By Alex Fleming
The Orlando Magic can’t catch a break since their 4-0 start. Since the injury of markelle Fultz, the Orlando Magic have not been the same. Since the New year’s Eve massacre, the Orlando Magic are 6-17; and depleted. Due to injuries, the road trip has been a teaching tool for Coach Clifford and his team to get closer and communicate. It’s easy to judge a below .500 team, unless there’s a devil in the details.
Aaron Gordon, Evan Fournier, Al-Farouq Aminu, and Cole Anthony are all missing games due to injuries. With the aforementioned Fultz on IR, the Orlando Magic had 8 active bodies against the Phoenix Suns on Sunday. Ironically, Orlando held its own. From starter to starter, the Orlando Magic was only outscored by four points. Both teams shot horribly from the three-point line, but Orlando’s starter Gary Clark didn’t score a point. Nikola Vucevic had his double-double, with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Dwayne Bacon contributed 19 off of 50% shooting (0-6 from 3), and Terrence Ross lead the team with 23 points (9-23 from the field). The Orlando Magic only had three active bodies coming off of the bench. Chuma Okeke, Khem Birch, and Mo Bamba gave 20 points and 21 rebounds as counterpunches to the Sun’s available depth. Birch explained in the post game that it was difficult to contend with all of the fresh bodies the Sun’s were bringing off of the bench. ” It’s hard to compete against a good roster with 14 guys coming at you. You just do the best you can.”
Phoenix played their advantages to a t. Devin Booker let all scorers with 27 points. Shooting 10-16 from the field, Booker didn’t need to have a Herculean effort: his team is healthy. Mikal Bridges poured in 21 points and was 3-5 from deep; although the Sun’s shot 32.1% from beyond the arc (12-37). Sadly, they hit twice as many 3’s than the Magic did (6-35), who shot an abysmal 17%. Chris Paul played a well-rounded game with 12 points, 9 assists and 6 rebounds. DeAndre Ayton matched Vucevic statewide with his own double-double; scoring 10 points and pulling down 13 rebounds.
The difference in this game was the bench. The Orlando Magic bench scored a total of 20 points. The Phoenix Suns 9 man bench, led by Jae Crowder’s 12 points, scored 35. The war of attrition took place, and spread out minutes led to fresh legs for the Phoenix starters, who only outscored the Magic starters by 4 points (74-70). Rebounding edge took its toll as well, as the Orlando Magic were outrebounded by 11; 59-48.
The Orlando Magic return from the road trip to host a home game Wednesday against Thom Thibedou and his defensive-leading Knicks. Now at 10-18, the Magic need to get healthy and regroup, before the season slips away.
