The Orlando Magic lost to the Toronto Raptors 107-85 in front of a sellout crowd at Amway center.
Prolific NBA superstar Kawhi Leonard scored 34 points for Toronto, while Aaron Gordon lead the magic with 25 points. Jonathan Issac got into early foul trouble and later center Nikola Vucevic did the same causing the Magic to play out of sink.
`It’s tough, man, because these fans have been waiting for these games for so long and it’s really disappointing to not give them a win,’’ said Evan Fournier, “That’s a big reason why we want to come back here for a Game 6.’’
Fournier bounced back from 1 for 12 shooting in game one to scoring 19 points in game three.
Orlando opened up the game with a 10-0 run, but Toronto gained it’s footing after a timeout and proceeded to dominate the game.
The Raptors got 38 points from the bench, including Serge Ibaka (13), Fred Van Fleet (9) and Noman Powell (16). Orlando’s bench could only manage 20.
`To me, it’s the turnovers, the rebounding game and then the same thing – the purpose of play,’’ Magic coach Steve Clifford said. “They are hard to play against and you can see it early in the game. We’re going to have to move the ball. It’s going to have to be inside-out. And then, if we make a couple, we can’t go back to, `I can score on these guys.’ We have to understand how we have to play in order to play well. It takes a lot of discipline.’’
The Magic committed 17 turnovers leading to 21 points for Toronto.
The Magic pulled within 12 points of the Raptors, fighting back with the Orlando crowd chanting “Defense!” as they tried to will their team to win, but the Raptors were just too talented.
Pascal Siakam returned with another great performance against Orlando, scoring 16 pts and contributing 6 rebounds. Marc Gasol only scored 2 points, but continued to torment Vucevic in the paint, making it tifficult for him to work in the paint.
At the 11:22 point in the fourth quarter, Toronto scored 10 of 12 points and built their lead to 94-77. Even though Orlando tried to battle back, the game was basically over.
“They’re a long team and they’re all over the place,’’ guard DJ Augustin said. “Once you get by one guy, somebody else is there to step up. They’re playing good defense. We’ve got to make the right play, make the simple passes and don’t wait until the last minute.’’
Game 5 is in Toronto at the Scociabank Center and the Raptors will be going to close out the series, as the Magic look to bring the games back to Orlando.
`It’s not over until it’s over,’’ Augustin said. “We’ve got to go in there and try to get us another win like we did in Game 1. Then, come back and do well on our homecourt. Just keep playing, that’s really all you can do now. If we lose, we go home, and we have to have that in our minds.”
