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By John Denton
Jan. 25, 2016
MEMPHIS – Seemingly poised to finally capture the kind of gritty victory that could sling-shot their season back on track, the Orlando Magic suffered through the kind of disastrous 17-second stretch that has come far too often during this four-week skid.
Up four points with 17 seconds to play in regulation, Orlando surrendered a dunk, turned the ball over at the worst time possible and couldn’t get a stop in the final seconds. Predictably for a team that has seen so much go wrong of late, Orlando couldn’t ever get over the hump in the extra period and fell once again in excruciating fashion.
Orlando lost 108-102 to the Memphis Grizzlies in overtime, but it was the final seconds of regulation that was the root of the Magic’s misery on this night. The Magic needed a win in the worst of ways and seemed to have it right in their hands, but literally dropped the ball once again.
Crushed emotionally by the unravelling at the end of regulation, the Magic had little left for the overtime period. They missed eight of their first nine shots – three of them coming when Elfrid Payton, Victor Oladipo and Evan Fournier had wide-open 3-point shots.
Orlando (20-23) hasn’t won since Jan. 8 and has lost six straight games. Once 19-13 and quickly becoming one of the NBA’s feel-good stories of the season, the Magic have dropped 10 of the last 11 games since the start of 2016.
Orlando seemed almost certain to win the game in regulation when it took a 100-96 lead with 17 seconds to play. The Magic got a tough driving layup from Payton and a fastbreak layup from Harris to go up four.
However, after Memphis got within two, Harris couldn’t hang onto an in-bounds pass with 11 seconds remaining and the loose ball was scooped up by Memphis point guard Mike Conley.
Conley got the ball to Jeff Green, who drilled a hook shot with 1.3 remaining to knot the game at 100. Vucevic got off a 22-foot shot just before the buzzer, but it was offline, sending the game into overtime.
Magic center Nikola Vucevic played well against Memphis’ massive front line, scoring 16 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Evan Fournier was solid off the bench a second straight game with 16 points and four 3-pointers.
Tobias Harris chipped in 16 points, while Elfrid Payton added 14 points.
Magic guard Victor Oladipo came into the game on one of the best shooting tears of his NBA career, but he struggled through a five-point night. In his previous six games, Oladipo had made 47 of 86 shots (54.7 percent) and 23 of 35 3-pointers (65.7 percent) while averaging 21.8 points per game. However, Oladipo made just one of 10 shots and missed all four of his 3-point shots on Monday.
Green, who has been one of the NBA’s most inconsistent players for years with his flashes of greatness and streaks of sluggish play, scored 30 points on 11 of 18 shooting. He had two thunderous dunks in transition and drilled the tying shot at the end of regulation to crush the spirits of the Magic. He added seven rebounds.
Memphis got 17 points from center Marc Gasol and 18 points and 13 rebounds from power forward Zach Randolph. Former Magic guard Courtney Lee chipped in 16 points and three 3-pointers.
Orlando was playing its first game since Friday’s 120-116 overtime loss to the Charlotte Hornets. That loss was especially crushing considering that the Magic led by as much as 19 points and was up 18 points with 10 minutes to play.
Monday’s game was the first of a three-game road trip for the Magic. Orlando will be in action again on Tuesday in Milwaukee when it faces the Bucks and returning head coach Jason Kidd. The Magic whipped the Bucks 114-90 in Orlando on Nov. 27.
Orlando will be in Boston for three days and won’t face the Celtics until Friday night. The two teams will then play again on Sunday – this time at Orlando’s Amway Center.
Up one at the half, the Magic took the same advantage into the fourth quarter thanks to a clutch shot from Fournier. When the Magic guard drilled a 27-foot 3-pointer over Gasol’s outstretched arm, it gave Orlando an 81-80 edge at the end of three periods.
The Magic were fortunate to still be in the game after missing six of their first seven shots of the second half. Also, the Magic kicked the ball away six times in the third quarter, but it stayed close by continuing to fight defensively.
Orlando led 65-64 at the half, but only after a Memphis tip-in shot was ruled to have come after the end-of–period buzzer. The Magic led by as much as nine points in the first half, but had to weather an 11-4 Memphis run late in the second quarter to hang onto the lead.
The Magic probably should have had a big lead considering that they made 55.8 percent of their shots and a whopping eight 3-pointers in the first two quarters. The problem, however, is that Orlando kicked the ball away eight times, leading to 15 points for Memphis.
Orlando heeded the wishes of Skiles early on, pushing the pace against the plodding Grizzlies. They had 10 fast break points early on and used 16 assists to set up their 24 field goals in the first half.
Ten players scored in the first half for the Magic – a sign of their stellar ball movement. Four Magic players hit threes early on led by Harris, two 3-pointers and 11 first-half points.
One play that was symbolic of the energy that the Magic played with early on came midway through the second quarter. Power forward Jason Smith chased down a loose ball and poked it to teammate Evan Fournier as he was being forced out of bounds. Fournier found Channing Frye, who finished a dunk as he was fouled. The hustling sequence brought the Magic’s players up off the bench to celebrate the stellar effort.
