In front of a sellout crowd at Amway Center, the Orlando Magic showed glimmers of their potential. But the result did not catch up against the Wizards.
There were moments when the sellout crowd at Amway Center saw something new from this young Orlando Magic team.
Here was a team flying all over the place, scrambling and fighting for a win. Here was a team pushing the ball down the floor and speeding through an offense in constant motion.
The Magic showed plenty of sign of what they might one day become. The result though was unfortunately, and somewhat devastatingly the same.
Orlando fought back into the game after trailing for much of the third quarter, building an eight-point fourth quarter lead. They led by five with two minutes to play.
But the Magic once again could not finish the deal.
They lost the lead when John Wall hit a floater over Nikola Vucevic with about 12 seconds remaining.
Controversy ensued as the Magic tried to retake the lead down one point.
Tobias Harris received the ball at the elbow and turned to attack the basket. He got past Otto Porter and seemed free for a layup. He put it off the glass where Marcin Gortat slapped the backboard.
The ball hung tantalizingly on the rim and eventually rolled off where Nikola Vucevic and Bradley Beal fought for the rebound. One of them touched it while it might have still been on the cylinder.
The officials called goaltending and went to the monitors to review. When they returned, they ruled it was not a goaltend forcing the Magic, who had rebounded the miss anyway, to take the ball out and reset their play.
Nikola Vucevic took the ball at the elbow and hoisted a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer that fell no good, giving the Wizards a 88-87 win over the Magic at Amway Center on Wednesday.
The Magic were frustrated yet again with falling short.
“It’s frustrating just to be that in the game and close in the game more than anything and not come up with the win is frustrating,” Harris said after the game. “We just have to stay positive and bounce back and get ready for the next one.
“It’s one of those things just because we were in the scenario a lot last year, as a team we want to take a step out of that. We had a mental lapse especially in the fourth quarter in the last minute. It’s something we have to grow from.”
The Magic still clearly have some growing to do before reaching their goals. And this game made that pretty clear.
It is the first game after all, there is a lot of development for every team to come.
Orlando though showed plenty of glimpses of what it might become this season. The defense settled in nicely and held Washington to 39.3 percent shooting for the game and 18 turnovers. The Magic scrambled well and kept the Wizards in check. The shots the Wizards got, were largely ones the Magic could live with.
Washington eventually found its way through though. The Wizards took advantage of the Magic’s poor execution on the offensive end late in the game.
The flowing ball movement that helped Orlando into the lead slowed to a crawl as the team started isolating, looking for their own shots and settling for pick and rolls.
The Magic reverted in some ways to the offense of last year that struggled to produce many points.
Orlando had no problem producing points in the first half — 51 of them — and had plenty of good looks just not fall.
The Magic showed plenty of glimmers for what could be a nice season. Certainly one that turns the corner.
The ghosts of the past three years remained though. And ultimately all that matters for the Magic is the win. Something that remained elusive on this first night of the season.
For complete coverage of this game, please check out Orlando Magic Daily.
