Golden State Warriors 133 Orlando Magic 112: Warriors impose their will against Magic

Sometimes a team just imposes their will on you.

That was the case Friday night as the Orlando Magic (9-14) dropped their 10th in 11 games on Friday night to the Golden State Warriors (17-6) 133-112.

Pregame, Magic coach Frank Vogel talked about how teams are struggling to find the right amount of switching on the defensive end. For his bunch, they’ve began switching less and less, trying to find the right balance on the defensive end to get them back on the right track.

Early on against Golden State, no amount of switching, or not switching, was going to help the Magic.

Golden State pushed the pace, and stretched the Magic out, shooting a blistering hot 75 percent from the field in the opening quarter. The Magic, to their credit, kept it close, never trailing by more than 10 in the opening 12 minutes.

The second quarter saw some increasingly sloppy play from both teams, with the two sides combining for 13 second period turnovers. The increased sloppy play didn’t effect the Warriors, however, as they continued to shoot nearly 70 percent from the field, and increased their lead to as many as 15 late.

Matchup’s were a clear issue for the Magic, who missed the services of Jonathan Isaac and Terrence Ross. As Golden State deployed their “death lineup” the Magic searched to find anything that could even attempt to matchup, but struggled, and watched the Warriors take a commanding 78-63 lead into halftime.

Out of halftime, the Warriors appeared to be playing with the Magic. After Orlando cut the lead down to eight early, Golden State answered and pushed the lead to as game-high 19.

Aaron Gordon would not let the Magic go without a fight, however, scoring 15 in the quarter, and pushing the Magic to a 14-6 run to cut the lead back down to 11 heading into the final quarter.

Despite their late third quarter push, nothing was going to stop the scorching hot Warriors.

Shooting over 60 percent for the entire game, and putting pressure on the Magic at every turn on the defensive end, Golden State was too much for the clearly overmatched Magic. Add in their ability to switch everything, and play passing lanes seemingly better than anyone in the league, and it was over from the start for the Magic.

Golden State set the season high for team assists in a game with 46, one off their franchise record.

Klay Thompson led the way for Golden State, with 27. Kevin Durant added 25, with Stephen Curry finishing with 23.

Gordon once again did much of the damage for the Magic with 29 on the night. After his hot start, Evan Fournier finished with just 22 overall.