Magic Drop Third Straight Game
Orlando, FL— After losing by a combined 56 points in the last two games, Jamhal Mosley’s message to his group was, “Get back home, take care of home.”
The Magic unfortunately couldn’t get back on track as they suffered their third straight loss this evening to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets losing 113-100.
“I want to take as little away from these two games as possible,” Cole Anthony said in the post-game in Boston. “This is what the league is, you go up against two elite teams sometimes you gonna get your head cracked.”
Orlando has been in a slump as of late winning only four of their last 13 games, as both their injuries and shooting woes from the perimeter continue to limit this team from reaching their full potential.
Injury Report
The Magic got Paolo Banchero back into the lineup just nine days ago against the Milwaukee Bucks, and they continued to get positive news in terms of Franz Wagner and his recovery back to the court.
Earlier this week it was first reported by Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel, that Franz Wagner was expected to be listed as “Return to Competition Conditioning” on the injury report after suffering a torn right oblique in Philadelphia back on December, 6th.
Orlando was still decimated with injuries coming into tonight’s matchup as they would be missing Jalen Suggs (low back strain), Franz Wagner (return to competition reconditioning), Gary Harris (left hamstring strain), Goga Bitadze (concussion protocol), and Jett Howard (left ankle sprain).
Orlando’s Three-Point Struggles
On Friday’s matchup in Boston, the Magic shot a woeful 5 of 32 (15.6%) from behind the arch it led to a perplexed Jamahl Mosley who was nearly at a loss for words on the team’s shooting inefficiencies.
“Got to go back and look at them and see if we’re getting the right ones … That’s a big portion of it,” Mosley said. “We’re getting downhill and teams are collapsing. We’re going to see more zone [defense], understood. But we’ve got to keep continuing to make the right play. I’m never discouraged when we’re getting the right looks — We just have to make sure that we keep our confidence and continue to put the work in to knock these shots down.”
I followed up with Jamahl Mosley in the pre-game about what he believes has contributed the most to the team’s three-point shooting inconsistencies.
“We’re getting a lot of great looks, like wide-open looks,” Mosley stated. “Like I will tell the guys today like you’ve gotta have the memory of a goldfish. Like from the Ted Lasso quote — I don’t know if there’s an exact reason why you don’t shoot the ball well at certain times…I think it has to go into staying with the body of work.”
Once again the Magic couldn’t hit shots from distance this evening shooting a woeful 12 of 41 (29.2%) and they couldn’t get any rhythm going offensively speaking.
KCP Versus His Former Team
With Kentavious Caldwell-Pope facing off against his former team, Nuggets Head Coach Mike Malone spoke glowingly about KCP in the pre-game.
“You know, he was a hard worker, high character leader on and off the court, and obviously he was a big, big part of us winning our first championship in franchise history,” he said. “He’ll always be a Nugget in our eyes and we love him and we miss him.”
What’s Next
After it was a two-point game at halftime the Nuggets took control and limited the Magic in the second half of play outscoring them 59-48. Orlando now drops to 23-20 on the season falling down to the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference.