Late in the third quarter, the Orlando Magic were looking for some energy. They were looking for a way to break through a difficult LA Clippers interior defense. They just needed something to spark them and create some tension in the defense.
Anthony Black was the one to give them some energy, however brief it was.
Black got the ball on the break at the top of the key and reared back with one hand and fired a bounce pass to Moe Wagner cutting along the baseline. Wagner rose for a two-handed jam that gave the team a little bit of energy and flow.
It was part of a personal 8-0 run that involved Black as he hit back-to-back 3-pointers. That was a sign of what this team can do when things work well for this team. There is a dynamic and flowing offensive team in there somewhere, one that feeds off the energy from its defense and creates pressure on its own.
That dynamic passing and movement was few and far between though. Instead, much of the Magic's game was left to struggles to crack the Clippers' solid perimeter defense and physical switching that made doing anything seem difficult in a 104-93 loss at Intuit Dome on Wednesday.
Only one number will stand out on the box score and it is not something to shoo away. The Magic again struggled from the outside, making only 8 of 35 (22.9 percent) from three. It is a sore issue that keeps recurring but remains something the team is confident will turn in its favor again.
But the lack of shooting only highlights the other weakness in the Magic's offense. Shooting is the great panacea to cover up a lot of issues. So when the Magic miss this much from three, it shines a spotlight on every part of the Magic's offense that they are missing.
Like the team's struggle to get downhill and into the paint consistently, especially in the decisive third quarter; the lack of consistent playmaking outside of Franz Wagner; the now seemingly inconsistent rebounding as the Clippers pummeled the Magic on the glass in another rare showing there; and the turnovers that give away possessions for a team tight on opportunities.
Shooting is the global problem
There is the big global problem with the team's outside shooting that nobody can avoid.
The Orlando Magic have the worst 3-point field goal percentage in the league. And while the team has started taking more threes to try to counteract that, it can still be a drain.
The Clippers, on the other hand, are one of the most efficient 3-point shooting teams in the league, even if they do not take enough threes. At the end of the day, the Clippers made 11 threes to the Magic's eight. That is not a huge difference for this team.
Orlando needs to hit shots. There is no denying that fact. But when the shots do not fall, that only highlights the other fault lines in the Magic's offense. It only makes the team need to be tighter everywhere else.
"A lot of our shots are good looks," Anthony Black said after Wednesday's loss. "We've got to shoot the good ones and you've got to trust in our work. Eventually, they will start falling. That's basketball. Sometimes you make shots, sometimes you don't. Definitely got to keep finding good looks and stepping into them with confidence."
The Magic have won without making a ton of threes throughout the season. They have one of the best defenses in the league which gives them a chance to win every game. But the lack of shooting means they cannot slip up elsewhere.
The effects of bad shooting
While the shooting was the highlight, the Orlando Magic still found themselves with a chance to win until the third quarter. That is when the team's other mistakes caught up to them. The kind of mistakes a better shooting night might cover up.
Orlando committed 14 turnovers that turned into 18 points for LA. Most of those turnovers came from the Magic's two main drivers.
Franz Wagner struggled throughout the game as the Clippers did a good job being physical with him and deterring him from the basket.
Wagner finished with only 14 points on 5-for-11 shooting, snapping his run of 20-point games and a peculiarly low number of shots. He had six assists and even four steals. But his three turnovers stood out as the Clippers pushed him out of his comfort zone.
The same could be said for Anthony Black. Black had four first-half turnovers on his way to six for the game. He was trying to fling the ball around and the Clippers were good at closing down passing lanes throughout the night.
Still, like with Wagner, Black had eight assists. He still did a lot of good things to get the ball moving and push the pace. When the offense worked, it was because the ball moved and created seams in the paint for the magic to score.
This was the kind of mixed-bag game it was for Orlando. The Magic stayed in the game and stayed even with the Clippers despite their poor shooting except for one period.
That period of the game happened to be when the FanDuel Sports Network Florida feed had technical difficulties. But during six minutes in the third quarter, the Clippers went on a 21-4 run to extend their lead to 19 points, the largest margin in the game.
During that stretch, Orlando went 0 for 4 from three with one turnover before Black ended it with his first three in that 8-0 run to close the quarter. The Clippers made their only three-point attempt in that run (from noted streaky shooter Derrick Jones Jr.).
Instead, what won the Clippers the game in that stretch was their scoring in the paint. LA outscored Orlando 16-10 in the paint during the third quarter. Orlando won that battle 48-40, but the damage was done during that critical stretch.
So too was the damage done on the glass. The Orlando Magic entered the game with the best defensive rebound rate in the league, even after giving up 20 second-chance points on 16 offensive rebounds in Monday's win over the Phoenix Suns. But the Clippers also attacked the glass aggressively, scoring 17 second-chance points on 15 offensive rebounds.
Orlando grabbed only two offensive rebounds in the game. And the lack of those extra opportunities only makes things harder when 3-point shots do not fall.
"You cannot give up 15 offensive rebounds and give yourself an opportunity," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Wednesday's loss. "That's 17 second-chance points. It's an 11-point game and you give up 17 second-chance points, you allow them to shoot 50 percent from the 3-point line and you turn the ball over 14 times for 18 points. You have to value each possession."
Defense does the job
The Orlando Magic's defense continued to do its work. It gave the team a chance to win once again and even make up for the lack of shooting.
The Magic forced a ton of turnovers with 25 for 25 points. That should have set the team up for success. And the Magic scored 16 fast-break points. They got easy looks. The whole game was spent using those turnovers to stay afloat and climb back into the game.
But that goes to how narrow the margins are. Orlando needs to win all the hustle points—the points off turnovers, ball control, offensive rebounds and the paint—to make up for the lack of 3-point shooting. Especially when the shooting is this bad, regardless of the quality of the shots.
The Magic never could quite get over the hump to extend their win streak despite the effort and intensity. They made enough mistakes to fall behind and had a bad stretch defensively long enough to fall too far behind.
"I think we lost the game tonight all internally," Jalen Suggs said after Wednesday's loss. "The best thing about that is it gives us things to fix. In the midst of a six-game win streak, the vibes are high and things are going well, it's a bit grounding understanding you still have things to work on and you have to come out with intensity. We'll bounce back. But a great growth moment for us tonight."
While the team can and has worked around its shooting, it cannot do so if the other elements of its game are not perfectly aligned. That is what has happened in many other games where the Magic struggled from three.
Shooting would cover up a lot of these mistakes. It was not there to cover them this time.