Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Orlando Magic. All opinions expressed by John Denton are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Orlando Magic or their Basketball Operations staff, partners or sponsors.
By John Denton
Feb. 1, 2016
SAN ANTONIO – Showing plenty of heart and fight in the face of enormous odds, the Orlando Magic rallied from a disastrous start and stood toe to toe with the mighty San Antonio Spurs for three quarters of Monday night’s game.
Then, the Spurs did what they have done all throughout their historic home run thus far – they turned up the heat in the fourth quarter and suffocated the hopeful Magic. For a 24th time in 26 home games – all victories – San Antonio never trailed in the fourth quarter. This time, the Spurs quelled an Orlando rally with huge fourth-quarter shots from unlikely heroes Patty Mills and Kyle Anderson to defeat the Magic 107-92.
Orlando (21-26) fell behind 14-0 at the start of the game, but sent a brief scare into San Antonio (40-8) by surging into the lead three different times in the third period. However, the Magic started the fourth period down five and saw the game get away from them when the Spurs ripped off an 18-8 run.
San Antonio improved to 26-0 at home – something that it never did in championship years of 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014. The Spurs, which have now won 35 straight home games dating back to last season, have used a similar formula throughout the 2015-15 season, allowing their veteran savvy to take over in the fourth quarter. San Antonio has trailed just 121 seconds all season in the fourth quarter of games at the AT&T Center all season.
“It’s a great team and they know what they’re doing out there,” Magic coach Scott Skiles said. “They’re not going to make mistakes. Yes, you can shoot a gap, get a steal and make a layup, but it’s not going to happen again. They’re not going to make mistakes. And because they play the style that they’ve had with constant player and ball movement, they’re going to find a weak link out there if it’s out there and expose it.”
Orlando got inspired efforts from center Nikola Vucevic (20 points and 10 rebounds), guard Victor Oladipo (19 points, seven assists and five steals) and forward Aaron Gordon (12 points and a career-best 16 rebounds) to keep the game close.
Orlando held a 51-42 edge on the glass and had a whopping 19 offensive rebounds. Their work on the offensive glass gave them 18 more field goal tries, but the Magic were unable to take advantage because they shot just 40.6 percent from the floor. San Antonio shot 51.3 percent, had four more 3-pointers and a nine-point edge from the free throw line.
LaMarcus Aldridge made nine of 13 shots and scored 28 for the Spurs, which were without veteran forward Tim Duncan. Mills scored 22 points and made three threes off the bench, while Anderson chipped in 13 points.
The Magic were playing for a second time in as many nights after whipping the Boston Celtics 119-114 on Sunday at the Amway Center. That win snapped an eight-game losing streak and proved to be Orlando’s second victory of January – a somewhat shocking statistic considering that the franchise racked up 10 victories in December.
After playing in Orlando on Sunday and in San Antonio on Monday, the Magic will get a much-needed day off on Tuesday. They will then face Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night. The Magic and Thunder staged one of the NBA’s best games of the season on Oct. 30 – a 139-136 win by OKC in double overtime. That night, Westbrook banked in a half-court shot at the end of regulation, while Magic guard Victor Oladipo drilled a tying 3-point shot just before the horn in the first OT.
Up 75-70 at the start of the fourth, San Antonio got seven points from Anderson. A Mills layup and a four-point play broke the game open.
Down just eight at the half after trailing by as much as 18 at one point, Orlando started the second half with a burst that caught the Spurs by surprise. Oladipo twice stripped Danny Green, resulting in a dunk and two free throws. A 10-2 run by the Magic to start the third period sent San Antonio into a timeout and an Oladipo layup minutes later gave Orlando its first lead of the night at 56-55.
Orlando led three different times in the third period, but never by more than a basket. The Magic stayed close because of a 41-32 edge on the glass, including a whopping 16 offensive boards.
San Antonio moved back ahead, 75-70, by the start of the fourth quarter – an ominous fact considering that the Spurs had only trailed 2 minutes, 1 seconds of a possible 300 fourth-quarter minutes before Monday night. In 23 of their first 25 home games, the Spurs never lost the lead in the fourth quarter.
Already facing enormous odds, the Magic got off to a disastrous start and found themselves in a 14-0 hole just 3:30 into the game. That nightmarish start to the game came, in large part, because Orlando missed its first seven shots.
But the Magic refused to cave to human nature following the bad start and they got back to within 52-44 by halftime. Despite making just 37.7 percent of its shots, Orlando was within striking distance by outrebounding the Spurs 28-23 in the first half.
Vucevic and Gordon were especially active on the glass, grabbing five and four offensive boards in the first half. Vucevic had his troubles guarding Aldridge (16 first-half points), but he played well on the offensive end with 12 points and seven rebounds.
Coming off a Sunday performance in which he equaled his career high in scoring (19 points) and set a new career high for rebounds (14), Gordon had eight points and seven boards in the first 24 minutes of the game.
Veteran power forward Channing Frye didn’t play on Sunday as the Magic went with center Dewayne Dedmon for his shot-blocking abilities. Frye came off the bench and scored seven first-half points on Monday. He drilled a long jumper just before the horn to get the Magic within 35-24 by the end of the first quarter, and he had a deep 3-pointer early in the second period.
San Antonio played nearly flawless basketball in the early going, handing out 11 assists to set up its first 15 field goals. Nine Spurs had at least one assist in the first half.
