Magic at Lakers
The Orlando Magic will attempt to begin turning their season around as they open a daunting six-game road trip on Sunday night against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Magic followed up a promising 3-1 stretch with four losses in their last five games, capped by a 100-93 setback against the Houston Rockets on Friday night in which they shot 41.8 percent from the field.
“They beat us on a lot of the 50-50 balls,” Orlando forward Aaron Gordon told the Orlando Sentinel after Friday’s loss. “That doesn’t show up on the box score all that much, but it shows up in the win-loss column.” The Magic have been up and down defensively, and will need to be sharp on that end of the court against the Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers (Wednesday) to start the trek. The Lakers are coming off their best offensive performance of the season when they pulled away from Miami for a 127-100 victory – their second in three games. Leading scorer Lou Williams had 24 points in the win for Los Angeles, which lost at Orlando 109-90 on Dec. 23.
TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, FSN Florida (Orlando), Spectrum Sports (Los Angeles)
ABOUT THE MAGIC (16-22): Gordon has raised his level of play the last three games while averaging 18.3 points, and recorded a career-high seven assists in Friday’s setback. Nikola Vucevic had 12 rebounds Friday, but was just 4-of-15 from the field and fellow center Bismack Biyombo had only two points in 20 minutes for the Magic, who blocked just two shots. Guard Evan Fournier, the team’s leading scorer at 17.5 points a game, is 10-of-27 from the field – 2-of-8 from behind the 3-point arc – since missing five consecutive games with a heel injury.
ABOUT THE LAKERS (14-26): Luol Deng, who comes in after one of his best games with the Lakers when he recorded 19 points and 14 rebounds, sees some improvement in his new team. “When I agreed to come here, the idea was this is going to be a process, so the main thing is sticking with it,” Deng told the Los Angeles Times. “Once you start winning you start trusting the system and trusting each other. I think we’re heading in that direction.” Rookie Brandon Ingram will look to follow up his career high-matching 17-point performance against Miami.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Los Angeles G Nick Young has made 6-of-24 shots from the field the last two games after draining 20-of-33 in the previous three.
2. Orlando F Serge Ibaka has collected double-figure rebounds in two straight games for only the second time this season.
3. Lakers F Julius Randle, who averages 13.7 points and a team-best 8.7 rebounds, did not play in the first game against the Magic this season.