Bucks Overwhelm Defenseless Magic in 122-93, Clinch Season Series
MILWAUKEE — Seated at his postgame microphone, coach Jamahl Mosley reiterated the same point four times after his team's lopsided loss: "That wasn't Orlando Magic basketball."
His team was the recipient of an "old-fashioned butt-whoopin'" Wednesday night as Orlando fell 122-93 to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Before the game, Mosley said that he believed the two teams were "evenly matched." Milwaukee had won the two previous meetings by a combined eight points.
But in the third round of four this season, the difference between these Eastern Conference rivals was vast — as much as 32 points. The Bucks, playing on the second night of a back-to-back, overwhelmed an Orlando team that came in on two days' rest.
"We've always said that we're not going to let our shot-making or missing to affect our effort [or] our energy, and that was not there tonight," Mosley said. "We let some of it impact us, but you've got to start the game the right way with the right amount of energy and intensity.
"Tonight, we looked like the team that was on a back-to-back. We played [with] more energy when we had them on a back-to-back last time. Tonight was just not that night."
In a 4-minute, 35-second stretch of the first quarter, the Bucks went on a 19-0 run to turn a one-point game into a rout.
The Bucks made 62.5% of their field goal attempts, outrebounded the Magic 64-41, and scored 54 points in the paint.
The lopsided numbers can be attributed, in part, to the absence of Goga Bitadze – the Magic's starting center who entered concussion protocol on Wednesday morning. Orlando has insisted that even with their mounting injury list, they "have enough" to compete on any given night. To that point, the Magic began Wednesday's tilt with its 16th different starting lineup after using only 18 all last season.
Yet it was evident early that the Magic, shorthanded or not, couldn't match the energy of their hosts. That hasn't happened often this year.
"We just got out-physicaled tonight from the jump," center Wendell Carter Jr. (12 points, 10 rebounds) said. "It was very easy for them on the offensive end; and then for us, we didn't apply any pressure.
"From the very first game we played [in] Miami, I was telling one of the assistants that we could roll out any five [players] and be competitive with any team in this league," Carter Jr. continued. "Tonight, we didn't have it. Didn't have the juice, didn't have the swag. Didn't have anything."
The loss dropped the Magic to 23-19. The Bucks vaulted ahead of them in the East standings. Milwaukee also clinched the season series, which could become important in April. Head-to-head record is the first tiebreaker when deciding playoff seedings.
The two teams will meet once more in March in Milwaukee. The Magic haven't won here since February 2019.
Milwaukee's All-NBA duo of Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo combined for 56 points.
For Orlando, Paolo Banchero's managed 22 points in his third game back from a torn right oblique, but he also accounted for seven of the Magic's 13 turnovers. As a team, the Magic shot just 34.7 percent from the field and 26.1 percent from three.
Up Next
Orlando heads to Boston on Friday for the second game of this two-city road trip. Tipoff is 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.
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