Perimeter fouls hurt Magic
SALT LAKE CITY — As the Orlando Magic try to determine what caused them to lose a late fourthquarter lead Saturday night and fall to the Utah Jazz 114-107, one solution presents itself immediately.
Don’t foul 3-point shooters.
The Magic did that twice during the game’s final six minutes.
Orlando led Utah 97-95 when fouled
as Hill launched a trey with 5:11 remaining. Hill sank two of his three free-throw attempts.
“It was tough,” Payton said. “You try to do your best to get into the ball and fight over these screens, and guys are getting good at when they feel that contact just rising up, and the officials are giving them that call.”
Then, with the Magic ahead 102-97 with 3:07 left, fouled as Hayward launched a 3-pointer. Hayward sank all three foul shots to cut the lead to two points.
“You’re not supposed to do that,” Gordon said. “That’s a cardinal sin throughout the entire game, and just to do it in the fourth quarter twice [was a mistake]. And then there’s a couple of other things, other breakdowns, that we could have easily not done. Had we not done those things, we would have won the game.”
Avoiding a foul on a 3-point shooter is trickier in reality than it appears in theory, of course. Defenses never want to give up uncontested 3s, unless those 3s come from terrible longrange shooters.
“We never want to foul 3-point shooters — ever,” Magic coach said. “But in this league, you’ve got great scorers that are good at jumping in and embellishing contact and getting whistles. So you’ve got to have great discipline and you can’t touch shooters.”
The Magic scored 42 first-quarter points against the Jazz — a significant achievement considering that the Jazz entered the night first in the NBA in defensive efficiency and first in field-goal percentage defense.
Orlando, particularly Payton, made a concerted effort to push the ball upcourt at every opportunity, even after Utah made baskets.
But the Magic’s pace slowed down as the game went on.
The primary reason, Vogel said, was fatigue.
“In a game like this, with both teams playing on the second night of a back-toback, you’re typically not going to sustain that pace in the fourth quarter,” Vogel said. “It became a half-court game at that point, and that’s what happened.”
Payton finished the night with a career-best 28 points on 10-of-17 shooting.
The Magic will play their third game in four days when they face the Denver Nuggets today in Denver.
But Orlando still may have a rest advantage. The reason? The Nuggets played London on Thursday. in
Although the Nuggets have not played since they clobbered the Indiana Pacers in England, the impact of an overseas trip can be felt for days afterward.
The Magic understand that firsthand.
On Jan. 14, 2016, they lost to the Toronto Raptors 106-103 in London.
The Magic didn’t play again until Jan. 18, and they lost to the Atlanta Hawks 98-81 in Atlanta.
The London loss was the second defeat in what became an eight-game losing streak.
Many players on the 2015-16 Magic roster felt like their trip to England contributed to their slide.