Talks were held between the Magic and Fournier’s representatives, but the sides could not come to an agreement – meaning that Fournier will play out this season on his rookie contract and then he’ll become a restricted free agent on July 1. After all, the Magic are 0-3 heading into Tuesday night’s contest against the New Orleans Pelicans.
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Center Nik Vucevic received the ball in the lane, attempted to make a move and – untouched – suffered a right-knee injury as he tried to plant his right foot. He made a 3-point shot with 39.8 seconds left that ballooned the Magic’s lead back to 10 and effectively ended the game.
We’re officially in crunch time, as the Magic are up by – you guessed it – six points on the Pelicans with less than five minutes in the game.
Vucevic’s injury cast a pall on the Magic’s pulse-pounding 119-114 overtime loss.
Really disappointed. Disappointed all around really, I didnt think we competed at the level that we needed to win. Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry expressed his disappointment during the post-conference. “I’m glad we kept our lead and we were able to finish the game the right way”. “We got back-cut, couldn’t contain dribble penetration and then i didn’t think our offense had any rhythm to it so we we’ve just got a lot of work to do”.
Fortunately, the Rockets gained 9 points, including James Harden’s 7 points while the Magic had only 4 points. Last season, New Orleans produced at least one point on 58.6 percent of possessions when Davis was in pick-and-roll.
The New Orleans Pelicans’ high hopes continue to take an early body blow.
New Orleans also missed seven of 25 free throws, while Orlando was a ideal 12 of 12.
It’s like that famous saying; “When life hands you lemons, you box out, set hard picks, and make correct defensive rotations so Ryan Anderson doesn’t take your minutes”. “I got lucky, I guess”. “I got lucky, I guess”.
In the four games played, the Pelicans have compiled a putrid -43.4 1st quarter Net Rating.
While it would be easy to name Fournier the MVP thanks to the 30 point outburst, it was Vucevic who steadied the Magic nearly every time New Orleans made a run. Davis, normally a power forward, had to play a few at center and did not look entirely comfortable.
And where last season Davis hit 41.5 percent of his shots from inside the paint but outside the restricted area under the basket, he’s making just 22.2 percent of those shots this season. The Magic have led the entire game and have been the better team tonight. This offensive rebounding barrage from the Magic is pretty troublesome right now, and exactly what I was anxious about when mentioning my concern with Asik being out.
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“I was exhausted”, he said. He’s drawing more defensive attention than ever and struggling to put the ball in the basket. By the midpoint of the second quarter, Orlando had just four field goals in the quarter and trailed 49-46 when Harden buried a 3-pointer with 6:21 left in the half. The Rockets recently grabbed their first win, and will most definitely be out looking to catch fire against this young group.
