GOLDEN STATE – With this game in the books, Orlando finishes their California road trip 2-2.
These are the types of games you look back on at the end of the season and wish you had back. These are games you have to win especially considering the state of the bottom half of the Eastern Conference.
Orlando is now on a 2-game losing streak yet still hold the 7th spot in the Eastern conference. The Brooklyn Nets however are right behind them, 2 games back of that 7th seed.
For the second straight game, Orlando struggled from the charity stripe going 8-13 (61.5%). The Magic also struggled to connect on their three-point attempts going 9-31 (29%).
Coach Clifford on tonight’s effort, “The people most responsible for how hard and how prepared a team is every night is the head coach and the best players – So I did a bad job. Our best players did a bad job.”
Coach Clifford went on to say, “That’s the first point. The second point is which I also just told them – we’ve played hard, I mean it’s been, obviously a strength of our group all year. With the injuries and everything else, but it also goes to show, one of the steps we have to take is we have to have expectations and understand what’s ahead. That’s what the league is all about.”
This game for the Warriors gives them their 10th win of the season, illustrating that this was another bad loss for the Magic similar to how Orlando lost to the Hawks late last month.
“We just needed to compete. You know, we played soft. You don’t want to play soft. Not enough energy and you know, I mean, we just got to play better”, said Aaron Gordon who finished with just 11 points following his 20-point night the previous game.
Speaking of Gordon, late in the fourth quarter he converted a layup that put the Magic up 93-92 before the Warriors ran off with a massive 14-0 run.
“We just didn’t get stops. You know they got – we missed low man’s multiple times. You know, they got a couple of offensive rebounds to get second chance points and we just weren’t all on the same page”, said Markelle Fultz who finished the game with 23 points.
This is a game Orlando knows they needed to win. They now travel to Charlotte to match up against the Hornets, in hopes of getting back on track with a win.
