Orlando Magic cannot overcome ‘heartless’ effort

The Orlando Magic came out flat and without any kind of intensity, leaving the coaching staff scratching its head on another inconsistent evening.

Orlando Magic assistant coach Connor Henry summed up the Magic’s first-half effort pretty succinctly as FOX Sports Florida reporter Dante Marchitelli interviewed him just before the second half started.

Henry said his team had to decide whether they wanted to show up on the floor at Madison Square Garden or just go home. Their first-half effort was heartless and extremely disappointing. Not what this team wants to or needs to be about.

Regardless of whether the Magic were coming off a physical and emotional battle with the Golden State Warriors a night before, the New York Knicks were a team still ripe for the picking and a team the Magic had to prove they could beat and stay ahead of in the Eastern Conference standings.

From the start, even up 5-0, the Magic looked lethargic with players standing still on offense and not moving or cutting, leaving players trapped on an island and forcing up bad shots. The defense would soon get worse, allowing Jose Calderon into the lane with ease to set up Kristaps Porzingis, Robin Lopez, Carmelo Anthony and just about everyone else.

The Knicks had things easy throughout the night in a 108-95 win at Madison Square Garden on Friday, building as much as a 24-point lead and sending Scott Skiles searching for any kind of spark. There was not much outside pockets of play. Orlando had an opportunity to cut it to 10 twice in the second half, but got no closer than 13 points in the end.

Nikola Vucevic (ORL) — 18 pts., 8 rebs.; Aaron Gordon (ORL) — 17 pts., 8 rebs.
Carmelo Anthony (NYK) — 19 pts., 11 rebs.; Kristaps Porzingis (NYK) — 18 pts.

There just was not enough effort consistently, particularly on defense as New York deconstructed Orlando from start to finish.

Jose Calderon scored 14 points, most in the first quarter as the Kicks took the lead and controlled the pace. Orlando was simply not playing any kind of reliable defense or providing any type of resistance to Calderon. And that set a tone.

New York shot 46.3 percent from the floor and just 4 for 16 from the floor. The Knicks were just getting into the lane and the Magic were lazy to stop them. They were slapping and reaching rather than playing sound defense, giving up 36 free throw attempts. New York made 30.

That is not fatigue setting in, that is just bad defense. The Magic were not active on the weak side and not helping each other out for the most part.

Nikola Vucevic did a good job challenging shooters at the rim but was not stepping up to stop pick and rolls. Elfrid Payton was struggling to stay in front of his man and work quickly through screens. The team was just not active and forcing the Knicks to do anything they were uncomfortable with.

It did pick up in the second half some. The Magic cut the deficit down and made some runs, but they could not get over the hump. Little mistakes — a backdoor cut from Porzingis for a dunk before the end of the third quarter, for instance — and a lack of defensive intensity and focus spelled their undoing.

Orlando struggled to get much going consistently offensively. The teams was, again, just stagnant and taking a lot of poor shots.

Payton was getting into the lane, but struggling to find the right pass or telegraphing his passes. He had a few flashes of what he can do still.

Same could be said for Victor Oladipo. He was taking contested mid-range jumpers and forcing shots. Not that anyone was giving him much of an outlet for him to pass. He was shooting quick shots too not within the flow of the offense. The quick shots seemed to permeate the roster as the team seemed desperate to shoot their way back in like they did Thursday night.

Oladipo had 16 points on 6-for-14 shooting and six rebounds. Payton had eight points and nine assists, showing flashes again but not producing much defensively.

Aaron Gordon was about the only player playing with any consistent energy, but his offense is largely reduced to putbacks and energy plays. He did enough of those to score 17 points, nearly matching his career high on a second straight night. Just not enough to spread around.

Nikola Vucevic was consistent option offensively, but he can generate offense without the ball moving very much. He had 18 points to lead the Magic.

The ball just was not moving consistently or fluidly enough to create consistent offense. And with the defense giving up points like a sieve with little effort to show for it, the Magic were in a deep hole and digging deeper all the time.

The Magic just did not have it. It was clear from early on and the Knicks were not going to let the Magic hang around to find whatever it is they were looking for.

On such an important night against a team the Magic need to beat, this is the kind of game where the Magic should not have to need a deficit to wake up and snap into the game.

Next: Returning C.J. Watson to the rotation will be tricky

The season continues to devolve some and leave the coaching staff scratching their heads on getting this team to play with any kind of consistent intensity.