Orlando Magic: 3 takeaways from 2018-19 preseason opener

The Orlando Magic suffered their first loss of the preseason to the Philadelphia 76ers, 120-114. Here are three takeaways from an up-and-down game.

It’s unfair to expect a ton of good in a team’s first preseason game. With the way the new NBA schedule plays out, most teams only have 4-6 days before their penultimate preseason game starts. For a young team like the Orlando Magic, with a lot of moving pieces this offseason, it will always be a letdown to expect a well-oiled machine the first day out.

The Magic lost 120-114 to the Philadelphia 76ers Monday night, but the close final score was not indicative of how this game played out, as per usual with preseason games.

At the end of the first half, Orlando was down 11 and lucky to be that close. Shots weren’t falling unless your name was Nikola Vucevic, Joel Embiid was dominating Orlando’s bigs inside, the Sixers were scoring easily in transition and Orlando’s offense was somewhat stunted. It also doesn’t help that Jonathan Isaac suffered a right ankle sprain — the same ankle that caused him to miss extended time last season — in the second quarter.

Orlando started to show life in the final frame as the third unit put up a valiant effort, outscoring Philly’s deep bench squad 36-27, but it was too little, too late.

Admittedly, a six-point loss in the first preseason game of the season, against one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, is nothing to shake your head at. While it was far from a perfect game for the Magic, there were some positive aspects from game one.

For one, the Magic shot well from 3-point range, going 10-for-24 (41.7 percent) despite Evan Fournier and Nikola Vucevic combining to go 1-for-10 from deep. They also only turned the ball over 12 times to Philly’s 19, and shot better overall at 49.5 percent compared to the Sixers’ 46.9 percent.

Individually, Vucevic led the Magic in scoring with 20, while Terrence Ross had 13 points off the bench. Other impressive performances from D.J. Augustin (12 points, 3-for-4 from 3), Mohamed Bamba (12 points, 2-for-2 from 3), Isaiah Briscoe (11 points in only eight minutes) and the stat-sheet stuffing Aaron Gordon (10 points, seven rebounds and four assists) kept Orlando in the game.

Let’s look at three takeaways from game one of four in the preseason.