Orlando, FL — The Magic suffer back-to-back losses for the first time since January 26, and they lost to the Indiana Pacers tonight 111-97.
A rough night for the Magic who were looking to bounce back after arguably their worst game of the season at New York on Friday night where they scored 74 points, and it was all for not in front of the home crowd. What was a 15-point lead for the Magic in the first half was gone after a terrible defensive second half allowing the Pacers to score 64 points and 39 in the third quarter alone.
Orlando was down two of their guards Markelle Fultz (left knee strain) and Jalen Suggs (right thigh contusion) and their absence was felt. The Magic had little to no flow in their offensive rhythm and we’re not taking high-quality looks for a majority of the evening. Orlando also needed that defensive stopper on the perimeter versus Tyrese Haliburton and not having Suggs out there was costly for this team.
The Magic were in control of this game for the first half as they did a great job of out-rebounding the Pacers, being physical on both ends of the floor, and they had great contributions from their second unit headlined by both Joe Ingles and Mo Wagner. Orlando would lead the Pacers 50-47 going into the halftime locker room before the game got out of hand.
The defensive effort both in the half court and in transition was nearly non-existent tonight for the Magic, most notably in that third quarter. The Pacers went on to score 39 points and shoot a blistering 15-22 from the field (68.2%), all while playing elite defense limiting the Magic to 21 points and 0-9 from three in that period alone.
“A couple of turnovers here, and they got them on the fastbreak runouts.” Coach Mosley on the team’s lackluster third quarter. “Shots being missed, and then those are long shots with prolonged rebounds. And so they were able to get out on the break.”
Indiana was getting whatever they wanted in that third period running out in transition getting easy layups, wide-open uncontested dunks down the lane, and they forced Orlando into a lot ofbad looks with their shot attempts. The Pacers led the Magic by 15 going into the fourth quarter 86-71.
The Magic would rally late in the fourth cutting the deficit back to single digits 104-97 with 2:02 remaining in the game after Wendell Carter Jr had an alley-oop slam from Franz Wagner. The Pacers wouldn’t let the game slip away from them and they closed it out on a 7-0 run.
Orlando shot a horrid 33-88 from the field (37.5%) and 9-36 from deep (25%). This was the second game in a row where the Magic failed to shoot 40% or better from the field and didn’t score at least 100 points. Credit to the Pacers for their effort tonight, but Orlando wasn’t disciplined for the majority of the game and it cost them in the end.
“We had some live ball turnovers, and then they had dudes leaking out.” Cole Anthony when asked about the defensive effort tonight. “We just didn’t do a great job of having that sense of urgency to sprint back—That’s where he [Obi Toppin] just kinda just outran everyone and just got up the court.”
Orlando will have to wash this performance out of their memory quickly and look forward to their next game on Wednesday evening as they will play host to the Brooklyn Nets.
