Coming off a thrilling win last night the Orlando Magic seemed a bit sluggish Monday night against host the Detroit Pistons.
Dwight Howard led the Orlando Magic with 19 points only scoring 7 in the second half. The Magic seemed a bit worn down from travel but Dwight was having none of that.
“We can’t make any excuses,” Howard said. “They played harder than we did, and that’s why we lost.”
In the first half the Pistons found themselves in foul trouble trying to defend Howard.
Greg Monroe picked up his second foul only 4:55 minutes into the game and his replacement Jason Maxwell had four by the end of the first half.
Ben Gordon’s 17 first half points kept the Pistons in the game, the Magic would take a 46-44 lead into the half.
The second half would prove to be all Pistons, out scoring the Magic 45-32 and holding them to just 44% shooting from the field and 36% from the arc.
Ryan Anderson and Hedu Turkoglu both finished with 13 points. Anderson only shot 1-5 from deep struggling to find any kind of rhythm.
Magic coach Stan Van Gundy was less worried about the lack of offense by his team but the lack of defensive effort they showed.
“We didn’t play any defense and we didn’t rebound. I think we ran out of gas offensively, but we never made any commitment to defense,” coach Gundy said. “I’m amazed we were even in shouting distance down the stretch.”
Ben Gordon lead all scorers with 26 points followed by Rodney Stuckey’s 14.
Frank in his first season as the Pistons head coach was pleased by the effort of his team.
“It’s another step in a season where we’re going to have to continue to take many, many steps to get to where we want to go,” Frank said. “For tonight, it’s definitely a step in a positive direction.”
Orlando (4-2) will get a day off before hosting the Washington Wizards Wednesday night at 7pm.
