The defense was nowhere to be found for the Orlando Magic tonight as they fall to the Indiana Pacers by the final score of 127-112.
“It was a disappointing performance by our guys,” Orlando Magic head Coach Frank Vogel said. “We were terrible on the defensive end, and they were challenged after timeouts and every huddle and at halftime to raise their level and we never got them so credit the Pacers for playing a great game.”
It started in the first quarter where both teams were trading baskets back and forth. The Pacers offense was getting anything that they wanted on the floor. They scored 39 points in the quarter and 68 in the half. The Pacers shot an astonishing 60.9% in the half. You can tell that Coach Vogel was not pleased when he was asked what he saw in the defense tonight.
“I rather not get too much into detail,” Vogel said. “We were poor all the way across the board.”
Paul George was getting anything that he wanted in the first half. He just could not be stopped in that half. He scored 22 points in the first half on 8-11 shooting, 37 points for the game and just gave the Pacers momentum that they needed in the first half to continue their great offense into the second half.
The second half of the game was pretty much the same. The Pacers got to the 99 points by the end of the third quarter off a Lance Stephenson buzzer beater. After that shot, Lance was being Lance again doing a foolish dance after the shot.
Now the Magic’s offense, on the other hand, had the ‘Magic’ going. They were getting whatever they wanted as well in the half. They shot 48.9% in the half, 53.8% from the three-point line and scored 59 points in the half, 112 for the game.
Terrence Ross had a big part of why the Magic was successful on offense. He had 29 points for the game and has been a good edition since being traded to the Magic.
“Terrence has been great since the day he’s stepped foot in this building,” Vogel said. “On both ends of the floor. Offensively really carrying the load for us. He’s capable of getting hot like we saw tonight and he’s very versatile on the offensive end. He’s a shooter that can make plays off the bounce, you can use the pick in roll, you can use him off screens, he attacks in the open court, he can attack with the basketball in the open court, he can finish off the basketball and he was a great pickup for us midseason.”
With the loss, the Magic now go to 28-52 on the season and will travel to play the Chicago Bulls next on Monday. This year may be rough for the Magic but Coach Vogel is looking forward to the future when he said this.
“I look forward to the days where we’re the team that’s kicking people’s butts in the playoffs. Looking forward to that.”
