On Saturday night at KIA Center, the Orlando Magic thrashed the Memphis Grizzlies 118-88.
The first quarter came to a close with Memphis already down 20 points. Orlando put up 33 points, while the Grizzlies managed just 13, shooting a dismal 21.7 percent from the field.
The victory snapped the Magic’s three-game losing streak. Earlier in the week, they lost close games against the Sacramento Kings, the Golden State Warriors, and the Los Angeles Clippers.
Orlando ended a five-game losing streak against the Grizzlies. The previous meeting ended in a nail-biter at FedExForum, 107-106, with a Grizzlies win on January 26th.
Memphis dropped to 24-50 for the season, with eight games remaining, a mark they’ll want to forget. It appeared early on in Saturday night’s contest that Memphis’ players were focused on something other than basketball, and it showed.
Reserve Jordan Goodwin led the Grizzlies with 16 points and 11 rebounds for his first career double-double.
In his second game back from injury, Brandon Clarke had a solid showing, with 13 points and four rebounds off the bench.
“It was already out of hand — they won every single quarter,” said Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins after the game. “You have to give the Magic tons of credit. They played with a lot of physicality; their defense was phenomenal tonight. Couldn’t get in the paint — couldn’t knock down an open shot. They played beautiful basketball, shared the rock.”
Jenkins added, “So you know we just kept trying to fight. I thought we had a chance to win that second quarter — have some momentum, but the Magic had an answer for everything; so many different guys stepped up and played well.”
“I thought BC [Clarke] did a really good job; liked seeing Jordan [Goodwin] have kind of a bounce-back game. I thought he did some good things. Well, obviously Luke [Kennard]’s been out for a couple of weeks now, just seeing him have some pop with his conditioning and stuff. And we’re just trying to find every way possible to have some positives and move forward. And obviously we’ve got to respond on Monday against Detroit.”
“Keep fighting, keep making something out of each every day,” Jenkins said about his message to his players as the season is winding down. “That’s what we’ve done all season long. Every year that I’ve been here we got different guys that are gonna hear that message for the very first time. Over and over again. Obviously we haven’t been in this situation since I’ve been here, but you gotta make the most of every day. That’s what we stand for.”
Memphis travels to Detroit to take on the Pistons, Monday, April 1st, at Little Caesars Arena at 6 p.m. CT.
