Vogel wants greater intensity
and his assistant coaches attempted to raise their team’s intensity on Thursday when the Magic practiced for the first time following their loss Tuesday to the Sacramento Kings.
The Magic fell to the Kings 105-99 at Amway Center just two days after the Magic defeated the Eastern Conference-leading Boston Celtics 103-95 in Boston.
“I don’t think we brought the necessary fight in the Sacramento game and thought there was a dramatic difference in the Boston game that we played,” Vogel said. “And that’s disappointing. The only response is to get back to work.”
Later, Vogel added: “We’ve got to decide whether we want to be a winning team or not.”
The next test looms on Saturday night against the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis. The Pacers, led by former Magic guard and first-time All-Star
will be playing on the second night of a back-to-back after a road game tonight against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
But as the Magic have learned recently, playing a poorly rested opponent is no guarantee for a victory. The Kings lost to the Charlotte Hornets in Charlotte the night before they defeated the Magic. called to the disappointing.” the Magic’s loss Kings “big-time
“We couldn’t get the stops to win,” Fournier said. “We had a good shot down the stretch to win it, but we couldn’t make the stops.
“At some point, I think, in the fourth quarter we were up like five or seven, and we never got stops. We had one stop and that’s it. After that, they would score or get to the free-throw line and we would turn the ball over and — boom! — it’s a tied game. We should have killed the game, period.”
scored 19 of his 34 points fourth quarter.
“He got ’em in a variety of different ways,” Vogel said. “A couple of them were one-on-one plays on
— I think three of ’em . ... A lot of it was from action at the rim where we brought help and were in rotations, and he’s knocking down a shot. … You just credit the kid for having a strong fourth quarter.”
careerhigh in the
The NBA recently announced its rosters for the Rising Stars Challenge on the Friday of All-Star Weekend, and none of the 20 first- and second-year players are from the Magic. Rookie forward
would’ve been a natural candidate to play in the exhibition, but he’s missed 31 of the Magic’s 47 games because of a right ankle injury that he’s still rehabbing. Rookie swingman
has shown a few impressive flashes, but he hasn’t played enough to have earned consideration for the All-Star Weekend event.
Meanwhile, Pacers second-year big man
was selected to play in the exhibition game. The Magic drafted Sabonis in 2016 and then packaged Sabonis and Oladipo together to the Oklahoma City Thunder for
In 25.3 minutes per game, Sabonis is averaging 12.4 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.