Gordon eager to rebound from bumpy first start,
Aaron Gordon’s first game this season as a starter didn’t begin the way he wanted it to.
He picked up three fouls during the first four minutes of the Orlando Magic’s matchup against the Charlotte Hornets and sat on the bench for the remainder of the first half.
After the game ended in a120-116 overtime loss, Gordon explained he was almost too eager at the outset of the game.
“Being overexcited, overanxious was getting me out of position and it was taking my body out of position,” Gordon said. “I got two quick ones, and then the refs kind of understood that I was overanxious, so they gave me a third one.”
Scott Skiles’ lineup changes — replacing shooting guard Evan Fournier with Victor Oladipo and replacing power forward
Channing Frye with Gordon — seemed to pay dividends otherwise.
Gordon played a shade over 10 minutes in the third quarter, and during that stretch the Magic outscored the Hornets by nine points. Gordon played five minutes during the fourth quarter; in those five minutes, the Hornets outscored the Magic by three points.
Oladipo scored a seasonhigh 29 points on 11-of-19 shooting.
And Fournier finished with 15 points, although he was on the floor for all 12 minutes of the Magic’s disastrous fourth quarter.
Oladipo hadn’t played since he sprained his right knee during the Magic’s overtime loss in London on Jan. 14.
He played a team-high 42 minutes against the Hornets, and his knee didn’t appear to give him any problems with his movement or his explosiveness.
“I’m good right now,” Oladipo said after the game. “I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t tired. But I’m great. I’ll be back ready to go on Monday when we play Memphis. So I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be a big road trip for us.”
Skiles’ rationale
Defensive rebounding was a problem for the Magic during their loss to the Hornets.
Charlotte collected14 offensive rebounds, including three in the fourth quarter, and scored 17 second-chance points.
So why didn’t Skiles bring center Dewayne
Dedmon into the game when the game started to slip away in the fourth quarter?
Dedmon hadn’t played during the first three quarters, and Skiles is generally reluctant to call on a player late in a game if that player hasn’t played yet.
“I look at it from a player’s perspective,” Skiles said. “It’s almost unfair if you haven’t played a guy in the whole game and you’ve had a nice lead and now the other team’s making a run ... [and] you’re taking timeouts. And, all of a sudden, [you say,] ‘Hey, get in there and help us stop it.’ I don’t think that’s fair. The guys that are in the game have got to get the job done.”
Layups
The Magic did not practice on Saturday.
The team will practice Sunday morning before it flies to Memphis.