“[The Magic] did punch us,” Ollie told the New York Post after practice Tuesday. “And we didn’t counterpunch that game. But I think our guys are resilient. They’ll bounce back.”
With Banchero absent due to an illness, the Southeast Division-leading Magic (37-28) pulled out to a 27-point halftime lead while Bridges, who finished with a season-low four points, remained scoreless at intermission.
Franz Wagner scored 17 of his 21 points during the decisive first half and older brother Moritz Wagner added 16 as Orlando avenged a pair of blowout losses in Brooklyn, a 124-104 defeat on Nov. 14 and a 129-101 shellacking on Dec. 2.
“I thought it was an important game for us, knowing how the last two games went against them,” said Franz Wagner.
“I was pretty happy with how everybody came out focused for the whole game.”
The Nets (26-39) were certainly not.
Just one night after pulling out Ollie’s first career NBA coaching win in Memphis, Brooklyn watched the Magic guffaw their way through an easy win.
“Last game we kind of got punked,” Brooklyn center Nic Claxton recalled. “They just played with a lot more energy than us. If you’re not playing with energy in the NBA, you’re not gonna win games, so we definitely gotta come out and have our energy right, focus on the game plan.”
“Just being here and seeing how it is when you consistently win games, and then you come out and you lose and the other team is smiling, you hate to see that as a competitor. So you definitely take it personally.”
Bridges amassed 65 points against the Magic in the first two encounters, but only managed to go 2-for-13 from the floor while missing all seven of his 3-point attempts in the third meeting.
The ever-present forward, who has yet to miss an NBA game in his seven-year career, is admittedly having an up and down campaign. But…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply