After a brief off-season, the NBA preseason is officially underway! We’ve already seen plenty of swishes from downtown, some buzzer-beaters, and a couple of posterizing dunks. For some teams, the preseason has been an early Christmas present. For others, the preseason has been some extra coal. With the Orlando Magic, it’s been both. In the first game against the Hawks, it was Nikola Vucevic and Evan Fournier, not Cole Anthony and Markelle Fultz, that led Orlando to a win. It turns out that the youngsters still weren’t ready to go for game two, as Orlando split the series with Atlanta. Winning and losing these games are pointless, but are these games a sign of what’s to come for the Magic? Only time will tell, but we can always look at the positive and negative takeaways from these two games with the Hawks.
Magic beat Hawks in first game of the Series, winning 116-112
Orlando kicked their preseason off strong with a nice victory over the Hawks, winning 116-112. Former All-Star Nikola Vucevic posted a double-double while leading the team in scoring and rebounding, with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Aaron Gordon managed to post a team-high six assists while also pitching in 12 points. It’s also encouraging to know that Orlando’s big free-agent signing, Dwayne Bacon, had 14 points and shot 6-9 from the field. Orlando had all five of their starters reach double digits in Points, and journeyman Michael Carter-Williams also finished in double digits. Orlando shot well as a team, knocking down 45.7% of their field goal attempts and 69.0% of their free throws. Orlando’s defense did well, too. All-Star Point Guard Trae Young struggled against Orlando’s defense, as he managed to score seven points in 22 minutes of action, and Atlanta only had four players score double-digit points.
Although the Magic did win this game, Orlando still had their share of struggles, with none being bigger than Cole Anthony’s performance. Anthony struggled in his 19 minutes of actions, posting a measly seven points with three assists and one rebound. Anthony’s shooting was awful, too, as he shot 3-10 from the field and 1-4 from 3-point range. Anthony’s poor defense was constantly exposed by Young and Bogdan Bogdanovic. Even with this being Anthony’s first bit of NBA action, Anthony still had a very disappointing debut. Luckily, Markelle Fultz did pick up some of Anthony’s slack and had a solid game, totaling ten points, three rebounds, and four assists. Fultz played solid alongside Fournier in the starting lineup, but the concern of having a small backcourt of Fultz and Anthony with inconsistent shooting could be scary to have in the future.
Magic fall to Trae Young and the Hawks in second game, losing 107-116
Statistically, this was a much better game. Fultz did manage to lead the team in scoring with 21 points and had five rebounds and four assists. Fultz shot 9-19 (47.3%) from the field and nailed both of his 3-point attempts. As for Anthony, he exploded with a career-high 16 points and did have four rebounds and four assists as well. Anthony did shoot better than Fultz from the field, making 6-10 shots. In the first game, Fultz and Anthony combined for seven turnovers, and this did hinder their respected performances. As for Sunday’s game, the duo had two combined turnovers, which explains why they had such good games. Vucevic followed Friday’s double-double up with an even better double-double at 14 points and 15 rebounds. Gordon and Fournier both had solid games, too, with Gordon having 15 points and six rebounds to go along with Fournier’s 13 points and three assists.
While the offense improved going into game two, the defense certainly didn’t. Young’s offensive skills were finally too much for Orlando, as Young went for 21 points and seven assists in 32 minutes. Atlanta’s Clint Capela, John Collins, and Danilo Gallinari combined for 42 points and had ease in the paint. Simply put, Orlando’s second unit just couldn’t keep up with Atlanta’s second unit. The Hawk’s bench outscored the Magic’s bench 47-36, and this made a big difference in the outcome of the game. Atlanta had a total of seven players reach double digits, with three of those players coming off the bench. Without Jonathan Isaac and Al Farouq-Aminu to begin the season, the lack of the depth that the Magic have coming off the bench is a big concern for them trying to contend for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.