The Orlando Magic rallied in the second half to erase a 19-point deficit and defeat the Brooklyn Nets, securing a big win in the playoff chase.
The Orlando Magic were lost.
They were lethargic and slow offensively. Their defense was giving up easy runs to the lane and leaving Nikola Vucevic on an island in his weakest spot. Not that he was doing any better either.
The Brooklyn Nets were ready to rout the Orlando Magic and put their stamp on the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Magic’s slide was going to continue.
Nikola Vucevic was not happy. After giving up an offensive rebound and failing to close out on Joe Harris‘ 3-pointer to put the Nets up 19 in the third quarter, he was clearly frustrated. For the first time, it seemed it boiled over.
FOX Sports Florida’s Dante Marchitelli reported Nikola Vucevic tore into his teammates, saying the team keeps saying the right things but is not doing them. This has been the common refrain throughout the season. He reported it was time for it to stop.
It had to start with Vucevic. And he put in 12 points the rest of the quarter. The Magic had inched back into the game. And suddenly the spark was there.
It was Terrence Ross‘ turn to lead the comeback, catching fire all of a sudden, reminding everyone of the Human Torch who led the team on countless comebacks during last year’s playoff run.
Then came Aaron Gordon, hitting all seven of his shots in the fourth quarter including a pull-up jumper to give the Magic a one-point lead with 1:15 to play and a step-back 3-pointer to give them a four-point lead.
He put an exclamation on things with a block on Caris LeVert, sliding over perfectly as LeVert thought he had a free lane to the basket. The Magic had to hang on one more time, contesting a Taurean Prince three at the buzzer to cement the comeback win 115-113 at the Barclays Center on Monday.
The Magic found the spark they had been missing for so long and picked up a win they could really be proud of. That is something to build off of finally.
The Orlando Magic are now 25-32, 1.5 games behind the Brooklyn Nets for seventh and 4.5 games ahead of the Washington Wizards for the final playoff spot.
The Orlando Magic return to action Wednesday as they wrap up their season series with the Atlanta Hawks in Atlanta.