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By John DentonApril 8, 2016
ORLANDO – The Orlando Magic were already well aware that Aaron Gordon was a tough player. On Wednesday, the team got another reminder of that with the grit and determination that the rugged forward showed.
Gordon was hit in the left side of his head by an accidental elbow from teammate Jason Smith, but he stayed in the game and finished out Orlando’s frustrating 108-104 loss to the Detroit Pistons. When headaches sat in after the game, Gordon was diagnosed with a concussion that could knock him out the rest of the season.
“He was a feeling a little bit better (Thursday) night when we communicated and I thought maybe he might come in tonight but (doctors) felt like it was better for him to stay away from any sort of stimulation,” Magic coach Scott Skiles said. “We’ll see (how he responds), but it’s just kind of day-to-day with him.”
Gordon, 20, must now adhere to the guidelines of the NBA’s concussion protocol, meaning he will have to pass a series of tests before being allowed to resume basketball-related activities. He won’t play tonight when the Magic (33-45) host the Miami Heat (46-32) at the Amway Center, and his second season in the NBA could be done with three games remaining following this one.
Gordon ended up playing 32 minutes, giving the Magic six points, six rebounds, four assists and some solid defense. Gordon could have been the hero of the game, but his potential tying 3-point shot rattled out with 2:03 to play.
Two of Gordon’s teammates, Victor Oladipo and Nikola Vucevic, had sustained concussions in recent seasons and they were impressed how the young forward was able to play through the fogginess and pain that he had to be feeling.
“He’s a tough kid, first off, and he can obviously take a hit,” said Oladipo, who missed two games in November after he collided with teammate Dewayne Dedmon and suffered a concussion. “I’m definitely helping him and trying to let him know what he has to do as far as not being in a room with any lights on. I’ve been through it. It’s not fun, but he’s got to get healthy.”
Orlando will have to try and bounce back from Wednesday’s frustrating loss without Gordon, who has consistently been one of its best one-on-one defenders all season. The Magic saw a stirring stretch of four wins in five games come to an end in the frustrating 108-104 loss to the Pistons. In that game, the Magic led by four points with 4:36 to play, but they yielded a 9-0 burst to the Pistons and they were unable to get over the hump down the stretch.
Miami, which has already beaten the Magic twice this season and has dominated the head-to-head series much of the past six seasons, comes into tonight’s game with a lot riding on the outcome. The Heat are tied with Boston (46-32) for the fourth and fifth slots and they trail the Atlanta Hawks (47-32) by a half game. While getting up to the third seed is important because of playoff pairings, Miami does not want to fall all the way to fifth and have to open the postseason as a road team.
With tonight’s game in Orlando and a rematch in Miami on Sunday, the Magic could play a big role in the Heat’s fate in the playoffs.
“It can be a lot of fun. We’re 0-2 against them and we want to tie up the series,” Magic guard Evan Fournier said. “We’ve struggled against them in the past and we’re going to give everything tonight.”
Ersan Ilyasova will start at power forward in the place of Gordon, while center Nikola Vucevic will return to the starting lineup as well. Vucevic missed 13 games from March 7-30 with a strained right groin and then was used as a reserve for four games – with much success. Vucevic opened Wednesday’s game as a reserve, but was used as a starter when the second half began.
Vucevic suffered two concussions in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons – once following a collision with former Indiana center Roy Hibbert and another following a hard fall to the floor when he was upended by Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin. Vucevic said that recovering from a concussion is tricky because it is unlike dealing with any other kind of injury.
“It’s tough because you really cannot do anything at all and you have to really rest, you can’t be on your phone, you can’t watch TV and you can’t do anything at all,” Vucevic said. “You have to rest your brain and that’s hard to do. You have to be smart because that’s something you can’t play with at all until it’s 100 percent. … It’s sort of different than when you strain a muscle or twist an ankle. Then, you can try to play through it. But this is your brain and you’re going to need it for awhile.”
Skiles didn’t rule Gordon out for the rest of the season, saying that if he is cleared by the NBA’s independent doctors to resume basketball-related duties in time that he will play. The 6-foot-9, 220-pound Gordon has played in 77 of 78 games, starting 37 of them. He’s averaged 9.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists a game.
“We’ll just have to see (how he responds). If somehow he were to be past it (Saturday) afternoon hypothetically there’s no reason he couldn’t resume activity,” Skiles said. “But also there’s no reason to be rushing him back if he isn’t 100 percent, completely clear. That’s not something you want to be messing around with.”
