The Orlando Magic were feeling the fatigue of a long road trip. But gutted out the victory and found the energy to defeat the Phoenix Suns.
The Orlando Magic clearly had an eye on their plane ride home. The last day of a long road trip was finally here with an opponent on the ledger that was largely uninspiring. Devin Booker was a late scratch from the lineup and T.J. Warren was also out. And this was already a team at the bottom of every major statistical category — not to mention the standings.
But nothing is ever easy. This is the NBA and this is a Magic team still trying to figure out how to win games and play professionally to a high standard every night.
Count this one — a 99-85 Orlando Magic win over the Phoenix Suns at Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix on Friday — as an example of the former and a lesson the Magic will need to do the latter.
Orlando was largely uninspiring throughout the evening. The team was sloppy even through only 12 turnovers. And on several occasions it looked like the Phoenix Suns were going to be first to loose balls — a point Steve Clifford railed against his team for after Wednesday’s loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
This Suns team is not the Trail Blazers though. And without the team’s top scorer, Phoenix was finding it hard to create offense consistently. The Magic’s defense snapped to attention long enough and the intensity ratcheted up enough — especially in the fourth quarter — to give them the cushion to pull away.
Phoenix shot just 40.5 percent from the floor. The Suns scored only 14 points in the fourth quarter. Orlando did more than enough to win on that front.
The Magic got big shots and buckled down defensively every time the Suns seemed like they were about to make a push. Orlando did more than the bare minimum to win, but the level of execution and intensity throughout the game is not likely to make Clifford happy.
But ugly wins still count as wins. And everyone is human with the end of the road trip on the horizon. Orlando locked in when the team had to and expanded a four-point third-quarter lead into a comfortable victory.
The Orlando Magic return home for three days before hitting the road Tuesday to take on the Miami Heat.