Nikola Vucevic drained a turnaround fadeaway jumper at the buzzer to rescue an otherwise sluggish Orlando Magic from the Los Angeles Lakers.
As Nikola Vucevic turned to fire the final, game-winning shot against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, there was a bit of hope that it would go in.
The shot was more luck than skill, Vucevic admitted, but sometimes that is what a team needs more than anything. Especially on a night when the Orlando Magic simply did not have their best game and played poorly.
The Magic’s 101-99 win was an escape in every way. But winning is always better than losing, and no matter how the team played, the scoreboard is all that mattered in the end.
So an upset Scott Skiles and a team cognizant of its own faults in this game, could take at least some solace in a win. Or at least not feel the true penalty for their poor play at the end.
“Mostly we didn’t play very well,” Vucevic told me for Orlando Magic Daily. “I thought we should have played much better, especially on the defensive end. We never took them away from what they to do. We never really showed what we can do on defense. They were getting whatever they want. We got away with this one, but we have to play much better.”
The Lakers shot nearly 50 percent for the game and attacked the Magic in the paint on the pick and roll time and time again. Orlando struggled to corral Los Angeles but kept up.
That was thanks largely to Shabazz Napier. Napier scored 17 of his 22 points in the second half, hitting five total 3-pointers. His energy and offensive boost helped wake the Magic from a lackadaisical offensive effort that saw the team standing around and unable to finish at the rim.
The Magic shot just 40 percent from the floor overall. They made just 19 second-chance points on 23 offensive rebounds and 16 of 39 shots from inside the paint.
Orlando did things to put itself in position to win handily and just could not get the ball into the basket. The team continues to struggle to execute and finish.
That had Scott Skiles frustrated throughout much of the game. Certainly afterward as he lamented his team was losing some of its principles and things he drilled from the start of training camp.
Orlando continues to be inconsistent. But at least they are winning. And that is always better.
