After strong start, Orlando Magic failing to finish

The Orlando Magic started off the year with some gritty wins that required late-game charges. Lately, the team is struggling to close games strong.

It is late in the game for the Orlando Magic. A dreaded time for fans, having suffered through four long years of bungled defeats, random and poorly timed fouls, inbounds violations and sheer dumb luck.

Against the Washington Wizards, in fact, a few years ago, the Magic saw a tip-in alley-oop with less than a second left sink their hopes for a victory. A year later against that same team, they saw John Wall scored six points in the final two minutes to erase a five-point deficit and deliver the Wizards a win.

The Magic had plenty of losses just like those two in the last four years.

But against the Wizards early this season, that equation changed. Yes, the Wizards were without Wall, but the Magic outscored them by 11 in the fourth quarter to come from behind for the win. Mario Hezonja had eight points in the final quarter to help spearhead the win.

Orlando held Washington off the scoreboard despite Orlando’s own offensive troubles. And when Markieff Morris came free and missed a wide-open 3-pointer for the win, the Magic could celebrate a win.

The Magic have changed a lot since then. But at the point of the season in early November, Orlando was winning close games.

Flash forward to the end of the month and the story had flipped. The Wizards came to Orlando last Friday and, in a close game, they pulled out all the stops. Wall proved to be the difference again and the Magic had no answer to stop him as the Wizards took control.

That was seemingly a prelude to Thursday’s defeat when the Magic completely crumbled down the stretch in losing a 14-point lead with six minutes to play against the Memphis Grizzlies. A scene so familiar and reminiscent of the last four years that it felt like nothing had changed at all.

The reality is the Magic, after a solid start in winning close games, are no longer executing late in games. Perhaps, more than anywhere else, the team’s light early season schedule hid the problems the Magic would have winning close games.

And the Magic are letting opportunities at wins slip away.

“We’re falling a few plays short of pulling out the game,” coach Frank Vogel said last week before the team’s road trip. “Whatever it takes mindset, this isn’t going to be like the last two games. We’re going to find ways to make plays nad make shots. We’re just not getting over that hump.”

The Magic have played the second most close games in the league, defined as ahead or behind by five points in the final five minutes by NBA.com, with 13 such situations in 20 games. The Magic are 6-7 in those games.

That seems relatively normal. Close games are genuinely viewed as 50-50 shots. A .500 record is normal.

But the importance of these games is self-evident. The majority of the Magic’s games have been close and six of the Magic’s seven wins have come in close situations. Orlando has had to be good in close games to find any kind of success.

The Magic are not bad in close games, clearly. But they are not really good in them.

In 44 clutch minutes (at least how NBA.com defines clutch), the Magic have a -10.6 net rating (97.6 offensive rating and 108.2 defensive rating). This suggests the Magic’s offense remains a struggle late in games, while the team’s defense begins to slip.

In the last 10 games, the Magic have played seven close games and gone 2-5 with an offensive rating of 89.1 points per 100 possessions and a defensive rating of 115.5 points allowed per 100 possessions.

It seems the Magic’s offensive issues become truly hampering in these close games — like the loss at the Milwaukee Bucks or against the Phoenix Suns at home.

“Obviously we can’t really score at the end,” Nikola Vucevic said during last week’s homestand. “We have to find a way to do that. It’s hard defensively to get stops when you don’t score at the end of the game. We’ve been close at the in most of the games here at home. We just haven’t been able to close them out for some reason. Toward the end of the game, it’s not where it’s supposed to be at.”

The Magic were not always this way.

In the first 10 games of the season, the Magic were 4-2 in close games with an offensive rating of 106.7 and a defensive rating of 101.8. The Magic were not the most efficient team, but they rose to the occasion.

That is what helped them score wins against the Philadelphia 76ers, Wizards, Sacramento Kings and, finally, the Oklahoma City Thunder. These accounted for all the Magic’s wins at the time during the up-and-down first 10 games.

Clearly, the Magic are going to be playing in a lot of close games. That is the nature of their team. They do not have the offensive firepower to blow teams out — Friday’s win over the 76ers was the outlier this season quite clearly. Yet, their defense is good enough to keep them close and give them a chance.

Again, winning close games is still a 50-50 bet. The Magic have learned that through 20 games this season.

The Magic’s struggles in close games are as much a global issue as everything else. Players are still defining and clarifying their roles. That has gone double for the new starting lineup. Vogel is still experimenting and solidifying roles for his team.

The end of games tests this team’s overall newness more than anything else as the pressure ramps up. That is when the Magic, and any team, needs to come together and trust each other the most.

“[We’ve] just got to keep playing hard and keep consistency,” Bismack Biyombo said. “[This] is what is going to get us over the hump we are all trying to get over. At the end, you can’t do things that are out of the line. I don’t do things I know I’m not going to do. I’m going to go out there and do what I believe I can do and how I can help our team win the game.”

The Magic are still fine tuning their roles and their chemistry. The Magic have played slightly better since the lineup change. But, obviously, there are still doubts when it comes to close games.

Orlando still faces the scars of previous years and is still figuring a lot of things out.

Already this season, they have shown an ability to win these close games. But also an ability to be shaky in them.

Next: How have the Orlando Magic answered preseason questions?

How the Magic play in close games and how they finish games will continue to be a storyline throughout the season. It may very well determine the Magic’s ultimate postseason fate.