The Orlando Magic
Offense dries up as Magic blow 4th-quarter lead
fail to hold a fourth-quarter lead and fall 93-86 to the visiting Toronto Raptors.
Over the final weeks of the Orlando Magic’s season, Frank Vogel wants to experiment with an intriguing lineup configuration — a configuration that might solve some of the team’s deeply rooted problems on defense.
Vogel wants to play 6-foot-9 forward Aaron Gordon and 6-foot-10 rookie forward Jonathan Isaac simultaneously. Gordon and Isaac rank as the Magic’s top two defenders, and they can switch effectively onto most opponents, even point guards. The prospect of Gordon and Isaac confounding opposing offenses is so appealing that Vogel almost salivates at the possibilities.
On Tuesday night, the IsaacGordon duo played well together but not well enough for the Magic to overcome a rotten fourth quarter against the Toronto Raptors. Fueled by point guard Kyle Lowry, the Raptors erased an eight-point deficit and beat the Magic 93-86 at Amway Center.
“We’ve got to play at a level of intensity that’s higher than theirs,” Gordon said. “If we don’t match their energy or have more energy than them, we’re not going to win
the game. That’s just kind of how it’s going to go.”
The awful finish — Orlando opened the fourth quarter by missing 14 of its first 15 shot attempts and saw a 76-68 lead turn into an 84-78 deficit — obscured the positives of the IsaacGordon pairing.
In 26 minutes together, the duo showed promise on both ends of the floor. Isaac sank a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter, while a few stops on the defensive end freed Gordon for transition dunks.
“I saw a lot of great things,” point guard Shelvin Mack said.
“It’s just something that the franchise is going to see down the line. The way basketball is going these days — positionless — those guys can play [small forward] or [power forward], and they’re adapting to each other and starting to learn to play with each other.”
Gordon had missed Orlando’s previous five games while he worked through the NBA’s concussion protocol. On Tuesday, he showed some rust as he tallied 16 points on 7-of-15 shooting, collected six rebounds and dished out three assists.
Isaac added 10 points, five rebounds, five steals and two blocks.
“Jon, his intangibles are amazing,” Gordon said. “His ability to get steals and deflect the ball help a ton. Having an elite defender out there is big time. He’s just going to keep getting better and better.”
Limited by injuries throughout the season, Gordon and Isaac had only played a total of 67 minutes together before Tuesday. Although that was too small a sample size to draw any definitive conclusions, the initial results intrigued Vogel. And rightly so.
Isaac and Gordon provided a lift on defense at times Tuesday.
“The defense is what I expected it to be,” Vogel said. “It’s going to be really good with those two out there together in any way, shape or form with whoever else is out there. They’ve just got a lot of athleticism and defensive ability, and that was evident from the start of the game.”
Isaac and Gordon both were on the bench at the start of the fourth quarter, but they were in the game together after Toronto pulled within 76-72.
The Magic led 78-76 when they came out of a timeout, and on that possession, D.J. Augustin was whistled for an offensive foul for pushing off on Lowry, prompting Vogel to fume at the referees. On the Raptors’ ensuing possession, Lowry threw a lob to Lucas Nogueira, and Nogueira dunked, tying the score.
After Augustin missed a 3-pointer on the Magic’s next trip down the floor, Lowry drained a 3-pointer, giving Toronto an 81-78 lead. Pascal Siakam soon followed with another 3 with 4:53 to play, extending the Raptors’ decisive run to 16-2.
The Magic (21-50) couldn’t recover. The Raptors (53-18) just dominated down the stretch.
“We were desperate,” Toronto coach Dwane Casey said.
Orlando players weren’t desperate enough.
They did, however, see a glimpse of their future with the Gordon-Isaac pairing.
“Hopefully, I think that will be something great for years to come,” Isaac said.