MIAMI – Facing the Golden State Warriors, the reigning National Basketball Association (NBA) champions, the Orlando Magic knew they needed to go back to the drawing board after a poor start to the season.
A “heart-to-heart” talk on Wednesday worked after Jalen Suggs nailed a pair of late three-pointers to send the Warriors crashing to a fourth straight defeat on Thursday.
The 21-year-old scored nine points inside the final two minutes, as the Magic overcame a 39-point display from Stephen Curry to score a surprise 130-129 victory. Suggs led the scoring for Orlando with 26 points at the Amway Centre, with six teammates finishing in double digits.
“This is such an amazing team,” Suggs said.
“We’ve been doing everything the right way all season. We’ve come up short in a couple of tough ones, a couple of close ones. And we just stuck with it. We had a real heart-to-heart conversation last night, just the players and the coaching staff, about what we need to do to change the culture.
“We need to get used to winning, get used to moments like this when we finish and close it out, which is exactly what we did today. It was a great team win, we stuck together and closed it out.”
The win improved Orlando’s record to 2-7, although the Magic remain rooted to the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
Curry’s masterpiece for Golden State was backed with 27 points from Klay Thompson, with Kevon Looney adding 17.
The Warriors had gone into the game determined to snap a three-game losing streak which followed disappointing losses in Charlotte, Detroit and Miami.
But they fell to 3-6 and are now 0-5 on the road and coach Steve Kerr said it is time for some changes.
“We’ve had nine games now, so we’ve had a decent look at combinations. So it’s time to try something different. Everybody will get a chance to play. We’ve to find combinations that click,” he said.
Draymond Green, who poured in just eight points, said the problems were on the defensive end.
“When you’re 3-6, you have to look at everything. But I’ll say this again, it’s our defence. We’re not defending at the level it takes to win games,” he said.
In the only other game on Thursday, Aaron Gordon scored a season-high 27 points to lead the Denver Nuggets to a 122-110 win over the hosts Oklahoma City Thunder.
Nikola Jokic had 15 points, 13 rebounds and 14 assists for his 79th career triple-double, breaking a tie with Wilt Chamberlain for sixth-most in NBA history. AFP
