Orlando Magic lose to Washington Wizards 108-99

By Neal Nachman
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Updated: November 15, 2015

Since Orlando hired Scott Skiles as its coach in late May, the Magic have talked about turning their youth into a strength. In theory, the Magic ought to outrun opponents up and down the floor, and use their speed and endurance to make up for their lack of experience.

On Saturday night, they started the first and third quarters against the Washington Wizards with a 21-year-old point guard, a 23-year-old shooting guard, a 23-year-old small forward, a 32-year-old power forward and a 25-year-old center.

So what Skiles witnessed at the beginning of Saturday’s third quarter — like the opening minutes of so many other third quarters already this season — concerns him. The Magic sometimes looked as if their feet were caught in cement, and the Wizards sped by them with ease. Within just a few minutes, Washington turned a six-point halftime deficit into 63-60 lead.

“I don’t understand why we look so fatigued sometimes at the start of the third,” Skiles said. “We just look like we’re just out of gas and we’re just kind of lumbering up and down the floor. They were just sprinting by us over and over again just laying the ball in the basket.”

That perplexing problem, and a few others, led to a 108-99 loss to the Wizards.

John Wall shredded them, scoring 12 of his 15 points in the second half. Kris Humphries rained down one 3-pointer after another, especially in the closing minutes. And the Magic, hounded by the Wizards’ on-ball pressure on the perimeter, resorted to too much dribbling and abandoned the ball movement that had been so effective in the game’s early going.
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“I feel like I’m saying the same thing every night,” Magic swingman Evan Fournier said. “Once again, they picked up their energy, and we made some mistakes that we shouldn’t have made. It’s frustrating. But once again, we were in the game. We’ve got to close it out.”

The Magic took a 90-86 lead with 5:30 to go before they surrendered eight consecutive points.

Humphries sank a trey from the right corner that put Washington ahead 92-90 with 4:45 left, and the Wizards never trailed again. Humphries preserved the victory by sinking a wide-open trey from the top of the arc with just over a minute remaining, extending the Wizards’ lead to 104-99.

“It’s just difficult,” forward Aaron Gordon said. “I take a lot of it: Kris Humphries got free. He made three 3s and nothing but net. I did my best to contest, but I’ve got to do better.”

The Magic now have lost 10 consecutive games to the Wizards, a division rival.

“They’re better than we are,” Skiles said. “They don’t win as many games against us over and over and over again and not be better than us. They’re better than we are. But we should be the ones flying down the floor in the third quarter and converting with speed instead of them doing it to us.”

Skiles knows all of the potential reasons for his team’s early third-quarter doldrums. Wall is one of the fastest players in the NBA. The Magic (5-6) were playing on the second night of a back-to-back while the Wizards (4-4) hadn’t played since Tuesday.

Perhaps those excuses would gain traction with Skiles if he hadn’t seen the same early third-quarter script repeat itself so often already.

So how do they begin the second halves of games with more energy?

“I don’t know,” said Nik Vucevic, who scored 19 points and collected 13 rebounds, both team highs. “Maybe make sure that we stay focused, that we don’t relax just because we have a lead and expect the other team to just come out and let us play the way we did in the first half.”

If only it were that easy.

“We can’t be complacent,” Gordon said.