Plenty of holes in loss
Sloppy effort vs. Bulls ends 5-game winning streak
The Orlando Magic stepped into Friday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls riding a five-game win streak, but they walked off the floor with their first loss since Feb. 5 in Oklahoma City.
Check out three things we learned from Friday’s 110-109 loss to the Bulls that kept the Magic from gaining ground in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
1. Awkward performance: The formula the Magic used during their fivegame win streak was largely absent. From the beginning of the game, the Magic never seemed to get comfortable. As the game progressed, they let scoring opportunities get away with poor free-throw shooting and turnovers and at times lacked cohesiveness on defense.
It was a far cry from the type of play the Magic displayed in the run-up to the all-star break as they won five straight games by an average of 22.8 points.
During that stretch they averaged just 10 turnovers a game. On Friday they had 12 turnovers in the first half, leading to 11 points for the Bulls, and finished with 14 turnovers overall.
And then there is free-throw shooting.
The Magic wound up 13-of-24 from the foul line (54.2 percent) in one of their worst free-throw shooting efforts of the season. That came Jan. 4 at Minnesota when they shot 52.6 percent (10-of-19).
It was just the sixth time this season the Magic didn’t make at least 60 percent of their free-throw attempts. They came into the game shooting 78.6 percent on the season and 88.7 percent in their previous five games.
On Friday, the Magic shot no better than 50 percent from the line in the second half, going 5-of-10 in the third quarter and 4-of-8 in the fourth.
Not even their best freethrow the shooter was immune to the struggles. Point guard D.J. Augustin came into the game shooting 87.3 percent from the line, but with a chance to break a 106-106 tie with 34 seconds to play he missed his only two attempts of the game.
2. Costly defensive mistakes: The Magic had held their previous five opponents to an average of 96 points a game, and while they didn’t play poorly overall on defense, too many lapses ended up costing them.
Failing to execute the defensive game plan gave the Bulls, particularly Lauri Markkanen, open perimeter shots, and they made the Magic pay.
The 7-foot Markkanen was the biggest beneficiary of the Magic’s defensive lapses. He scored 12 of his game-high 25 points in the third quarter on 4-of-6 shooting, including 3-of-4 from the 3-point line. He even completed a fourpoint play after hitting a 3 and getting fouled.
Markkanen’s hot shooting sparked the Bulls, who shot 62.5 percent from 3-point range (5-of-8) and outscored the Magic 38-29 in the quarter. The Bulls’ 38 points nearly matched the most allowed by the Magic in the third quarter this season. The Portland Trail Blazers scored 40 thirdquarter points on Nov. 28.
In addition, the Magic surrendered 19 fast-break points to the Bulls in the game.
Magic coach Steve Clifford bemoaned the thirdquarter stumble, especially since the focus of Thursday’s practice and Friday’s shootaround was on the defensive coverages his team missed.
“Our game plan discipline, the things we really worked on the day before and then in the shootaround, stuff we’ve been really good at before, we were bad [at it],” Clifford said. “A ton of mistakes and they made us pay.”
The final mistake came with 1.5 seconds left when Magic forward Aaron Gordon tried to block Markkanen’s 3-point attempt. Gordon slid off Markkanen to help slow the progress of Otto Porter Jr., who began a drive into the lane before passing the ball out to Markkanen. Gordon was only a few steps away and said he thought he could block the shot, but Markkanen’s length made that nearly impossible and he wound up committing a foul.
Markkanen made two of the ensuing three freethrow attempts for what proved to be the game-winning points.
3. No easy games: The Magic are competing for a playoff spot, and they appreciate the sense of urgency that comes with it. Other teams, however, are not. But as the Magic saw Friday night, every team is playing for something.
As Bulls guard Zach LaVine said after only his team’s 15th win this season: “We are not going out there and just saying, ‘You know, we will get better next year.’ This is the time to really jell and get better.”
It’s not that the Magic looked past the Bulls. Friday’s game reinforced what they know to be true: there are no nights off in the NBA.
“It’s that time of year, after the break. Each game matters,” Magic center Nikola Vucevic said. “You’re either fighting for a seed or you’re fighting to get in the playoffs. Some teams are out of it but they’re still playing hard.”