Game 42: Orlando Magic (17-24) @ Utah Jazz (25-16) - 9:00 PM ET

[PrimeThyme]

Great games by AG and Elf. I care about seeing improvement from our young guys at this point. The better team won. Now lets see if they bounce back with urgency or if they play deflated and lose the rest of the games on this road trip. Im expecting the latter

[Dennis Reynolds]

Vogel you are a phucking idiot. We are not making the playoffs with Green, CJ, DJ and Meeks playing big minutes. At least Meeks can be useful when he gets hot but the other three are pure trash. You might as well start preparing for the next season cause this one is lost. IDIOT!

[Statlanta]

This is gonna be a though loss and we all know that... Prove me wrong magic!!

Nope

[Bensational]

It blows my mind how useless Biyombo has become.

Yeah. Lately he's looking every bit as awkward as Dedmon on the court, but without the PnR oops he and Payton used to run.

[MagicStarwipe]

Read on Twitter

Yup. EP was causing havoc with the ball in his hands all game and then we decided to just take it out of his hands. Pure Magoc.

[OrlandoDream]

This is a very good team. A veteran team too. Jazz are going to cause trouble in the playoffs. I thought we were gonna get blown out but stuck in until the end where the better teams show why they are the best. Not gonna blame it on refs but there were some Bs calls again. But we had our chances, just didn't fall.

What stands out this game?

1). We are a better team when we play with a SG like Meeks. He moves off ball and passes the ball like a vet. He is not a long term option because he plays pretty bad defense. Evan needs to play this way or go to the bench. You know what is kinda sad and the kind of SG that would be a better fit with this SL? Dipo

2). So the bench......it is **** awful! Jeff Green singlehandedly makes it one of the worse. Biz needs to play smarter. If we are looking to make a trade, then we need some serious bench help. Another option is to move Evan to the bench and he can be a scorer just like he wants to be.

[Statlanta]

Refs really screwed us on the Gobert flop, Hayward's phantom 3 foul, and the Hood "I just busted my knee so of course it's somebody else's fault".

That's the game right there in that series of calls.

We did nothing to counter it though. Bad offensive choices, bad defensive rotations.

I'm a little salty after this. I need a dip in the ocean.

I'm salty too but then again we have the tank. You also forgot the George Hill tie-up of Meeks that somehow leads to Trey Lyles getting to do the freaking jump ball and then stopping and starting it many times.

[SOUL]

This game is officially the one that makes me think we aren't making the playoffs. We've made this late game random offensive adjustment mistake more times than I can count and lost more than a few of them because of it. Just see it being a trend and not really anything we can do about it.

[j-ragg]

Vogel you are a phucking idiot. We are not making the playoffs with Green, CJ, DJ and Meeks playing big minutes. At least Meeks can be useful when he gets hot but the other three are pure trash. You might as well start preparing for the next season cause this one is lost. IDIOT!

Dennis where were you during the game when your brethren needed you?

[rcklsscognition]

This team is so frustrating. They fix one thing and two other things blow up in their face.

[tiderulz]

Vogel you are a phucking idiot. We are not making the playoffs with Green, CJ, DJ and Meeks playing big minutes. At least Meeks can be useful when he gets hot but the other three are pure trash. You might as well start preparing for the next season cause this one is lost. IDIOT!

maybe thats the plan

[Optimus_Steel]

Refs really screwed us on the Gobert flop, Hayward's phantom 3 foul, and the Hood "I just busted my knee so of course it's somebody else's fault".

That's the game right there in that series of calls.

We did nothing to counter it though. Bad offensive choices, bad defensive rotations.

I'm a little salty after this. I need a dip in the ocean.

I'm salty too but then again we have the tank. You also forgot the George Hill tie-up of Meeks that somehow leads to Trey Lyles getting to do the freaking jump ball and then stopping and starting it many times.

How about the foul by the guy picked to shot those FTs that was away from the ball before the inbounds. Should have shot a ft there. Hard to have confidence in officiating with things like that.

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[VFX]

Vogel you are a phucking idiot. We are not making the playoffs with Green, CJ, DJ and Meeks playing big minutes. At least Meeks can be useful when he gets hot but the other three are pure trash. You might as well start preparing for the next season cause this one is lost. IDIOT!

Obviously tanking at this point

[RickB-Orlando]

Good effort but you have to question some of the combos put out there.

It sucks to be so up and down.

I think the roller coaster effect is to be expected when
- our young players are still developing, and are quite inconsistent
- we've got a retooled roster where players are learning to play together (and yes, it can take a while when you change over 50% of the roster year over year)
- a new coach is still trying to figure out what players to play together
- our big free agent signing, known for his defense, isn't playing well (likely due to a shoulder injury)
- our "first option" (Fournier) continues to be day-to-day
- Our stud PF is injured (and I mean that sincerely, I think Ibaka was a great acquisition)*

In other words, it's the nature of a team that is learning to walk to have ups and downs. Stability comes next.

*Even though he played tonight, to me it looks like he's still dealing with his injury. Credit where it's due, though, he played a decent game.

[Dennis Reynolds]

Vogel you are a phucking idiot. We are not making the playoffs with Green, CJ, DJ and Meeks playing big minutes. At least Meeks can be useful when he gets hot but the other three are pure trash. You might as well start preparing for the next season cause this one is lost. IDIOT!

Dennis where were you during the game when your brethren needed you?

Couldn't watch a big part of the game. Long story. Hope you can forgive me.

I'll be taking a break from this team though. This game did it for me. Need a break from all the losses, scrubs who always seem to get minutes regardless of their play and the IDIOT who makes me wish we still had Skiles.

[OrlandO]

We got screwed by the refs late. Phantom fouls, no goaltend call, calls for us stopped. Total BS.

[FFBlitzace]

I praised Meeks tonight, and he had a good game. But I'm tired of having bench guys like him that our coach, whoever he may be, shows way too much confidence in. When Anthony Johnson would randomly have a good game, Stan would ride his ass till the bitter end. And we would lose, every time. We saw it with Ben Gordon and Willie Green. Why can't coaches have the IQ to recognize when it's time to cash in on a player like that? Look, he gave us some good stuff, so let's quit while we're ahead with him. Is that so hard? Do the percentages really say that he's going to make 3 or 4 more shots over the final couple minutes of the game? No, they don't.

"But doesn't that same argument apply to anybody, especially Payton?"

Yes it does, but Payton's effectiveness tonight went beyond his scoring. He was getting deep into the defense and creating a lot of problems for them. And the shot may still have wound up going to Meeks, but it might have been a much better shot that he would have had a higher percentage chance of making.

[orlando1214]

Nothing I hate more about the NBA then a good competitive game being impacted by the refs. This should never ever happen. Jazz have made some big shots, so they deserve some credit, but it really sucks to see those handful of bad calls take the Magic out of the game. Still, a big game for Elf and AG had a good game as well. The bench really hurt us tonight, and I did not like the way Vogel was handling his lineups.

[SOUL]

Anyway, I think I got all the salt out. It just pains me so much to see two players playing really well on offense get frozen out of it by our own coach.

Doesn't it make sense to live and die by the players that have been effective that game? We know if it was Fournier he'd be spoon-fed those shots. I don't even mind the ball not going to AG or EP, but let them do stuff with it, let them create and free up Meeks or Vuc.

Instead, we just told them to pass it at the top of the key, watch Meeks run around screens and receive the ball. Or we just told Vuc to do something with it and didn't have a plan.

[OrlandO]

Ibaka didn't get a shot in the 4th until 45 secs left... can't happen.