Orlando Magic: Top 10 moments of the 2018-19 NBA season
By Luke Duffy
9. Making waves down in Mexico
The Magic took a two-game trip down to Mexico in December to take on the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz. At that point, they sat at 12-15 and knew that dropping one or both of those games would set back what had already been an up-and-down season even further.
Instead they stepped up, taking both games by a combined 13 points. Again Vucevic was huge, putting up 26 points and 10 boards against the Bulls, and posting 19 rebounds and five assists against the Jazz (all team highs across both games). This road trip served to solidify a trait that the Magic would call upon plenty more times throughout the season.
Despite not playing their best against an inferior opponent (Bulls) and one which would be described as superior (Jazz), they still found a way to hang around against both before pulling out a win. The key to this was their defensive play, and Mexico was the place where things started clicking.
This is a big time win for Orlando over Utah.
— The Lando (@TheLando__) December 16, 2018
The Magic will finish 2-0 in Mexico, and improve to 14-15, now just a half game back of 6th in the East.
Hornets are playing the Lakers right now, and the Pistons are facing the Celtics. A loss for both would tie the Magic for 6th.
They held both opponents to well under 100 points (Bulls to 91 and Jazz to 89), ratcheting up the pressure on that end so that even when their own shots weren’t falling, they were still able to carve out a win.
Just as important, the Magic would go on a terrible four-game losing streak after this, to almost kill off their postseason chances before the calendar had even changed to 2019. Had they dropped both games in Mexico as well, that would likely have been too deep of a hole to climb out.