Magic look to avenge defeat
The Orlando Magic looked awful the last time they played the Denver Nuggets.
On Nov. 11, the Nuggets dominated the Magic during the first half and cruised to a 125-107 victory in Denver.
The game was more lopsided that the final score indicates. Nuggets point guard
scored 32 while swingman
added 26 points,
points.
Center scored 12 points, collected 17 rebounds and dished out nine assists. And power forward added 16 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
“That was bad,” Magic forward recalled Thursday. “Just a poor performance. We owe them one.”
The Magic will get their chance to avenge themselves tonight at Amway Center, and that chance will come against a depleted Nuggets roster.
Jokic will miss his fourth consecutive game because of a sprained left ankle, while Millsap is recovering from a ligament injury to his left wrist.
“Obviously, they’re very different,” Magic coach
said. “But what struck me when we played them out there is how talented their perimeter guys are. We saw that with the game that Murray had against us. He just lit us up. And
didn’t even play; he’s a terrific young player. Barton can fill it up.
[can, too]. They’ve got a lot of perimeter firepower.
is an extremely, extremely talented guy. And they’ve still got really quality bigs, even with those two guys out.
On Nov. 11, the Magic played without point guards
and and also played on the second night of a backto-back. But the defeat still angers them.
“We’ve got to win, man,” Magic swingman
said. “Those guys blew us out. So we’ve just got to come and compete. I haven’t watched much of them lately to see how different they’re playing, but we have to take advantage of injuries just as teams will try to take advantage of us. We need to string a few [wins] together, so it’s going to be an important game for us.” The Magic’s bench has struggled lately, and the team has been hurt by the injuries to a pair of key reserves, swingman
and forward
During Wednesday’s 110-106 overtime win over the Atlanta Hawks, the Magic’s bench was outscored 40-16.
Vogel opened the second quarter with an all-reserve quintet of
and on the floor because he left the starters together a bit longer than usual to give the starters more experience playing alongside new starter
“I’ve got to stagger it more in terms of looking at some of the starters and trying to let that starting group get a feel for each other now that Simms is in there,” Vogel said.
“I’m extending them for that reason. It’s hurt us a little bit having five bench guys [in there at once]. But there’s been times where five bench guys have come in and really elevated the performance of the team. Last night, [that] wasn’t the case. We missed some shots. We had some turnovers. We gave up some run-outs. We’ve just got to be better.”