Magic surrender latest double-digit lead to Rockets: ‘We’re better than that’
· Yahoo Sports
By halftime of Thursday’s matchup between Orlando and Houston inside Kia Center, the Magic had the Rockets right where they wanted them.
Jamahl Mosley‘s squad led by 10 points at the break, had scored 14 points off 10 Houston turnovers and limited the Rockets to just 1-for-11 shooting from 3-point range.
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That momentum — built largely behind the Magic taking care of the ball themselves with only five first-half turnovers for just four Houston points — even continued into much of the third quarter.
Desmond Bane, who hit his first five triples of the night, was beginning to attack the rim with success. Tristan da Silva had gotten in on the offensive action with a pair of 3-pointers after a quiet first half. Paolo Banchero‘s fastbreak dunk increased Orlando’s lead to 19 points with 5:04 left in the third frame.
Then disaster struck.
From the 4:56 mark of the third quarter to the 1:33 mark of the frame, the Rockets went from down 19 points to up two points, thanks to a 21-0 run that flipped the script in their favor.
In what’s become a reoccurring issue for the Magic, they surrendered yet another double-digit lead and ultimately fell at home 113-108.
“I thought we just got sloppy in the third,” Banchero said in the locker room after the five-point loss. “That was just tough. You can’t give up runs like that. I don’t even know if we scored in that last three minutes (of the quarter).
“We’ve just got to get better playing with leads,” he added. “I think it’s something that’s been kind of killing us really all the years. Like, we get up, especially against good teams, we get up double digits, and we just get like super lackadaisical on both sides, waste possessions that leads to threes and buckets, and when teams are storming back like that, every basket feels like five points. So, that was a tough collapse as a team.”
To Banchero’s point, Thursday’s loss to Houston was Orlando’s 10th game of the season in which it led by 10 or more points and didn’t win. Last season, the Magic had 13 such instances, and the year before that six.
In a matter of minutes, the Rockets changed the outcome by forcing Magic turnovers, scoring off of them and suddenly connecting from distance.
Jalen Suggs, who made his return from injury after missing the last three games due to a back injury, was responsible for three of Orlando’s five turnovers that led to 13 Houston points in the third frame. And Houston’s Reed Sheppard, who didn’t even attempt a single 3-pointer in the first half, shot 3-for-4 from beyond the arc in the third quarter.
And although the game itself was tied with under five minutes to play — and Orlando even led by one with 3:23 remaining in the fourth — the damage had already been done.
“We (saw) that it was going south and everybody just came in and locked in,” said Rockets forward Kevin Durant, who scored 40 points on the second night of a back-to-back. “I fed off of everybody else’s energy, to be honest, because I was in the game when we were down big.
“Once coach made a couple subs and adjustments on the defensive side of the ball, that inspired me to want to go out there and play even harder,” he added. “It is a group effort every night.”
A similar group effort that put the Magic ahead by double digits earlier was something Orlando lacked as the Rockets stormed back.
After the Magic shot 8-for-17 (47.1%) from 3-point range in the first half, they shot 2-for-7 (28.6%) in the third quarter.
In addition, Orlando only got two second-chance opportunities to score in the third frame after it notched 18 second-chance points on nine chances in the first half.
And as the Magic struggled, Houston thrived. It shot 4-for-9 (44.4%) from distance in the third quarter and scored seven second-chance points in the frame after recording zero in the opening half.
So, how can Orlando avoid that from happening again in the future?
“Attacking what’s working,” recently acquired Magic guard Jevon Carter said. “As easy as it sounds, just staying with it. I feel like once we get leads, we get a little selfish.
“Once we get those leads, we’ve just got to keep attacking what’s working instead of worrying about if we’re having a good night, bad night, ‘Let me get my stats,’ you know? Just sticking together,” he added.
Banchero shared a similar sentiment.
“It shouldn’t be difficult, really,” he said about playing with a lead. “Once you’re up, especially against, as I said good teams, that’s when you’ve got to harp on the basics. … You have to really emphasize that once you are up.
“Because that’s what got us up,” he added. “(It) was playing defense, moving the ball and getting good shots. Once you get up, it’s like, you can’t get comfortable. You can’t stay just being willy-nilly. You’ve got get out and be even more sharp and put them away.”
The loss, however, combined with a 76ers win over the Heat, moved Orlando (31-27) back from half-a-game to 1 1/2 games behind No. 6 Philadelphia (33-26) and just a game in front of No. 8 Miami (31-29) in the East.
But confidence remains steady in the Magic locker room as the team shifts its focus to the top-seeded Pistons on Sunday. Detroit was 8-2 in its past 10 games, entering Friday’s matchup with No. 4 Cleveland.
“We’re better than that,” veteran forward Jonathan Isaac told the Orlando Sentinel after Houston completed its comeback.
“We’re the team that went up 19, not the team that gave it away.”
Jason Beede can be reached at [email protected]
Up next …
Magic vs. Pistons
When: 6 p.m., Sunday, Kia Center
TV: FanDuel Sports Network Florida