Magic defense can’t stop Thunder; Terrence Ross scoring surge not enough

The Orlando Magic win games with their defense. Wednesday night against Oklahoma City, it was difficult to tell that the Magic came into the game leading the NBA in fewest-points-allowed average.

Orlando’s Terrence Ross and Oklahoma City’s Dennis Schroder put on a show at Amway Center. Unfortunately for the Magic, Schroder rarely missed a chance to score.

The defense had issues stopping the Thunder’s solid pick-and-roll offense led by veteran point guard Chris Paul. They couldn’t keep track of Schroder all night and he lit up the Magic defense, which came in allowing just 103.9 points a game, for 31 points as the Thunder pulled away late for a 120-114 victory.

Oklahoma City was clicking as a team, hitting 60.5 percent of its shots. Schroder made 13-of-18 shots, including 3-of-4 3-pointers. Those numbers did not sit well with Magic coach Steve Clifford, who has lauded his squad’s pick-and-roll defense most of the season.

“Pretty simple. … We have a good team and we can talk about the injuries and all of that. … We’re going to have to defend every night, and if we’ll defend and be an elite defensive team … we can beat anybody,” Clifford said. “If we defend like that [against OKC], it’s gonna be a long season. That’s it.

“Everything we worked on this morning [in practice], they played right to their strengths. We got crushed on the ball, we got crushed in the pick-and-roll and our interior players at the rim were late all night. You have to play both with intensity and purpose and we had neither.”

Those were tough words to hear for a Magic team that Clifford had just lauded after Monday’s victory at Charlotte, saying the second half against the Hornets was “as good a 24 minutes as we’ve played so far.”

Those minutes were rare Wednesday, but thanks to Ross, Orlando still had a shot to win this game. He tried to help the Magic keep pace with a third-quarter flurry of his own, but it wasn’t enough. Ross finished 26 points on 8-of-16 shooting, including 5-of-11 3-pointers, and Nikola Vucevic had 24 points and 11 rebounds, but the Magic fell to 21-24 this season.

Orlando got a brief scare early in the game when point guard Markelle Fultz left to have his left ring finger X-rayed. After confirming no extensive damage, he returned in the second quarter with taped fingers to support a sprained fourth metatarsal in his left ring finger.

The Magic were having trouble matching the Thunder basket-for-basket until Ross took over in the third quarter.

He single-handedly pulled the Magic out of a lull with a flurry that saw him score 14 points on 4-of-4 shooting, including 3-of-3 3-pointers. He turned a 15-point Magic deficit into a tied game with 26 seconds left in the third.

The problem in the fourth was Orlando’s inability to take advantage of opportunities and to get Ross the ball.

“I think we were just trying to look at other options,” Ross said. “We had a chance. … Even though we had some turnovers and they made some tough shots, we still had a chance to tie or take the lead. We just didn’t make enough plays. … They found a way to get it done.”

Despite another slow start on the offensive end, the Magic were able to keep pace with the Thunder until Oklahoma City moved out to a 14-point lead early in the second quarter. With Fultz’s return from the locker room, the Magic eventually regrouped and went on a run of their own to pull within 46-42 after an Evan Fournier 3-pointer with 3:38 left in the half.

OKC, however, maintained its strong early scoring pace and had an answer every time Orlando rallied, which was due mostly to the Thunder’s strong pick-and-roll offense.

“Their guards are tough. They’re good players. All three of them are good off the pick-and-roll and they’re also good in isolation,” Orlando reserve point guard Michael Carter-Williams said. “So it was hard, and then they got [Mike] Muscala coming in and he pops and he can knock the shot down. So it was tough. Clearly, it wasn’t our best defensive game.”

chays@orlandosentinel.com