The Orlando Magic open a four-game homestand Thursday against the reeling Brooklyn Nets looking to right the ship after losing six of their last eight games.
The Magic are one game above .500 and sitting eighth in the Eastern Conference, yet they’ve been losing ground to the Philadelphia 76ers for the sixth and final playoff spot in the East.
“It’ll be great to be back home for four games, it’s very important for us going into the (All-Star) break, but we have to take it one game at a time,” Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley said after his team’s 36-point loss Tuesday at Oklahoma City.
“It’s hard to win in this league. We have to understand that and the work we need to put in.”
The Magic also need leading scorer Franz Wagner (22.2 ppg) to get healthy as he has missed the last seven games with an ankle injury. It’s his second big chunk of missed time this season — and Orlando has gone 15-11 with him and 10-13 without.
At the same time, Orlando had just 14 points in the first quarter against the Thunder on the way to trailing by as much as 41. Mosley said Wagner’s return, whenever it might be, won’t fix all of Orlando’s problems.
“We still have to wait for him to come back, I don’t think any one person solves any of this,” Mosley said. “We work together as a group, you win as a group and lose as a group. We’re all involved in this. We have to maintain our ability to work on the right things, but it starts with our mental preparation. When the horn starts, we gotta be ready to go.”
Brooklyn has not looked ready for anything lately. The Nets have lost nine of their last 10 games and own a 3-16 mark since Jan. 1.
When the Nets hosted the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night, they trailed by 22 points after the first quarter. This came after a 53-point loss to Detroit on Sunday.
“Yeah, more of the same. We got to figure something out,” Nic Claxton told The New York Post. “Like, this is not basketball. We’re supposed to be NBA basketball players. We shouldn’t be getting beat by this much. We shouldn’t get down by this much.”
Nets coach Jordi Fernandez looked for a silver lining, saying his team was competitive in the second half.
“You start off losing the game by 22 points and lose by 16, right? That’s a little bit of the story of the game,” Fernandez said. “I thought we competed at a higher level closing the second quarter and second half. I like our composure and not quitting. We saw some positive things, but obviously the first quarter is unacceptable.”
The game tips off four hours after Thursday’s trade deadline. One of the league’s biggest trading chips is Brooklyn standout Michael Porter Jr., who ranks among the NBA’s top 15 scorers (25.5 ppg) and has scored 36, 38 and 21 points in his last three games.
Porter Jr. in the final season of his contract at $40 million this season and will be eligible for an extension in July. Brooklyn must decide whether to keep Porter and build around him or flip him for draft capital.
Paolo Banchero leads the Magic’s healthy players with 21.6 points per game. Desmond Bane had been on a heater (23, 32, and 25 points in a three-game stretch) before being held to seven by the Thunder. Bane leads the NBA with his 93.6% free-throw accuracy.
Orlando will be going for a season sweep after beating Brooklyn 105-98 on Nov. 14 and 104-103 in overtime on Jan. 7.
