completely recover from a disastrous start.
The defense closed down and rotated with precision. The Magic forced turnovers and controlled the pace. They found the open man. It all seemed to work in concert for two quarters.
As they had against Boston the night before, they had found part of their identity for long stretches of the game.
Long stretches of the game remains not the whole game. And while that might be enough for a home win over Boston, it is not nearly enough for a road win against San Antonio.
No, the San Antonio Spurs are too efficient and lethal with their passing, with their dribbling and with their shooting. They find a way to disrupt the offense and plug and play no matter who is out there. The right man finds the shot and makes the play.
That is the San Antonio Spurs in a nutshell.
They came out on fire with a 14-0 lead, asserting their dominance on a slow-footed Orlando Magic team. They gave up that lead and then put the pedal down again, finishing the third quarter on a 9-2 run and then kept ramping it up in the fourth quarter with a 7-2 run to start that quarter.
The ball was moving and the Magic were now pressing to come back from another double digit deficit. The Spurs won 107-92 at AT&T Center in San Antonio on Monday, proving to be too much for the Magic.
| Score | Off. Rtg. | eFG% | O.Reb.% | TO% | FTR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orlando | 92 | 94.0 | 43.2 | 33.9 | 16.4 | 11.5 |
| San Antonio | 107 | 111.2 | 57.1 | 13.5 | 14.5 | 26.9 |
Nikola Vucevic (ORL) — 20 pts., 10 rebs.; Victor Oladipo (ORL) — 19 pts.
LaMarcus Aldridge (SAS) — 28 pts.; Patty Mills (SAS) — 22 pts.
The Spurs just know where they can get points in any lineup. The Magic were struggling to keep up defensively.
The Spurs scored 32 points in the fourth quarter and posted a 137.9 offensive rating in the final 12 minutes. Patty Mills and Kyle Anderson were the main culprits with eight and seven points respectively, generally destroying a Magic team that seemed a step slow defensively.
Orlando just could not start or finish the game strong at all. Perhaps it was fatigue from playing the night before and having to travel to San Antonio. Regardless of the quality of the team, this was a big ask for any team to win a home-road back to back.
Still the Magic showed plenty of fight throughout the evening, particularly after falling behind by as many as 18 points in the first quarter. Down 16-2, there was plenty of opportunity to give in and throw in the towel and plenty of mistakes to go around.
Orlando was throwing the ball around lazily on offense, allowing San Antonio’s length to disrupt things and create fast breaks. The Spurs had everything coming easy to them.
The Magic buckled down though. Aaron Gordon was extremely active around the basket all night and helped spark the Magic with some energy. He matched last night’s strong performance with 12 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.
Eventually he and an energetic bunch were able to get the Magic back into the game in the second quarter and push for the lead in the third quarter, albeit a brief one.
Oladipo was key to that part as he dug out a few steals and got physical with his perimeter defense. Defense was always going to be how the Magic could get themselves back into the game. That has often been the case and has often been part of the struggle for the team this past month.
Orlando’s defense was on point in the second and third quarters, playing at a high level, communicating and rotating well. The Magic gave up just 40 points in the middle two quarters, posting a 82.6 defensive rating.
Even though Orlando had some trouble scoring itself, that defense was enough to get the team back into the game.
It was not sustainable of course, but it certainly should not have flipped so dramatically in the first and fourth quarters. The Magic just were not consistent defensively.
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And defeating a team like the Spurs becomes even more difficult when that is not there.
Perhaps the Magic are finding their way out of this deep hole. Perhaps they are beginning to push their way forward and regain their identity, seeing some very strong play and putting together some impressive stretches.
That is a good sign because those were fewer and farther between in January. But it is still not enough. Not against a team of the Spurs’ caliber. Not when they can start humming offensively with so much ease and become devastating very quickly, even without their stars.