2023-2024 Regular Season Game 41: Orlando Magic (22-18) at Atlanta Hawks (16-23) - 7:30pm

[IllMagic04]

Fultz and WCJ appear to be gone and they look like they know it. Fultz playing like a maniac.. shot looking worse. WCJ looking passive aggressive.. always smiling acting aloof. They goneeee.

Wcjr played well tonight. Im not sure you move him this year when you consider he's on a good contract. Id wait to see what Goga can be signed for before moving him.

Sent from my SM-G970U using RealGM Forums mobile app

[SOUL]

BTW Hawks were -4.5 favorites this game. For all the "worst loss" sentiments, clearly Vegas thinks we're not a great team right now.

[KillMonger]

Fultz and WCJ appear to be gone and they look like they know it. Fultz playing like a maniac.. shot looking worse. WCJ looking passive aggressive.. always smiling acting aloof. They goneeee.

Man I thought I was tripping because I thought markelle didn't look too good.... I go on the former bird app and they're saying he played well.... Was I wrong? Something still off with him

Sent from the phone in my hands

[The-Stallion70]

Was actually solid defense by Fultz at the end of regulation. Had a hand up and pressured him the whole way Murray just made a tough one.

[VFX]

Fultz had the ball in his hands a ton and ended up with 1 assist and 4 TOs in 30 minutes.

I know you are posting this to shock and inform people.

However, this neither shocks me or is new information.

[KillMonger]

I think the way we play now doesn't really fit markelle play style.....last year when paolo and Franz wasn't ready we saw the ball in kelle's hands more.... This season when kelle and Dell got injured we had to pivot to another style of play that was more heavily skewed towards playing through paolo and Franz.... Now that they've shown they can handle it we can't go back to what we were doing before.... So does that make markelle even less effective? A more off-ball markelle doesn't work for me but what's the solution?

Sent from the phone in my hands

[ibraheim718]

Fultz and WCJ appear to be gone and they look like they know it. Fultz playing like a maniac.. shot looking worse. WCJ looking passive aggressive.. always smiling acting aloof. They goneeee.

Man I thought I was tripping because I thought markelle didn't look too good.... I go on the former bird app and they're saying he played well.... Was I wrong? Something still off with him

Sent from the phone in my hands

If I'd have messed up at my job as bad as he did those two sequences I would have been fired.

[thelead]

Paolo's all-star chances are slipping with every loss. The Bulls are only 3.5 games behind us for the 8th spot.

[Audi]

Read on Twitter

[Rainwater]

Fultz didn't play a bad game, he was ok today. His defense on the last shot wasn't bad either. When looking at the replay, Fultz pulled his hands away to avoid a foul but immediately put it up when Murray shot it. That was just a better shot by Murray. But his jump shot is definitely broken, that thing is never coming back, lol.

[KillMonger]

Fultz didn't play a bad game, he was ok today. His defense on the last shot wasn't bad either. When looking at the replay, Fultz pulled his hands away to avoid a foul but immediately put it up when Murray shot it. That was just a better shot by Murray. But his jump shot is definitely broken, that thing is never coming back, lol.

Yeah, when you're double pumping from 10 feet out? Yeah that thing is cooked

Sent from the phone in my hands

[pepe1991]

There are always those "brainfart" moments in nba regular season, in clutch, when you know that play will probably be killer for a team.
Knicks game killer moment was their Randle two free trows missed.
Magic game killer was inbound layup on set defense with 7 sec on a clock and that possession where Murray gets offensive rebound off two offensive tips and scores little bunny/floater.


Bigger problem is complete lack of offensive versitality and pure inability to put up points, especially in past 5 games:
92 vs Wolves
96 vs Heat
100 vs OKC
98 vs Knicks
104 vs Hawks ( 5th worst defense)

We are 4th lowest APG team in nba, with 24,6 assists a game. Last night-18 assists ( Lowest team in nba, in assists, creates 22 a game).

Our inability to get much, and on some nights- anything from a guards really turned our season from hunt for seeds, to fist fight for playin positions.
Just looking at box score and it's pretty depressive display:
Suggs - 1 assists
Houstan- 0 assists
Fultz - 1 assists
Cole Anthony- 1 assists

From 4 guards you get 3 assits on 7 turnovers.

Not that Young was ultra good or anything, but his ability to stun defense and throw lobs really was massive game changer tonight. 8 assists late edit: brainfart- 8 turnovers sounds ugly, but 12 assists accumulated to around 25 points.


On regular bases we struggle to creat any sort of extra passes from perimeter players, even when some of our guards are "good", it mainly just means that they are scoring , not really distributing ( mainly Cole & Suggs). We forget those guys supposed to be playmakers. You can make argument, given they are all drafted as PGs- they should be playmakers -first, than scorers. But they aren't.

Truth is, no matter how much we try and play hard, and play defense, aside from Paolo and Franz, we simply don't gave good enough offensive players to win games easier than this. We win games when we make game very ugly. Season lasts 82 games, intensity lowers down, and by default, as season goes, worst our results are. Because you can't sustain level of intensity & fanatic playstyle 4 times a week, while pretending every game is game 7 of finals. It's impossible to do without massive mental burndown ( and physical teardown) at some point.

[fateis007]

Fultz didn't play a bad game, he was ok today. His defense on the last shot wasn't bad either. When looking at the replay, Fultz pulled his hands away to avoid a foul but immediately put it up when Murray shot it. That was just a better shot by Murray. But his jump shot is definitely broken, that thing is never coming back, lol.

besides having a broken shot, when he doesn't have the ball in his hands its 4 vs 5. it's bad enough we are one of the worst shooting teams in the nba already, but with fultz almost air balling jumpshots inside the paint now, teams are collapsing even more and loading up inside.

and it just makes sense, anyone that is defending fultz knows they can exploit him and sag off on that side of the court. it really does effect our offense.

with someone like Paolo, you need 4 shooters around him, to create spacing. He thrives at getting into the lane, and it's much harder to do when no one can make a 3 pointer and guys like Fultz are being targeted.

and personally i don't think it was great defense by fultz at the end, he literally applied no pressure on the ball and Murray got to the 3 point line easily, then got crossed up (he should have forced him right, where we had defenders) where there was only one defender in the corner (ingles, what is he doing to do?), and while he managed to get a hand up, Murray had already elevated and was way to far into his release. It may look like good defense because he got a hand up, but that was easy work for Murray.

it was well played, and why they didn't call a timeout, that leaves ingles in and allows them to get the ball whoever has the weakest defender between Trey and Murray



game over

[cedric76]

Read on Twitter

Murray is pitching himself

1st he said he d welcome a return to SA
2nd he said he loves what we r doing here

He knows that he is gone

I d welcome him here if he accepts to be the 3rd option and to focus on D like he used to

Murray suggs backcourt could be a defensive nightmare

Murray, AB , Cole
Suggs, Cole, Jett
Franz, Joe , Houstan
PB, JI , Moe
Wcj,goga, Moe

Looks good on paper

[drsd]

Black starts tonight

Really?

I would rather Black vs Okeke but I am on the Black train.....

But Blacks 3 ball is horrible, pathetic, terrible. He couldn't drain a 3 if his mothers life depended on it.

Back officially played in this game because of the 6 seconds he logged in the 1st quarter. That led to a perfect box score.

0 missed FGs, 0 made FGs, 0 missed and made FTs, 0 rebounds, 0 asissts, 0 TOs, 0 blocks, 0 steals, etc. What is amazing here is that the time logged is also 0. He has a flat-Zero box score. I have NEVER seen that before for the Magic. (usually a player plays at least 30 seconds to log 1 minute officially played, at least).

[KillMonger]

It's crazy to see how much JI impacts the game....it's clear as day, now if the guy can only stay healthy

[p0peye]

I fell asleep tonight, didn't watch the game. Did Markelle bring his A game tonight too?

EDIT: Looking at boxscore, he sure did! 10 points on 62% FG, I hope we all are voting him for All Star.

[Def Swami]

Read on Twitter

Sign me up

[cedric76]

It's crazy to see how much JI impacts the game....it's clear as day, now if the guy can only stay healthy

JI is key, I d love for him to get more minutes but I m happy if he can log 20 min per game without health concerns

[drsd]

..