After the Orlando Magic lost to the Atlanta Hawks on a Dejounte Murray buzzer-beater, Markelle Fultz shouldn't hang his head.
The Orlando Magic is reeling after Dejounte Murray ripped its heart out in State Farm Arena. Hitting his first career buzzer-beater over Markelle Fultz sent Atlanta into a frenzy, and it sent the Magic packing as it gets ready to take on the Philadelphia 76ers.
While Murray celebrates and Fultz presumably grieves, his teammates don’t want him to take it too hard.
“Markelle slid his feet, stayed in front of everything he (Murray) tried to do, and he hit a tough one,” said Jalen Suggs. “Contested, one-handed, little middy. I know he works on that…there’s nothing more you can ask from Markelle, out of us.”
The Magic started the season as one of the best defensive teams in the league, and have been slipping since December, nearly falling out of the top ten in points allowed. While the Hawks squeaked out a win, it wasn’t due to a lack of defensive success on Orlando’s part.
Orlando posted 16 steals and forced 23 turnovers, ten more than they gave up. They held the Hawks significantly below their average scoring, shooting efficiency, and didn’t foul nearly as much as the Hawks are used to.
Much like the beginning of the season, the Magic was not threatening from deep, struggled to get to the free-throw line, and didn’t do a great job of moving the ball around (27th in the league in assists).
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If Orlando wants to keep winning games and secure a playoff spot, they need to get their defense consistently great and have the offense carry some weight. Holding a team to 106 points like the Magic did to the Hawks is usually enough to win in the modern NBA, but not when the best you can muster is only 104 points.
