The Orlando Magic were embarrassed by the Atlanta Hawks after a poor second-half effort saw them lose a 10-point halftime lead. Evan Fournier, the team's leading scorer, called a spade a spade after his team went down 101-93 to the Hawks (7-27).
“It’s terrible,” said Fournier, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic. “A terrible loss. Terrible loss.”
Perhaps what's more worrisome is how the playoff-hopeful Magic allowed a Trae Young-less Hawks team to beat them. Backup point guard Brandon Goodwin went off for a career-high 21 points in 22 minutes, sporting a plus-22 during his brief time on the court — changing the outcome of the game.
The second-year point man had never scored in double figures in an NBA game… until Monday against the Magic, when he made 7-of-11 from the floor, grabbed three rebounds, dished out six assists, and added two steals and a blocked shot for good measure.
“No disrespect [to] him — I don’t even know him — but that backup point guard, he had a huge impact, probably the best game of his career,” said Fournier. “We can’t let guys like that that aren’t even on the team just impact us and dominate us, period.
“Credit to him. He played well. But still, it should never happen. Never.”
The Hawks had lost 10 straight games before running into the Magic to end their skid on Monday. The Magic (14-19) have only won three of their last 11 outings and are now precipitously falling out of playoff contention, only leading the Chicago Bulls by 1.5 games in the race.
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