ORLANDO, FL – The Orlando Magic continued their shooting woes as they lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-99 at the Amway Center on Saturday night.
Key Orlando Orlando scorers did their part, with Nikola Vucevic scoring 30 points and Terrance Ross coming off of the bench with 26 points, but the Magic left a lot of points out there.
“What stands out is missed shots. We certainly had our chances.”Said Magic Head Coach Steve Clifford. “We got high quality shotes that we gotta make if we want to win the game.”
Oklahoma City managed to shoot 44%, with Darius Bazley leading the Thunder with 19 points followed by George Hill, who proved to be a difficult over in one on one situations and scored 11 points.
The Magic were playing without Evan Fournier (back spasms)and rookie Chuma Okeke (bruised knee), but Gary Clark and Michael Carter-Williams tried to fill in, but neither provided the needed scoring.
Markelle Fultz was able to score 12 points, but only went 5 for 10 from the field, but, on the bright side, made one from 3 point range.
Rookie Cole Anthony continued his NBA education and struggled to score, only scoring 2 points in 17 minutes.
The Magic are coming off of a 116-92 blow out at the hands of the Philadelphia 76ers where the team looked like they har tired legs after a 4-0 sprint, the first ever at the start of the season for the team.
The Thunder are coming off of a 1-3 start and were happy to take advantage of the struggling Magic. Bazley added 12 rebounds to his high score, giving him a double- double, and they also took advantage of the Magic’s shooting woes by taking many of their rebounds to score on their end.
Orlando welcomes toe Cleveland Cavaliers to the Amway Center for a par of games on Monday and Wednesday, both at 7 pm.
