For most of Saturday, the Orlando Magic’s 128-109 residence loss to the Chicago Bulls seemed prefer it was going to go how most of their video games on the second evening of a back-to-back have gone.
The defensive depth was missing early. Their 3-point photographs weren’t falling.
The Bulls took benefit of the Magic’s lackluster play, holding leads of 25-19 on the finish of the primary quarter, 60-47 at halftime and 89-64 with 3:27 left within the third quarter.
“Us trying to go shot for shot, that’s what started the momentum,” coach Jamahl Mosley stated. “Back-to-backs are difficult. It forces you to give in sometimes. That’s what we started out doing trying to give in to the easy shot exchange.”
The Magic appeared to have lacked solutions to the issues Chicago was inflicting — till their second unit discovered some options.
The bench unit of Cole Anthony, Jalen Suggs (11 factors, 5 assists, 4 rebounds), Admiral Schofield, Bol Bol and Moe Wagner discovered the two-way play the Magic lacked for many of the sport.
They bought the stops wanted to chop the deficit to 95-81 on the finish of the third.
Wagner (team-high 27 factors) scored 16 straight factors through the second half, chopping the deficit to 98-86 with 11:19 remaining.
Anthony (21 factors, 6 assists and 6 rebounds in half-hour off the bench) had back-to-back buckets to trim the deficit to 98-90 with 10:22 left — the primary time the deficit was single digits since halfway via the second quarter.
The Magic caught with the Bulls for many of the fourth regardless of the shotmaking from Zach LaVine (32 factors), DeMar DeRozan (32 factors, 8 assists) and Nikola Vučević (26 factors, 13 rebounds and 6 assists). Anthony made a 3 to chop the deficit to 111-106 with 4:28 remaining.
They didn’t get any nearer, with the Bulls (23-26) holding off the Magic (19-31) at Amway Center to provide Orlando a second consecutive loss.
“If we’re going to be the team we want to become,” Moslet stated. “we’re going to have to hang our hat on the defensive side of the floor regardless of if shots are going in or not.”
The lineup of Anthony, Suggs, Bol, Schofield and Wagner performed the ultimate 14:49.
“That second unit did an unbelievable job of getting us back in it,” Mosley stated. “Their resiliency, their fight, their togetherness, they shared and moved the ball. They made shots but it was more that they hunkered down and tried to get stops in order to get out on the break and run.”
Every starter had a person plus/minus of not less than minus 14. Mosley stated he knew he was going to stay with the second unit when Wagner lower the deficit to 109-101 after making a pair of free throws with 5:35 remaining.
“That group had a level of intensity about them,” Mosley stated. “They had a resolve about them. They had the momentum going and we wanted to stick with that group [at] that moment.”
The Magic had misplaced 110-105 Friday at Miami.
They didn’t want a number of time to dissect what the issues have been in that.
“The turnovers,” Mosley stated pregame, “some of them were unforced. The ones that led to the breakout easy baskets for them are ones that hurt.”
The Magic’s 20 turnovers led to 32 Heat factors and have been their most giveaways since their Nov. 14 loss to the Charlotte Hornets.
Ball retention was a problem for the Magic earlier within the season however not lately.
They had the league’s second-worst turnover frequency (16.8%) via their first 24 video games however had improved considerably. Their turnover frequency of 13.9% was the league’s Sixteenth-best mark — center of the pack — of their 24 video games forward of Friday.
This provides credence to the concept Friday was merely an off evening towards a Heat squad that’s one of many higher groups at forcing giveaways.
That seemed to be the case, with the Magic turning over the ball simply 13 instances Saturday, however it didn’t assist them recover from the hump and overcome the early defensive points.
“In general, it’s less an Xs-and-Os thing,” Wagner stated. “It’s an energy thing. We know we’re capable. We were just flat. Part of that was putting our heads down too quickly and kind of letting go [of] a little bit of our focus. We’ve got to get better at that.”
Jonathan Isaac was accessible towards the Bulls after sitting out towards the Heat due to left knee damage administration.
He completed with 5 factors (2-of-7 capturing) and 4 rebounds in 9 minutes.
Isaac performed his first NBA sport in over 2½ years in Monday’s win over the Boston Celtics, recording 10 factors (4-for-7 capturing, 2 of three on 3-pointers), 3 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 help in 10 minutes.
He had 5 factors (2-for-4 capturing, 1 of two on 3s), 2 assists and a pair of steals in 8 minutes in Wednesday’s win over the Indiana Pacers.
The Magic begin a four-game street journey with matchups on the 76ers Monday and Wednesday.
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Khobi Price at [email protected] or observe him on Twitter at @khobi_price.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com