Osceola led by 9 entering fourth quarter
The undermanned Osceola Magic lost a hard-fought battle to the Stockton Kings, 118-110, in the G League in front of a near-sellout, loud, inspired crowd of 3,421 at Silver Spurs Arena on Monday night. This was the third game of the best-of-three final series.
After being down 15 points earlier in the half, Stockton went on a 9-0 run to start the fourth quarter to tie the game at 82. A Mason Jones 3-pointer gave Stockton their first lead of the game, 85-82. Osceola's Javonte Smart answered back with a three of his own to tie it again. Jones, the Finals Most Valuable Player, then hit another three, but on the ensuing Magic play, Smart was fouled as he hit a 3-pointer. He hit the free throw to put the Magic up 86-85.
Smart then hit an off-balance 3-pointer to put Osceola up 5. A Kings' Skal Labissiere 3-pointer and a 2-point free throw by Dexter Dennis tied the game at 95. Labissiere followed with another 3-pointer to give the Kings a three-point lead. The lead ballooned to 9 points before the Magic's season was popped by the Kings in the title game. Osceola was outscored 45-28 in the fourth quarter.
"There is a reason why we finish games with [Smart]", Osceola Magic head coach Dylan Murphy said. "He always finds his rhythm. Frankly, he kept us in the game.
"Our offense kind of stalled out a little bit," the coach said of the late-game drought. "This is game three of the finals, everything on the line. Our guys fought their tails off and did everything they could."
Ethan Thompson led the Magic with 28 points. Myron Gardner added 20 points, and Slawson had 20. Mac McClung had a playoff low 11 points in the game.
"It's a sick feeling," McClung said of his performance in the loss. "I definitely put it on myself. It was one of those nightmare days.
"I feel this whole year I've come up in the big moments, and the biggest games, and then this was the worst game of my life. If I had just contributed something, I feel like the outcome would have been different. It's something I'll have trouble forgetting or forgiving myself for."
The game started well for the Magic. The back-and-forth first quarter scoring started with Thompson scoring on a goaltend. Later in the period, the fans were treated to a Thompson alley-oop dunk on a pass from McClung that brought the crowd to life. McClung did not hit his first shot - a 14-footer - until the 3:55 mark of the period. Osceola tried to set the tone defensively, holding Stockton scoreless for the final 1:52 and going on a 7-0 run, to take a 29-21 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Magic continued the run to start the second quarter with a Smart 3-pointer, and a steal and monstrous dunk by Myron Gardner to go up 13 points before the Kings took an early timeout. The Kings then adjusted offensively by attacking the basket in the paint against the smaller Magic squad, scoring 16 of their 28 second-quarter points inside the 3-point line. This was a problem throughout the ballgame. Despite only hitting two 3-pointers, Stockton cut the deficit to 55-49 at halftime. This proved to be the dagger in the Magic season.
"They are just bigger than us," Murphy said. " We tried to challenge them with our speed. It's just two really good teams going head-to-head, and they made a run in the fourth."
Thompson added that the players kept fighting by trying to score in transition.
"They made some shots late, and we had some possessions we didn't execute," Thompson said. "We let it get away from us in the fourth quarter, and they made a run. We were playing catch up from there."
Both teams were tentative after the halftime break until Osceola went on an 8-0 run to take a 67-56 lead after 3-pointers by Slawson and Thompson, and a McClung 6-footer. However, the Stockton inside focus hurt the Magic when key starter Slawson was forced to sit after picking up his fifth foul with 7:58 left in the period. Patrick Gardner, the tallest Osceola player at 6-11, came into the game to slow the Stockton inside game, hit two 3-pointers, and snagged three crucial rebounds in the last three minutes to keep the Magic ahead 82-73.
Murphy said he had no regrets leaving Slawson in for his fifth foul so early in the quarter. "We try not to foul guys out by subbing them out, and we let them play through. Most of the time, it works, but obviously, he picked up his fifth foul."
The Magic had a great season and were the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
"I told the guys I'm super proud of what we did," Murphy said. "We turned it around and got one game from the championship."
