Hawks at Magic
The Orlando Magic have gone from feel-good story to disaster over the span of six weeks, and the latest slide is at three straight. The Magic will try to avoid a fourth consecutive loss and 16th in the last 18 contests when they host the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday in the opener of a home-and-home set.
Orlando brought in Scott Skiles as head coach in the offseason in an effort to change a losing culture and turn some talented young players into winners. “I’m aware that basically the last three years at this point in the season, the season was over by maybe mid-January,” Skiles told reporters after a 107-93 home loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday. “We’ve got to fight that urge to give in. Right now, we’re not doing that successfully.” The Hawks are trending in the opposite direction with three consecutive wins behind an average of 112.7 points. The scoring binge comes on the heels of a six-game stretch in which Atlanta lost five games and failed to score more than 95 points in any of the setbacks.
TV: 1 p.m. ET, FSN Southeast (Atlanta), FSN Florida (Orlando)
ABOUT THE HAWKS (30-22): Atlanta shot over 51 percent from the field in each of its last three games, and forward Paul Millsap led the way with 24 points on 10-of-14 shooting to help the team overcome a minus-21 rebounding disadvantage in Friday’s 102-96 win over the Indiana Pacers. One of the features of the Hawks offense during a record-setting regular season last year was ball movement, and the team handed out at least 28 assists in each of the last three contests. "We just kept pushing the pace of the game, playing fast,” center Al Horford told reporters after Friday’s win. “It wasn't one of our best efforts on the boards, but we just did enough to win."
ABOUT THE MAGIC (21-28): Orlando allowed the Clippers to shoot 54.1 percent in Friday’s loss and surrendered at least 107 points in each of the last eight games. “We’ve got to go back to realizing that (defense) is what is going to win us games,” guard Victor Oladipo told reporters. “It seems like when our offense isn’t going our defense isn’t going, either. In all reality, no matter what is happening on the (offensive) end we’ve got to rely on our defense and know that our defense can pick us up.” Orlando is in the middle of a brutal stretch of schedule that started Jan. 29 and includes San Antonio (twice), Atlanta (twice), Boston (twice), Oklahoma City and the Clippers in the eight games leading up to the All-Star break.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Hawks C Tiago Splitter (hip) sat out the last three games and remains day-to-day.
2. Magic PG Elfrid Payton is 8-of-30 from the field in the last three games.
3. Atlanta has taken four straight in the series, including a 103-100 win in Orlando on Dec. 20.