Not enough defense as skid hits 6
MINNEAPOLIS — On Tuesday, a couple of hours before the Orlando Magic left Central Florida to start a four-game road trip, swingman Jonathon Simmons told reporters that defense and toughness are the Magic’s biggest problems.
When the Magic’s defense is good, it’s only good in “spurts,” he said. One day later, his teammates proved him right.
The Minnesota Timberwolves exploited the Magic’s weaknesses on defense Wednesday night and defeated the Magic 124-118 at Target Center. Minnesota utterly dominated the third quarter, making 12 of its 19 shots from the field, going 13 of 15 from the free-throw line and outscoring Orlando 41-18 to break open a close game. The Magic seemed to bleed energy every time the Timberwolves made a basket.
“I think in that third quarter, honestly, we played soft on the defensive end,” center Nikola
Vucevic said. “It wasn’t about X’s-and-O’s. Anything was just bad effort from us, not playing hard enough and not being tough enough.”
Orlando has lost six consecutive games, and with a vicious upcoming schedule, Orlando’s season could devolve even further in the days ahead.
“We’ve just got to find a way to get a ‘W,’ get this streak over and bounce back,” swingman Evan Fournier said. “But right now, it’s like a spiral. Just losing, everything is bad. You wake up in the morning, you feel [awful]. Anytime you watch a film session, everybody’s down. It’s just an awful feeling..”
Orlando’s shoddy defense prevented the streak from ending Wednesday. Jimmy Butler, Andrew Wiggins and their Timberwolves teammates feasted on the Magic’s poor perimeter containment, slow-to-arrive weakside help and inability to slow the pick-and-roll. The Magic also fouled too often, allowing the Timberwolves to attempt 45 free throws.
No Magic player struggled more than Vucevic. He often looked a step late on defense, and he also missed shots he typically makes as he went only 5 of 13 from the field. He even committed a technical foul arguing with a referee over a non-call during a fourth-quarter Magic rally.
The Magic opened the final period on a 19-1 run to cut their deficit to 107-99.
“Our starters came back in a little mad about how they performed in the third quarter, and we’ve got to play mad for four quarters,” coach Frank Vogel said. “We’ve lost six in a row. We’ve got to play that way to start games and throughout the game.”
Butler finally scored the Timberwolves’ first basket of the period with 5:06 remaining in the game — a 3-pointer that cut into the Magic’s momentum.
Minnesota missed 16 of its first 17 shot attempts in the period, but Karl-Anthony Towns finally sank an 11-foot jumper to increase the lead to 112-101 with 3:33 to play.
The Magic (8-10) encountered problems when the Timberwolves (11-7) raised their physicality. Orlando turned the ball over 15 times, leading to 19 Minnesota points.
Magic lead assistant coach Chad Forcier refers to this section of the Magic’s season as the “vortex” of their schedule. The Magic’s losing streak started with road losses to the Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors and Portland Trail Blazers. The Magic then lost at home to the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers — games that were supposed to be relatively simple. Wednesday’s matchup against the Timberwolves began a seven-game stretch in which the Magic will play six teams with winning records.
The Magic had their chances to end its losing streak Wednesday night. But their leaky defense cost them, especially in the third quarter.
“They were basically just walking through the lane and laying the ball up at the rim,” said Magic forward Aaron Gordon. “We’ve got to hit harder.”