Magic heating up despite recent injuries.
Despite some attrition, Magic have won 3 of 4
Orlando Magic coach Steve Clifford has stressed the value of strong effort and consistency all season.
He argued the Magic had enough talent to be a playoff team, but they had to give their best effort on every possession every night.
During long stretches of the season, his team showed the ability to upset top teams. But it also regularly surrendered big leads, turning momentum-building wins into demoralizing losses.
So Clifford has been thrilled to see his team dig deep despite losing Mo Bamba to injury and Jonathan Simmons to a trade, winning three of its past four games entering a showdown at New Orleans Tuesday night.
The clearest sign of the team’s progress may have come in Atlanta, with Orlando brushing off a slow start to the first quarter to dominate the remainder of the game en route to a 124-108 win.
The Magic had excuses available after arriving in Atlanta at 3 a.m. Sunday, hours after Saturday’s victory at Milwaukee. Clifford praised his team’s ability to overcome a first-quarter malaise against Atlanta Sunday.
“I just told them I was proud of them,” Clifford said. “I thought it was a professional, mature, purposeful 48 minutes. I felt like our guys started right and had a good attitude. [Atlanta] is hard to play against. It was a good night for us.”
Orlando rode the wave of Jonathan Isaac’s 17 points and five blocked shots as well as Nikola Vucevic’s game-high 19-point performance.
The Magic rallied for a 26-25 lead going into the second quarter before pouring on the points.
Terrence Ross came off the bench to score 18 and Orlando finished with seven players in double figures.
Isaac may have been the team’s most comprehensive difference-maker. His scoring presence was needed, but he also recorded his career-high five blocked shots, lending to Orlando’s total of nine.
“I was just trying to do whatever I can to help the team win,” Isaac said. “If that’s going up to challenge shots at the rim, you know, I didn’t get them all, but I was able to put my hands on a couple.”
Isaac was pleased the Magic found a way to maintain a lead from the first quarter to the final buzzer, never really letting Atlanta back into the game.
“Our start was definitely a bit sluggish, but we regrouped,” Isaac said. “It’s important because we’ve struggled with that over the course of the season. We’ll be playing really well in the first half and let teams get back into the game. That didn’t happen [against Atlanta].”