Magic's Close Loss to Trail Blazers a 'Great Experience', Says Coach
ORLANDO - The Orlando Magic has seen its fair share of growing pains this season.
From a 5-20 start to the year, to ranking as the most injured team in the association, the NBA's third-youngest team has clawed its way to a 27-38 mark with 17 games remaining.
But that lack of NBA experience has shown brightest in close contests, with Sunday's 122-119 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers making 15 losses this season decided by seven or fewer points.
"A very thin margin but we're going to continue to learn from it and we have to get better next time," Franz Wagner said postgame.
Heading into the final minute tied at 113-113, the Magic would knock down all six of its attempts from the free-throw line, something they've done all season long in the clutch.
But unfortunately for the Magic, the Trail Blazers would also connect on all six of their attempts from the charity stripe - including four from All Star guard Damian Lillard.
"They're great experiences for these guys to go through," head coach Jamahl Mosley said. "Obviously not the result we wanted but we're gonna learn from this, take a look at it on film, see where we can get better, possessions we can get back, understanding what we can do late game."
In "clutch time," or games where the scoring margin is within five with five or fewer minutes remaining, the Magic's 14-20 record ranks 24th in the NBA, while their -1.4 plus/minus ranks third-worst across all 30 teams.
"That's the level of stepping up in those moments," Mosley said. "Those are the little things that we continue to communicate. They've gotta make sure they're doing the little things to finish games out."
Orlando is back in action tomorrow night against the Milwaukee Bucks. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
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