ORLANDO, FL – The Orlando Magic lost to the Washington Wizards 104-92 at the Amway Center on Saturday night. The Magic started out with great energy, getting shots from Wendell Carter Jr as well as Mo Bamba.
But the Eastern Division leading Wizards talent was just too much. It might have been something that the young Magic squad should have had more respect for.
Washington was loaded with talent in the Russell Westbrook trade. Where as the Lakers received Westbrook, the Wizards got loaded, with Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Spencer Dinwiddie. Add that to the Wizards Bradley Beal and you’ve got. pretty talented team.
It was evident on Saturday where Washington, minus Beal for the night, had Harrell battle for 20 points, Kuzma scored 17, and Dinwiddie had his way with 23 points and 11 rebounds.
Orlando, coming off of a 123-90 drubbing by the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday, came out of the locker room with some energy, but quickly found themselves in trouble.
The Wizards after starting fairly evenly with the Magic, went on a 20-0 run as Orlando missed 16 consecutive shots. This proved to the point where Washington won the game, as Orlando failed to get closer than five points behind the Wizards for the rest of the game.
For Orlando, bright spots were Cole Anthony, who drilled 22 points, including getting hot in the 4th quarter to keep things interest, if you call battling to tag within 10 of the Wizards interesting.
The Wizards dominated Orlando by doubling their points in the paint 42-26.
Jalen Suggs came down on the foot of Harrell and sprained his ankle. He left the game and did not return.
“Shots weren’t going in. That’s frustrating when shots you make everyday don’t go in.” Said Anthony “They’re number one in the east for a reason. We’ve got to play hard for four quarters and not just the one and a half quarters. We’ve gotta have more pride than that. We’ve gotta respect our opponent more. We can’t expect a team to just let us in the game. We’ve gotta be better.”
Coach Jamal Mosely thought the team got some good looks in the first half. There’s work to do.
Mo Bamba said it best.
“I think we just made a lot of boneheaded mistakes,” Mo Bamba said after Saturday’s loss. “R.J. [Hampton] brought up a good point in the locker room, it’s not even a thing of learning each other’s tendencies. We know what each other want to do out there and what we like to do out there. It’s a matter of playing to not only your strengths but your teammates’ strengths. Overall there are just so many little things that go into winning a basketball game that we just failed to do.”
Orlando only manage to shoot 33.7 % from the field, and 32% from behind the arc. There was a lot of sloppy play, with 13 turnovers leading to 14 Washington points.
Orlando next heads up to Atlanta to face the Hawks on Monday November 16th at State Farm Arena.
