Orlando Magic Grades: Phoenix Suns 92, Orlando Magic 87

The Phoenix Suns completed their East Coast road trip with a gutsy win, finding offense late when the Orlando Magic could not in a difficult game for both.

The Orlando Magic were seeing time running short. Their defense did its job to keep the game close and give the team a chance to win late.

Trailing by one point, the defense just had to keep grinding and getting stops until that fateful moment the offense clicked in and scored just enough to bail the team out. That has been the formula for success in six wins, even if it was extremely ugly.

That moment would not come. And good offense can eventually beat good defense. That was the breakthrough for the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday at Amway Center in a 92-87 win.

Brandon Knight broke the deadlock with a step back 3-pointer to extend the lead to four points. Elfrid Payton tried to answer with a 3-pointer of his own. It fell no good. A definition of the night for the Magic in the loss.

No matter how good their defense played to keep them in the game, the offense just was never good enough, not consistently at least.

Orlando had to fight its way back into the game but could not muster enough to get over the top and score the home win.

“It’s frustrating,” Evan Fournier said. “We’ve got to find ways to score the basketball, period. I thought we played pretty good defense. That’s a team that scores a lot of points. We held them to 92. We are definitely getting better defensively. Clearly, the offense is the problem right now.”

The Suns indeed had scored 100 points in 13 of their past 14 games, a byproduct of the fastest pace in the league. And Phoenix tried to push the pace on Orlando. The Magic were good at getting back and setting up their defense. Particularly in the second half, Orlando did a good job containing dribble penetration and directing it where they wanted toward the help.

The way the offense goes shooting 36.3 percent from the floor, even missing some open jumpers, that is not enough. The Magic need some offensive support to get over the hump and win these games.

And late in the game, when the Magic needed to score and take advantage of the stops they were getting, they were unable to do so. The simplest act of making a shot eluded them. Not until it was too late and desperation sank in.

The Magic just do not have enough to muster up for wins, even when the score is to their liking and so low.