From Tim Povtak's recap of last night's embarrassing 101-89 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers:
"We just didn't bring it tonight," said point guard Jameer Nelson.
That just about does it. For good measure, let's go to Yahoo!'s Kelly Dwyer:
The Magic came out completely unprepared to compete against a 76ers team that they clearly thought was beneath them, and allowed the Sixer shooters to throw in 33 first quarter points. By the time Orlando started caring defensively, the shots stopped falling. Orlando was +7 in the second half, but all that did was make this blowout appear closer than it was.
Let's look at some numbers:
- 1: Magic players to shoot better than 50% from the field. Keith Bogans was 5-of-7. Congratulations, Keith.
- 52: Combined points from the 76ers' starting backcourt of Andre Miller and Willie Green.
- 2: Combined points from the Magic's starting backcourt of Jameer Nelson and Maurice Evans.
- 20: Magic turnovers this evening, the most since a 96-93 victory over Boston last month.
I understand these "letdown games" happen to everyone -- Hell, even the Pistons lost to the Knicks earlier this year -- but they shouldn't happen to us as often as they do. Remember versus Atlanta? Versus Memphis? How about at Charlotte?
Shameful. As Mike From Illinois points out at Orlando Magic Blog, the Magic finished February with a 2-4 record against teams currently above .500. And we're supposed to make it out of the second first round how, exactly?