The Orlando Magic are still a team learning and growing into themselves. That was made evident again as the team struggled and tightened up at Washington.
Somehow the Orlando Magic had hit the brakes. Again.
The repeated pattern of coming out flat in the third quarter and succumbing to pressure late in the game persisted for an Orlando Magic team that is still figuring much of itself out. And still figuring out how to play within a new offense and defense.
It is not quite second nature. It is not quite consistent. There is still a whole lot of work to do.
So the momentary “achievement” of reaching .500 at 5-5 — the deepest the team had been .500 in a season since 2012 in Dwight Howard’s final season in Orlando — disappeared pretty quickly. The reality is wins are still not handed out in this league. It takes 48 minutes of attention.
And if a team does not have the precision necessary to pick those wins up, the result is going to be pretty predictable. Someone is going to beat them.
On Saturday night, it was Kris Humphries that made the Magic pay. Him and John Wall, but with Wall it is expected. Humphries scored 23 points and made 5 of 8 3-pointers. He made three in the fourth quarter as the Magic struggled to corral John Wall and keep him out of the lane.
Washington was able to make the last push and hold off Orlando in winning 108-99 at Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. on Saturday.
The Magic got caught helping too far off Humphries and giving up too many drives to Wall, who woke up in the second half and played with much more energy. Wall scored 15 points and dished out 11 assists.
Wall’s sudden awakening though was as much a product of the Magic’s lethargic play for much of the second half.
Orlando was the dominant team of the first half and looked crisp and energetic. The team saw much of the carryover from Friday’s strong win against the Utah Jazz.
Evan Fournier and Nikola Vucevic worked well off each other and the team moved the ball well. Defensively, the Magic were not particularly strong or consistent, but they were able to get the job done with the offense moving well.
That did not last as the team came out flat once again in the third quarter. Wall got things going early looking much faster than the Magic as they stood around and failed to react. Offensively, Orlando started to stagnate, settling for jumpers and failing to move the ball.
This has been the Magic’s great enemy throughout the season. Their margin for error is still so small — especially if the defense is not working well and getting stops — that an extended period of time taking jumpers and failing to get open shots hurts dramatically.
Orlando’s six-point halftime lead disappeared quickly. The team was playing uphill for most of the second half.
Elfrid Payton had to become the offensive impetus. He seemed the only one capable of driving into the lane and scoring on a consistent basis. Aside from Aaron Gordon filling in gaps and picking up scraps (12 points, seven rebounds), the Magic offense was a major struggle.
Nikola Vucevic ended up with 19 points and 13 rebounds, but made just 8 of 18 from the floor. Payton had 17 points and Evan Fournier added 18 points and six assists.
The Magic’s late-game execution was poor and there were too many turnovers. The pressure got turned up and an offense struggling to execute fell apart.
None of these problems are new of course for the Magic. They have been recurring throughout the season — part of the list of inconsistencies for this young team learning and expecting to win for the first time.
It is just not quite all there for the Magic yet. The building things up part is painstaking and full of fits and starts.
Saturday proved that again. The Magic could not salvage it for a win in the end.
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