When Russell Westbrook got himself going downhill toward a victory, the Orlando Magic found themselves powerless to stop it.
Nikola Vucevic sat at his locker, his feet dunked in ice as he starred off into some distance. There was not a box score in front of him, not that he would need it to understand what had happened. It was a sort of shell shock.
Nikola Vucevic has been through a lot of these defeats over the years. His time in an Orlando Magic uniform has been met with defeat after defeat. Every bit of optimism about the team gets snuffed out. There seems to be no way forward.
He has been there for it all. The impossible losses (and, literally there have been a few in the last five years) and the depressing blowouts. Few players understand the responsibility or want to get this team going more than Vucevic.
And as Vucevic looked up to give the media a chance to ask if he was ready to speak to them, he knew this one was on him. Not entirely on him. But the key moment, the play that could have put the game away and ended the misery (if only for a moment), the winning play the Magic absolutely needed was on his fingertips.
With 13.7 seconds to play, Vucevic went to the line to put the game away and give the Magic a four-point lead. The reliable free-throw-shooting Vucevic stepped up and nailed the first one as expected. But the second one fell off no good.
Russell Westbrook, flamethrower among men, raced to the other end of the court and with Elfrid Payton and Terrence Ross surrounding him pulled up from 31 feet and drained a 3-pointer.
It was a tie game. The good will from the Magic building a 21-point lead was gone in that instant. The momentum — and the Amway Center crowd — were cheering for the presumptive MVP. A team still looking for ways to win games and trying to learn how to win had another ‘L’ on their ledger.
And they knew they had no one to blame but themselves. Vucevic certainly knew that.
"“It’s tough for me,” Vucevic told Orlando Magic Daily. “I missed that second free throw. I’ve got to make those at the end of games. I missed a lot of other looks that I usually make. I kind of let my team down at the end of the game where I should have made those shots. and finished the game for us. I didn’t come through. It’s a tough one especially because we had such a big lead.”"
Vucevic finished the game with 11 points and 16 rebounds. He made just 3 of 14 shots, including 2 of 7 in the fourth quarter. He made 4 of 6 free throws in the fourth quarter, including missing that big one at the end.
The team did not help Vucevic much. The Magic shot 5 for 21 in the fourth quarter and 6 for 29 in the fourth quarter and overtime. The team got some good looks, they simply would not fall. In one instance Vucevic got an open jumper only to see it rim in and out, falling no good.
Every shot matters when the onslaught is coming back your way in the form of Russell Westbrook.
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Westbrook knows how to finish a game, and bring a team back all by himself. He scored 19 of his 57 points in the fourth quarter becoming a flamethrower as he attacked Vucevic and the Magic defense in high pick and rolls. Eventually, he became too hot to handle.
All the Magic needed it seemed was one shot to go down — or a string of shots — put the lead out of reach and secure the victory.
It is those winning plays the Magic need to find.
"“It was a big shot,” Aaron Gordon told Orlando Magic Daily. “It was a big-time play. And big-time players step up. He made a shot and send it to overtime. Momentum was with them. We tried to battle, but they came out on top.”"
It was emblematic of the Magic’s problems to finish the game, a problem that has dogged the team seemingly for five years. With learning how to win these games such a priority and seemingly all that is left to build in this season, the loss seemed to sting more.
The Magic do not have that kind of player who can simply take over a game. They have always had to find a way together. And consistently they have not. And that is how a team finds itself with the record it has — out of the Playoffs and scratching and clawing to get to 30 wins.
It all hints at a larger problem. No matter how much the Magic try to put into practice the will to win and learning how to finish games, they just do not seem to have the ability to do it.
Westbrook went out and took the game. He made sure his team won through a sheer force of will. But those efforts clearly staggered the Magic and knocked them off course. They were rattled with the train oncoming.
Maybe few teams could withstand the Westbrook assault. But the Magic had plenty of opportunities to slow the bleeding.
There were the missed free throws and bunnies that fell no good. The Oklahoma City Thunder successfully sped up Orlando and kept the team from finding a rhythm. There was the inability to break down defenders one on one — a key aspect to the Thunder’s defensive adjustment in the fourth quarter, they began switching every screen with Taj Gibson at center.
Orlando tried to play through Elfrid Payton — 11 points and eight assists on 4-for-12 shooting — but could not get a consistent attack on the paint. The Magic made just 3 of 12 shots in the paint in the fourth quarter.
They lacked that guy who could carry them to the finish line and make those little plays necessary to win.
Magic coach Frank Vogel took the high road a bit. He lauded his team’s overall effort throughout the game. They played well for most of the game and succumbed to a historic performance from Westbrook. There may be some solace from that. It took Westbrook going crazy to defeat the Magic.
"“I told my guys to keep their head high,” Vogel told Orlando Magic Daily. “They played a terrific basketball game. We’re going in the right direction. I’m proud of how they performed tonight.”"
He urged his team to hold their head high after this loss. Moral victories are in full effect this late in the season with the Playoffs now out of reach.
The Magic did not make the plays to win the game. And that has been the continual theme. And that has the Magic staring down a disappointing, perhaps disastrous season. These are the games the team can no longer give away and give up to a player like Westbrook.
Next: Grades: Oklahoma City Thunder 114, Orlando Magic 106
And until then, they will be searching for answers after games like these.