By Canadian Press

Poor three-point defence costs Toronto Raptors in loss to Orlando Magic

Jan 3, 2025 | 10:38 PM

TORONTO — Stopping the Orlando Magic’s three-point shooting should have been easy.

Orlando was making a league-worst 30.6 per cent of its three-point attempts heading into Friday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors. But, instead, the Magic made a season-high 19 shots from beyond the arc in a 106-97 win at Scotiabank Arena.

“We just had a couple possessions in a row where we made undisciplined mistakes, where we messed up some scouting report stuff,” said starting centre Jakob Poeltl. “We were going over on guys that we could have went under on, that got us into rotations, and then they got threes out of it.

“There was a couple times where we just didn’t close aggressive enough, and they got threes out of it.”

The Magic pulled ahead with a 23-6 run in the final five minutes of the first quarter backed by their three-point shooting.

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Nearly half of Orlando’s three-point shooting came in the first quarter alone.

Their nine threes in the opening 12 minutes of play tied a franchise record. The Magic also made nine three-pointers against the San Antonio Spurs on Feb. 8, 2024 and versus the Los Angeles Lakers on Jan. 31, 2018.

Orlando made 13 three-pointers in the first half, another franchise record. The Magic have done that several times, the last time on March 30, 2024 against the Memphis Grizzlies.

“Defensively, the biggest problem was the three-point line, especially that first half,” said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. “We just did not get close enough to shooters that we identified as shooters.

“We allowed rhythm shots and they caught fire.”

Forward Ochai Agbaji agreed with his coach, noting that he and his teammates just weren’t aggressive enough.

“It’s just really more of an effort thing, getting to those closeouts,” he said. “We know we can do it, but I think it’s more of a mindset thing, to really go and close out, take them off the line, and run them off the line.”

The two teams were evenly matched on field goal attempts. Orlando was 37 for 79 and Toronto 38 for 80. But the Magic took more three-point attempts and made a higher percentage of them, finishing with 10 of 44 shooting (43.2 per cent) to the Raptors’ 10 of 29 (34.5 per cent) shooting.

“We’re messing up those fine details, and it cost us,” said Poeltl.

Orlando did it all largely without star guard Jalen Suggs who left the game late in the second quarter with back spasms. He had six points in 13 minutes of play on two three-pointers.

Toronto hosts the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday. They’re second in the league with a 38.5 three-point shooting percentage.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 3, 2025.

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press