Orlando Magic Playbook: What the Orlando Magic can learn from their Oklahoma City collapse

What to learn from Orlando Magic’s collapse

Killer turnovers and shot selection — OKC 109, ORL 106, 1:39 4th

At a certain point in this game, the momentum just tipped completely in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s favor. They had hit enough tough shots and the Orlando Magic were struggling to get their footing, you could start to see the team get tight.

It culminated really with the above questionable inbounds pass.

The ball is deflected, but it is still not clear what Jalen Suggs is trying to do. It results in a turnover that ends with Aleksej Pokusevski with a layup to give the Thunder a three-point lead.

Turnovers were indeed the big storyline throughout the game. Most of them were unforced turnovers like that one above or the team just being careless with the ball.

Orlando though had two turnovers in the final moments of the game. But it was not turnovers that did them in. Instead, it was bad shot selection that almost acted like turnovers to feed the Thunder’s fast break and build their confidence.

Orlando’s defense has had some very good moments when it is settled and able to get set up. As poor as the Magic have played offensively, their best setup defensively is to take smart shots and score some points to set up their defense.

That was a missing element throughout the Thunder’s comeback. Instead, Orlando was taking shots like this one:

The Magic are down three at this point. But they still have plenty of time to get back into the game.

Orlando is able to get a semi-transition play. But instead of attacking the basket, Jalen Suggs settles for a contested 3-pointer with the bigger Aleksej Pokusevski closing in on him.

This is quite simply a bad decision. And again, these late games turn on making or missing shots and these kinds of decisions.

The possession before this turned into a nice play where Paolo Banchero just missed a layup short. Maybe the Magic were gun-shy to attack — and the team was starting to miss a lot of shots short as fatigue was setting in for this group.

What is clear from watching these clips is something that Wendell Carter noted after Tuesday’s game. The Thunder were able to speed the Magic up. Orlando was not playing under control or with much poise. And that is evident in the decisions the team is making down the stretch.

The Magic were clearly staggered from the misses and the mistakes that caused their lead to evaporate. Oklahoma City was able to erase the lead fairly quickly, but Orlando never could pull itself together to stem the tide.

A lot of fans criticized Suggs individually for the team’s errors. And he deserves some blame. But Wagner also missed lots of opportunities to calm the team down, make some shots and play under control.

Once that boulder went downhill, there was no stopping it.