LOS ANGELES — The only drama inside Staples Center late Friday night revolved around tacos. Thinking that the Los Angeles Lakers needed to score at least 100 points against the Orlando Magic to receive coupons at Jack in the Box, fans chanted, “We want TA-cos! We want TA-cos!”
Lakers point guard Jeremy Lin elevated for a jumper over Evan Fournier and rattled in the shot, prompting what remained of the sellout crowd to stand and yell.
That moment, as well as the purple and gold streamers that fell from the rafters at the final buzzer, summed up the Magic’s night. The Magic sank to a new low for this season, losing 101-84 to the awful Lakers, who played without aging superstar Kobe Bryant.
“It was a pretty poor effort,” Magic forward Tobias Harris said.
The Lakers outplayed and outhustled the Magic almost the entire game.
In the most obvious sign Los Angeles outhustled Orlando, the Lakers collected 18 offensive rebounds. What made the performance even more frustrating was that just two nights earlier, the Magic held one of the league’s best offensive rebounding teams, the Denver Nuggets, to six offensive boards. Yet, on Friday, Lakers power forward Ed Davis grabbed six offensive rebounds all by himself.
“That tells a story,” Magic coach Jacque Vaughn said.
The Magic’s narrative just worsens and worsens.
Orlando has lost its last five games, its first five-game losing streak this season.
The situation will worsen in the days ahead if the Magic continue to play with the same effort and lack of focus. The Magic’s next four opponents — the Portland Trail Blazers, Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies — own a combined 103-42 record.
“Our confidence can never waver because it’s only going to get worse if we do that,” guard Victor Oladipo said. “It’s tough. It’s just hard not to get frustrated out there. But we can’t let that happen. We’ve got to change that moving forward.”
The energy also needs to improve.
The Magic scored the first four points Friday night, but the Lakers scored on their next three possessions.
Orlando (13-26) never tied the score or took the lead again.
“We just came out kind of flat,” center Nikola Vucevic said. “We didn’t put up the effort necessary to play against [them]. They came out aggressive.”
The Lakers (12-25) held out Bryant to give him some rest, and they fielded a starting five of former Magic point guard Ronnie Price, Wayne Ellington, Ryan Kelly, Davis and Jordan Hill, a quintet less talented than the Magic’s starting five of Elfrid Payton, Oladipo, Harris, Kyle O’Quinn and Vucevic.
“We came here tonight as if we had the game won,” O’Quinn said. “We’ve just got to do better.”
Los Angeles recorded its biggest margin of victory this season, beating Orlando by 17 points.
“They’re a really talented team, though,” Lakers power forward Carlos Boozer said. “It shouldn’t have been that lopsided.”
Josh Robbins covers the Orlando Magic and the NBA for the Orlando Sentinel. You can reach him via e-mail at jbrobbins@tribune.com and connect with him on Facebook at facebook.com/JoshuaBRobbins. Follow him on Twitter at @JoshuaBRobbins.
