2020-2021 Regular Season Game 61: Los Angeles Lakers (35-25) at Orlando Magic (18-42)

[I Rasharted]

We moved into the top 3?

[Knightro]

Read on Twitter

Low key a rock solid tank commander.

[Ducklett]

Bamba was +10 o.O

[basketballRob]

We moved into the top 3?

Half game away from top 2 and the Wolves play Houston tomorrow.

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[The Real Dalic]

The Magic have a chance to be the 2nd worst team.

[Howard Mass]

Magic lose but all Magic fans seem to care about is that The Magic now have the 3rd worst record in the league via Detroit's win tonight. The Top-4 Lottery drawing will be all about luck but the higher position will help if The Magic don't draw a Top-4 pick. Regardless, I want a top-4 Pick.

And with the wolves looking good lately, we could end up at 2 by the end of the season. That would give us an 80% chance at a top 5 pick. Finishing 3rd would drop that likelihood to 67%.

Very true.

Magic lose but all Magic fans seem to care about is that The Magic now have the 3rd worst record in the league via Detroit's win tonight. The Top-4 Lottery drawing will be all about luck but the higher position will help if The Magic don't draw a Top-4 pick. Regardless, I want a top-4 Pick.

Minn is up at half vs the jazz.....They have looked good lately, maybe we can actually pass them for 2nd soon(we will have the same amount of wins if they win today, but have less losses)

Still im worried about the thunder, they seriously wont win another game this season and are now openly tanking with moves like shuitting down horford and sga

I'm worried about The Thunder too and I hate teams that openly tank. Reminds me of 2018.

[Howard Mass]

Magic lose but all Magic fans seem to care about is that The Magic now have the 3rd worst record in the league via Detroit's win tonight. The Top-4 Lottery drawing will be all about luck but the higher position will help if The Magic don't draw a Top-4 pick. Regardless, I want a top-4 Pick.

I wouldnt say "all we care about".

I like seeing Cole with assist and not a 6-16 night shooting. Chuma had a bounce back night. Bamba getting rebounds and not having a 1-6 night.

hard to tell only from box scores, but those 3 things are better than they used to be

Player development also matters.

You want them to have good games but come up just short often while winning a few that won't screw their Lottery chances.

[PrimeThyme]

I'm hoping we shut down Ross for the rest of the season. We have some critical games against Cleveland, Minny, && Detroit left on the schedule.

[drsd]

Player development also matters.

Orlando needs their rookies to be contributors next year. Add Cater and Bamba to the needs-to-get-better list. Also: Orlando needs to know if Hampton can emerge as an NBA player, or not.

That said, playing Bacon 37 minutes has nothing to do with "player development". It is a desperation starter that ends up with major minutes played.

To Howard: do you see the major minutes Franks and Randle are getting as "player development"? I find it hard to accept either will be in the NBA next year.

[pepe1991]

yet another game where Magic can't rebound nor keep teams from scoring in paint.
Other than getting burn and repetitions, there is nothing that players will learn from this games.

Saw some strange AD comments, guy just returned from injury, this is his 3rd game ,looked like horse***t in first two. Especially because it's achillie injury ,he won't try to kill himself against team that lost 12 of last 15 games.

[tiderulz]

yet another game where Magic can't rebound nor keep teams from scoring in paint.
Other than getting burn and repetitions, there is nothing that players will learn from this games.

Saw some strange AD comments, guy just returned from injury, this is his 3rd game ,looked like horse***t in first two. Especially because it's achillie injury ,he won't try to kill himself against team that lost 12 of last 15 games.

disagree. we've seen Cole go 6-16 in a game or worse. last night 6-11 to go along with 7 assists. maybe, just maybe he is starting to use some shot selection vs just shooting every time he gets it. we'll see over the next few games. Chuma had a good bounce back game and playing against AD. I dont care what you say about not killing himself, he is still 6'10 with 7'5 wingspan. Okeke getting his shots and offense over him, that gives him confidence. not a lot to take away from the game, but those are 2 good points to see.

[basketballRob]

yet another game where Magic can't rebound nor keep teams from scoring in paint.
Other than getting burn and repetitions, there is nothing that players will learn from this games.

Saw some strange AD comments, guy just returned from injury, this is his 3rd game ,looked like horse***t in first two. Especially because it's achillie injury ,he won't try to kill himself against team that lost 12 of last 15 games.

Obviously we have no power forward. The centers are doing a good job. It's all part of the tank.

Okeke is more of a small forward.

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[Bergmaniac]

A perfect tanking game, kept it close for a long time, but not too close to risk a win, a good effort by everyone, the players obviously wanted to do their best against the champs, and the young players mostly did well against tough competition. Chuma looks really polished for a rookie, Cole is improving as a playmaker, still a long way to go, but he's making the effort.

Bacon would have been a solid rotation player if he had even a modicum of vision and his decision making wasn't so abysmal, he's long, athletic, can shoot a bit, his handles are solid for his size and he is a decent slasher.

Harris just can't buy a bucket inside the arc, it's weird, I didn't expect much from him on offense, but he's been worse than I expected, hopefully it's largely because of the long injury layoff. He just hasn't been able to finish at the rim at all so far. But he got to the line a lot in this one, at least, which is a good sign. Of course, I don't want him to improve too much this season, the tank needs to keep going.

[Knightro]

Player development also matters.

Orlando needs their rookies to be contributors next year. Add Cater and Bamba to the needs-to-get-better list. Also: Orlando needs to know if Hampton can emerge as an NBA player, or not.

That said, playing Bacon 37 minutes has nothing to do with "player development". It is a desperation starter that ends up with major minutes played.

To Howard: do you see the major minutes Franks and Randle are getting as "player development"? I find it hard to accept either will be in the NBA next year.

I mean the Magic don't have a choice but to play the guys who are available, right?

As of now the Magic have six players on guaranteed contracts (Isaac, Fultz, Ross, MCW, Ennis, Porter) out injured plus another two-way player out injured. That's 7 of 17 guys just flat out not available right now.

Of the 10 healthy players they do have, three of them are centers and none of those three guys share the floor. So really they only have 9.

Randle and Franks aren't NBA players, but who else is going to fill those minutes right now? There's no one else they could be playing in favor of those guys.

[tiderulz]

yet another game where Magic can't rebound nor keep teams from scoring in paint.
Other than getting burn and repetitions, there is nothing that players will learn from this games.

Saw some strange AD comments, guy just returned from injury, this is his 3rd game ,looked like horse***t in first two. Especially because it's achillie injury ,he won't try to kill himself against team that lost 12 of last 15 games.

Obviously we have no power forward. The centers are doing a good job. It's all part of the tank.

Okeke is more of a small forward.

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i always thought Okeke could fit a Bruce Bowen/Mikal Bridges type of SF. defense, 3 pt shots, not a point forward, dynamic type of one

[ChosenSavior]

Read on Twitter

Gotta make sure this was not forgotten. Looks to me like Chuma has put that knee injury in the rear view mirror. Love when he plays aggressive like this.

[KillMonger]

I'm hoping we shut down Ross for the rest of the season. We have some critical games against Cleveland, Minny, && Detroit left on the schedule.

If houston can shut down wall for a hammy, we can shut down ross for a backiotomy

[pepe1991]

yet another game where Magic can't rebound nor keep teams from scoring in paint.
Other than getting burn and repetitions, there is nothing that players will learn from this games.

Saw some strange AD comments, guy just returned from injury, this is his 3rd game ,looked like horse***t in first two. Especially because it's achillie injury ,he won't try to kill himself against team that lost 12 of last 15 games.

disagree. we've seen Cole go 6-16 in a game or worse. last night 6-11 to go along with 7 assists. maybe, just maybe he is starting to use some shot selection vs just shooting every time he gets it. we'll see over the next few games. Chuma had a good bounce back game and playing against AD. I dont care what you say about not killing himself, he is still 6'10 with 7'5 wingspan. Okeke getting his shots and offense over him, that gives him confidence. not a lot to take away from the game, but those are 2 good points to see.

We've seen Cole shoot 5-14 against Pacers few days ago.
We've seen Okeke shoot 1-12 few days ago or 6-17 against one of worst defenses in nba.

In past we've seen Payton, Harris, Gordon,Hezonja patching together nice string of empty calory stats that had no meaning for their careers going forward. It's nba, tail end of a regular season in empty arenas. No defense, very low stakes, you think Davis will play in 6th gear to beat second least talented team in nba?

[tiderulz]

yet another game where Magic can't rebound nor keep teams from scoring in paint.
Other than getting burn and repetitions, there is nothing that players will learn from this games.

Saw some strange AD comments, guy just returned from injury, this is his 3rd game ,looked like horse***t in first two. Especially because it's achillie injury ,he won't try to kill himself against team that lost 12 of last 15 games.

disagree. we've seen Cole go 6-16 in a game or worse. last night 6-11 to go along with 7 assists. maybe, just maybe he is starting to use some shot selection vs just shooting every time he gets it. we'll see over the next few games. Chuma had a good bounce back game and playing against AD. I dont care what you say about not killing himself, he is still 6'10 with 7'5 wingspan. Okeke getting his shots and offense over him, that gives him confidence. not a lot to take away from the game, but those are 2 good points to see.

We've seen Cole shoot 5-14 against Pacers few days ago.
We've seen Okeke shoot 1-12 few days ago or 6-17 against one of worst defenses in nba.

In past we've seen Payton, Harris, Gordon,Hezonja patching together nice string of empty calory stats that had no meaning for their careers going forward. It's nba, tail end of a regular season in empty arenas. No defense, very low stakes, you think Davis will play in 6th gear to beat second least talented team in nba?

you dont go from nothing to champs in a week. you take baby steps. I like what Cole and Okeke did last game. we see what they do the next game. do they build on it? does Cole go 1-12 again? there are things you can take away from losses. I coach my daughters soccer games. sometimes we are just overwhelmed and lose bad, but you can still find good sequences or good plays that you can highlight to build off of for the next game. yes, the majority of the game may be bad, but you find the things to help build and develop your players.

[zaymon]

yet another game where Magic can't rebound nor keep teams from scoring in paint.
Other than getting burn and repetitions, there is nothing that players will learn from this games.

Saw some strange AD comments, guy just returned from injury, this is his 3rd game ,looked like horse***t in first two. Especially because it's achillie injury ,he won't try to kill himself against team that lost 12 of last 15 games.

disagree. we've seen Cole go 6-16 in a game or worse. last night 6-11 to go along with 7 assists. maybe, just maybe he is starting to use some shot selection vs just shooting every time he gets it. we'll see over the next few games. Chuma had a good bounce back game and playing against AD. I dont care what you say about not killing himself, he is still 6'10 with 7'5 wingspan. Okeke getting his shots and offense over him, that gives him confidence. not a lot to take away from the game, but those are 2 good points to see.

We've seen Cole shoot 5-14 against Pacers few days ago.
We've seen Okeke shoot 1-12 few days ago or 6-17 against one of worst defenses in nba.

In past we've seen Payton, Harris, Gordon,Hezonja patching together nice string of empty calory stats that had no meaning for their careers going forward. It's nba, tail end of a regular season in empty arenas. No defense, very low stakes, you think Davis will play in 6th gear to beat second least talented team in nba?

Lakers have very high stakes right now, they defend from the play in tournament. I dont care about stats, but you can see Cole started to read the game more and Chuma is making right plays regularly. Gordon always had bad decision making, Payton was a loser and even less efficient than Anthony, Harris is good and Hezonja..... well he was a spectacular bust from beginning.