Poor Showing in Orlando

Orlando, FL— The Magic have officially wrapped up their seven-game homestand as they lost to the Chicago Bulls tonight 125-123.

Magic Crumble in Final Minutes

Orlando had their chances tonight to put this game away but simply couldn’t do it. At one point the Magic led by as much as nine points in the fourth quarter and they had a three point lead with 2:54 left in the game.

Bulls guard Coby White scored the final seven points for the Bulls in the last three minutes of regulation to lead them to victory. White scored 17 of Chicago’s 29 points in that fourth quarter and was nearly unstoppable. 

“I mean, just contain him. He’s a great player,” KCP on Coby White. “He was getting to the basket when he was getting these layups where we missed low man help and his pull-up threes. Most of ’em was wide open, but he’s a great shooter. He just put the ball in the basket tonight.”

With 14 seconds left, on the final possession, Franz Wagner kicked the ball to Paolo Banchero for a wide-open three that came off the rim. Wendell Carter Jr grabbed the offensive rebound with 2.1 seconds but couldn’t put the ball back in the hoop in time as the clock had expired. 

“I thought P [Paolo] was going to knock that down,” Wendell Carter Jr on the final possession. “When that came off, I thought I had enough time to come down with it and go back up. Probably should’ve just did a putback.”

Jamahl Mosley added: “I think Coby White runs through Franz to get the ball and at that moment there was 5.6 [seconds] on the clock,” Jamahl Molsey if he considered taking a timeout on that final possession. “I wanted to turn and look at a timeout — But in that situation, I did think about calling the timeout, but we had gotten an open look and an open offensive rebound.”

Why the Magic Lost Tonight

Mosley attributed tonight’s loss to the lack of defense and the Bulls dominating the offensive boards. 

“We gave up 69 points in the first half, gave up 13 offensive rebounds,” Mosley said. “I think that’s a big portion of it. And then Coby White got going, but again, that was that first-half defense that kind of put us, set us back a little bit.”

Tonight’s game versus Chicago was one of the three games rescheduled by the NBA for Orlando due to the impact of the wildfires in California. The game was originally scheduled on Wednesday, March 12 but was now played on Thursday, March 6th.

Injury Report

Chicago came into this matchup very thin as they were missing Lonzo Ball (right wrist sprain), Nikola Vucevic (right calf strain), Patrick Williams (right quad tendon) and Ayo Dosunmo (left shoulder) underwent season-ending surgery. 

For the Magic Cole Anthony (toe) was upgraded to available and Jonathan Isaac (illness) was ruled out about an hour prior to tipoff. 

Final Numbers

Orlando’s losses over this stretch have been very frustrating and tonight’s performance was no different. The Magic once again struggled shooting from distance as they shot 9 of 30 (27.3 percent) and allowed a depleted Bulls team to score 125 points. 

Coby White led all scorers with 44 points while shooting 57.1 percent from the floor and connecting on seven made three-pointers. 

On a positive note, all five of the Magic’s starters scored in double figures. Paolo Banchero (20 points), Franz Wagner (18 points), Cole Anthony (20 points), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (19 points), and Wendell Carter Jr (17 points).

Orlando has dropped to 29-35 on the season and this marks their fifth straight loss. The Magic will now prepare to embark on a five game road trip starting in Milwaukee on Saturday March 8th.