Orlando Magic Grades: Utah Jazz 137, Orlando Magic 91

Sometimes the score says it all.

The Utah Jazz defeated the Orlando Magic 137-91, putting on an offensive clinic against a Magic team now beaten down by the flu going around some of the players on the team leaving them with eight players and maybe even fewer. The Magic were largely powerless to stop the Jazz as they took three after three after three.

Utah hit 18 3-pointers in the first half alone to set the tone for the game. The Jazz fired away early as is their tendency and pattern. This is the number one 3-point shooting team in the league. Orlando had no answer and could not track them at all.

Orlando’s offense had little force even with the team winning and having a chance to win in the last three games. The Magic simply did not have the firepower to keep up. And the Jazz punished the Magic for their missed shots, able to turn transition opportunities into easy shots.

The Orlando Magic could not keep up with the 3-point shooting from the Utah Jazz as their effort waned amid a stomach bug ravaging the team (again).

Again, the score says it all.

The Magic made 2 of 23 3-pointers (8.7-percent) compared to the Jazz’s 26 of 55. The volume of 3-pointers along with the percentage is just the clear difference between one of the best shooting and offensive teams in the league and this Magic team that is still getting organized offensively and figuring out how to play together.

Orlando has not been good offensively since the trade — statistically even worse than before the trades, which is obvious considering whom the Magic traded — and finally the defense gave way against a team with all of its offensive weapons available.

The Magic remained frustrated they were unable to effort their way back into the game. And the truth is that a team’s effort can only get them halfway. As Steve Clifford said on the Bally Sports Florida broadcast before the game — and has said repeatedly throughout the season — the team will still have to play well to win.

Orlando decidedly did not play well Saturday night in Salt Lake City. And this is the result if the Magic do not play well.

A lot of the Orlando Magic’s plans to experiment with lineups went out the window when the team down big thanks to the Utah Jazz’s 3-point barrage and then Mohamed Bamba, who struggled and looked as sluggish as an illness would cause a player to be, left the game with the stomach bug that is going around the team. Wendell Carter was on an island having to deal with Rudy Gobert and the constant attacks from the Jazz.

This Magic team was just not good enough to win. And that was clear in the first half as everyone either seemed like they were forcing things or too afraid to do anything. Carter scored 12 of his 19 points in the second half and finished as the Magic’s top scorer. He added 12 rebounds. But he was largely quiet before the game got out of hand, not playing with the same energy and intensity that made him key to the wins in the previous two games.

Chuma Okeke is not quite down from that high he was on over the last week. His activity is still high and he is finding ways to contribute. But defenses are starting to change how they defend him and he is having to find new ways to remain effective. His 3-point shooting is starting to hit a dip as he missed all three of his 3-pointers on Saturday.

Okeke finished with 16 points on 7-for-15 shooting. Like Wendell Carter, Chuma Okeke did much of his damage in the second half, where he scored 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting. The game was already over by that point. So that little bit of positive momentum should help. His game is slowly expanding, but the Magic are going to need to see him grow up and expand his offensive repertoire.

R.J. Hampton is certainly the rawest of the Orlando Magic’s young players. Some nights, he displays flashes of what could make him great. And others, he shows the inexperience and inconsistency that his promise. On one sequence in the first half, R.J. Hampton blew past Jordan Clarkson on a fake dribble handoff and got to the rim with some blinding speed. On another in the same quarter, R.J. Hampton got by him again but could not navigate his way around Derrick Favors who blocked his layup.

Hampton’s speed is his best attribute at the moment. And he is able to score when he can go in a straight line drive to the rim. He is still piecing a lot of things together in his game. But they are slowly coming together as he gets more playing time and more comfort. He finished this game with 12 points on 5-for-14 shooting with eight rebounds. You have to appreciate the willingness to keep going headling toward the rim.

Terrence Ross had a team-best -10 on the plus/minus column. His presence is still positive for the Orlando Magic. Defenses respect and swarm him. And the Magic probably rightly started limiting his minutes when it was clear the game was out of hand. The Magic just do not have a lot of other places to go.

And that is at the heart of the disappointment for Ross especially. The team has always risen and fallen on his production and his ability to shoot. But now more than ever, the Magic need Ross to be efficient and ruthless. His ability to get to the line of late is about the only positive offensively. He is not making shots — scoring 12 points on 2-for-11 shooting. And there just is not much else to his game to make up for that.

Look, some nights, the better team just has a really good night and there is not much the other team can do. When that team is the league-leading Utah Jazz going up against a scrappy Orlando Magic team, this is what happens. The Jazz were locked in and dialed up. They hit 47.3-percent of their 3-pointers including 18 of 31 (58.1-percent) in the first half. What is a team like the Magic supposed to do with that?

This game became formulaic and pro forma very quickly. Utah had an 18-point lead after the first quarter and Orlando was never going to be able to threaten. The Jazz packed the paint and challenged shots. The Magic did not have the shooting to make any real threat. Utah is just that good and were that good this night.

The Orlando Magic are now 17-32 and 13th in the Eastern Conference. They trail the Chicago Bulls by three games for the final spot in the Play-In Tournament. The Orlando Magic wraps their five-game road trip Sunday in Denver against the Denver Nuggets.