Hail to the King! Unfortunately that was the cry Wednesday night at the Amway Center. After pushing and shoving, the Magic struggled, shooting 28-percent from the 3-point line and losing to the Sacramento Kings 111-105.
“I’m not happy with anything other than Dwight right now,” said Magic Coach, Stan Van Gundy. “I’m not happy with anything.”
Strong words for a team that has everything they need to come home with a championship ring. Sacramento had everything against them, with point guard Tyreke Evans out due to an injury, it was up to Central Florida’s own Jermaine Taylor to shine…and that he did, with a career high of 21 points. With only three wins in 11 games, the odds favored Orlando and with only 23 games left until the playoffs, there is no time to play around. So what happened?
The Magic started slow and let the Kings take the lead right off the bat, making Van Gundy call a timeout in the first three minutes of the quarter. But with one of the weakest defenses of the East, the Magic struggled and trailed behind by as much as nine points.
It wasn’t until the second quarter that the team started to show what they are made of. It wasn’t for lack of beautiful plays. JJ Redick off the bench helped Orlando tie the game 46-46 sinking two from behind the 3-point line, followed by a dunk from Dwight Howard to take the lead. It seemed they were off and ready to go. They closed the quarter four points ahead.
The Magic took the wining spirit and carried it through most of the third quarter. Beautiful passes and two blocks from Howard made the crowd go wild. Howard with a beautiful dunk with one-minute left is only outshined by Jason Richardson, who made a 19-foot two point shot with 10 seconds on the ticker. But one thing was starting to become a problem, turnovers.
Orlando continued to hold on in the first few minutes of the fourth. But the Magic was shooting less then 50-percent from the field and with 17 turnovers; it was the boost Sacramento needed to pull ahead in the fourth. By the time the official timeout was called with five minutes left, the game was tied 96-96. With three minutes left, Sacramento had the lead.
The Magic pulled within two points again with the help of Nelson. Orlando called three timeouts in less then a minute but in the end, even Turkoglu’a 23-foot three-point jumper in the last seven seconds didn’t help.
“We shot 35-percent in the second half, went five for 20 from three. Turned the ball over, so it wasn’t just defense. We didn’t defend, we didn’t play well offensively, we didn’t rebound and we didn’t take care of the ball. I don’t know how much more complete you can be in playing poorly,” Van Gundy said.
Howard who finished the game with 31 points and 17 rebounds was not happy and said it’s time for the team to step up or move on, but something has to change.
“We’ve been talking for a long time, that’s all we seem to do,” Howard said. “We just can’t have guys or anybody out there not playing hard. We’re professional athletes. This is what we do for a living. If you can’t go out there and go hard for two hours, then you shouldn’t be playing.”
Hedo Turkoglu contributed to the scoreboard with 19 points and Nelson helped with 15. The Magic play again at Home this Friday against the Oklahoma Thunder.
By Fernanda Barros
West Orlando News Online
