The Orlando Magic are missing four key players and rank as one of the worst offensive teams in the league but that was not the case last night.
Cole Anthony scored 24 points and Orlando’s defense smothered the Knicks in a disheartening 103-94 loss at Madison Square Garden last night. It was the Knicks’ third straight loss following their 9-game winning streak.
The Magic were without Paolo Banchero, Franz and Morris Wagner and Jalen Suggs but they’ve adapted to playing without their best players.
Meanwhile, Karl-Anthony Towns missed his third game of the season and Miles McBride remained out with a hamstring issue but the Knicks could not adapt to those losses as they looked out of sorts and lethargic throughout the game.
“They played a good game, we played a low energy game,” Coach Tom Thibodeau said.
Mikal Bridges led the Knicks with 24 points but was 1 for 7 from three. Jalen Brunson scored 24 points with four assists. The Knicks captain was 8 for 21 from the floor and 0 for 1 from three. Brunson had three assists in the first quarter but did not get another assist until there was six minutes left in the fourth quarter. Josh Hart had 15 points and 14 rebounds.
Despite their woes offensively, the Magic rank as one of the best defensive teams in the league and that was typified by the Knicks inability to make threes.
The Knicks were 36 for 81 (44%) from the floor and shot 4 for 22 (18%) from beyond the arc. The Knicks missed 15 consecutive threes, a span that lasted from early in the second quarter until there was eight seconds left in the fourth quarter.
“The ball’s not going in for us but that shouldn’t be the reason why we’re not winning games,” Brunson said. “We’ve got to find a way to impact the game in other areas when we’re not making shots and it starts with me.”
Cameron Payne hit a three at the :36 second mark of the second quarter and the Knicks did not make another three pointer until Payne canned one with eight seconds left in the game.
In their last three games, the Knicks are 21 for 84 from three (25%).
“It’s an NBA season, there is gonna be peaks and valleys,” Hart said. “There’s going to be games where we shoot the lights out, there’s going to be games where we can’t buy a shot.”
The Magic played ten players and their bench outscored the Knicks’ bench 50-18.
Wendell Carter Jr led the bench scoring with 19 points while Jonathan Isaac added 13 points and 9 rebounds. Carter Jr had been 8 for 50 from beyond the arc but he was 3 for 3 in this one and shot 8 for 11 overall.
The Knicks had a 28-24 lead after one but they fizzled in a second quarter that saw them being outscored 29-23.
There were nine lead changes in the second quarter and it was capped off by Jett Howard’s three from the corner with one second left that gave Orlando a 53-51 lead that they would never relinquish in the second half.
The Knicks shot 8 for 20 (40%) in the third quarter and were held to 17 points as the Magic took a 75-68 lead after three.
The fourth quarter was an uphill battle and anytime the Knicks did make a move, the Magic had an answer.
With just under eight minutes left, Bridges hit a fadeaway jumper to make it a five point deficit, but Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who had 15 points and a number of clutch shots, hit a three that was followed by a Carter Jr jumper to give Orlando an 88-78 lead.
The Knicks scored four straight points to make it 88-82 but Caldwell-Pope hit a three with 4:30 left to make it a nine point lead.
There’s no question the Knicks missed Towns but the Magic (22-16) have been missing key players for almost the entire season and have found ways to remain over .500.
“Him [Towns] not being out there, obviously it’s a different pace, it’s a different game that we’re playing and we gotta recognize that and we got to find ways to get easier baskets in transition, getting stops and pushing it,” Hart said.
Jericho Sims started for Towns and scored four points with 10 rebounds, while O.G. Anunoby had one of his worst games of the season. The Knicks forward had 9 points on 4 of 11 from the floor, including 0 for 3 from three. Precious Achiuwa had ten points and Payne added 8 points off the bench but Landry Shamet played 21 minutes and was scoreless.
The Knicks have played three games in the last four days and four in the last six. The lack of production from the bench and the extended minutes for the starters seems to be catching up to them.
Every Knicks starter is averaging over 35 minutes a game, led by Bridges who leads the league. As usual, Brunson downplayed fatigue being a factor in the loss.
“We can say that, but it’s not an excuse of why we lost tonight,,” he said. “We don’t say we were tired, that’s not who we are.”
The Knicks will try and get back to their winning ways on Wednesday against the lowly Toronto Raptors, who have lost 13 of 14. After that, things get much tougher with the red hot Thunder coming to the Garden on Friday, followed by games against the Bucks and improved Pistons to complete a five game homestand.