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Magic give up 11-point lead in 4th quarter, lose to Blazers 112-103

To understand some of what ails the Orlando Magic, just find footage of their fourth quarter Thursday against the Portland Trail Blazers.

You’ll immediately understand what Magic coach Frank Vogel means when he says his team needs to “learn how to win.”

The Magic led the Trail Blazers by 11 points early in the fourth quarter.

And the Magic coughed up that lead.

“Up nine, or whatever we were in the fourth quarter at home, you should win that game,” Vogel said. “That’s actually exactly what I’m talking about. You’ve got to put together a complete game. But in certain situations, you’ve got to step on an opponent when you’ve got him down and you’ve got make those plays when you’re up. We didn’t do that tonight. That’s been a problem with our organization, our franchise, our team.”

The Magic lost to the Blazers 112-103 at Amway Center.

Was it a heartbreaker? No.

But it was an awful way to start the unofficial second half of the season and to welcome newcomer Terrence Ross.

“Especially when you have a lead like that, you don’t want to give them any kind of steam to get going,” Ross said. “They just kind of took off, and we just made a couple of slip-ups in the fourth.”

Ross put Orlando ahead 91-80 when he drained a 3-pointer with 9:07 remaining. The game seemed over, and perhaps Magic players thought they had an insurmountable lead.

The advantage evaporated through a combination of poor shooting, communication lapses and hot shooting by the Blazers’ star player, point guard Damian Lillard.

Lillard scored 17 of his game-high 33 points in the final period.

“I didn’t think we really respected, quite frankly, Damian Lillard’s ability in the fourth quarter,” Vogel said. “When he’s down, he’s going to come out and take over a game, and that’s what stars do. We didn’t respect that and certainly do a good enough job against it.”

The Magic cut the Blazers’ lead to 105-103 on a layup by Nikola Vucevic with 1:55 to go.

On the ensuing possession, however, former Magic forward Maurice Harkless received a pass on the left wing and knocked down a 3-pointer.

Another Magic cast-off, point guard Shabazz Napier, came off the Blazers’ bench to score 10 points, collect seven rebounds and dish out six assists.

“It was a really good way to start the last part of the season,” Portland coach Terry Stotts said. “It was a gutty win.”

Ross and a 2017 first-round draft pick were the Magic’s lone additions before the trade deadline — the return for sending power forward Serge Ibaka to the Toronto Raptors on Feb. 14.

Vogel put Ross in the starting lineup, and Ross totaled 13 points on 4-of-17 shooting. Despite his shooting struggles, Ross impressed with his passing. Although Ross finished with only one assist, he fed teammates near the hoop, and those teammates generated free-throw opportunities.

Poor free-throw shooting contributed to the Magic’s loss. Orlando players made only 28 of their 39 attempts.

The Magic (21-38) still led the Blazers (24-33) for long stretches Thursday.

“We were in control most of the game — the whole game, basically,” forward Jeff Green said. “We let the rope go in the last five or six minutes. Games are won in the fourth quarter on the defensive end. We let this one go.”

The offseason additions of Green, Bismack Biyombo and D.J. Augustin — veterans all — were supposed to help the Magic finish close games.

On Thursday, however, they didn’t help late in the game.

Neither did Vucevic, who scored just three of his team-high 25 points in the fourth quarter.

“We’ve got to figure this out,” Vogel said.

Twenty-three games remain in the season to do that.

The Magic need to start learning how to win as Thursday’s game showed all too clearly.