◆ The Orlando Magic
Injuries to Gordon, Payton limit options
lose 126-121 on the road Friday night to the Brooklyn Nets despite center Nikola Vucevic’s career-high 41 points.
BROOKLYN — When the final buzzer sounded Friday night, music blared on the Barclays Center loudspeakers and most people within the announced crowd of 16,144 people roared their approval.
Evan Fournier had the opposite reaction.
He slammed the ball against the court, caught it and lowered his head.
This one hurt — in more ways than one.
Undone by their own horrendous defense, the Orlando Magic fell to the Brooklyn Nets 126-121 and also lost starting point guard Elfrid Payton to a hamstring injury.
“Our defense is what lost us the game,” Magic center Nikola Vucevic said. “We were able to score. We just never got stops, so we never could play our game, which is at a faster pace.”
The Nets followed the script the Magic prefer. Relying on an uptempo offense that pushed the ball upcourt at every opportunity, Brooklyn made 50 percent of its shots and tallied a whopping 60 points in the paint.
Orlando’s defensive deficiencies wasted a spectacular performance on offense by Vucevic, who finished with a career-high 41 points on 17-of-22 shooting.
Vucevic and Fournier participated in the most heartbreaking play of all.
Trailing 124-121, Vucevic passed the ball to Fournier in the left corner. Fournier elevated for a potential game-tying 3-pointer
with 4.5 seconds remaining, but his shot rattled off the rim and into the hands of the Nets’ Trevor Booker.
Fournier lowered his head and bent over at the waist, exasperated.
“I should have made the shot,” Fournier said. “It was an open look definitely. But you know, we should have never been in that situation anyway. We did too many mistakes defensively. We didn’t get any stops down the stretch. It was a hardfought game, but we did too many mistakes to win.”
Fournier, Vucevic and their teammates perhaps felt so awful because the loss exposed weaknesses that they, their teammates and their coaches hoped they had rectified. Orlando couldn’t keep Brooklyn out of the lane, fouled too often, committed too many defensive breakdowns and gave up too many offensive rebounds.
“It just wasn’t good enough on that end,” coach Frank Vogel said. “You’re not going to give up 126 points and win too many nights.”
And yet Friday’s matchup was a game Orlando (1-1) needed to win. Brooklyn (1-1) struggled last season and recently lost point guard Jeremy Lin to a season-ending knee injury. For the Magic to make an unlikely run to the postseason, they must consistently beat rebuilding Eastern Conference teams such as the Nets, Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks.
The Magic had an opportunity Friday, and not even Vucevic’s 6-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc or Fournier’s 22 points, nine rebounds and five assists prevented the defeat.
“It’s tough,” swingman Terrence Ross said.
Orlando opened the game without starting power forward Aaron Gordon, who sat out because of a sore left ankle.
Then, in the final seconds of the second quarter, Payton left the game. Team officials said he had strained his left hamstring, and Payton didn’t return.
“They had maybe their best player out, too,” Vucevic said. “So we can’t use the fact that we had two injuries [as an excuse]. Obviously, we missed those guys, but the next guy’s got to step up. It’s frustrating because you fight. But they fought as well. You’ve got to give them credit. They’re not the Brooklyn team from two years ago.”
Perhaps. But on Friday night, the next men up didn’t produce.
Rookie Jonathan Isaac, who received his first regular-season NBA start, had trouble staying on the floor. Isaac picked up two early fouls and was whistled for his third with 6:43 to go in the second quarter. Mario Hezonja, Isaac’s backup, had problems, too. Hezonja picked up his third foul with 6:25 left in the second quarter.
D.J. Augustin and Shelvin Mack, Orlando’s reserve point guards, didn’t make big contributions either.
In the end, however, everyone was to blame on defense.
“We just had too many breakdowns,” Vogel said.