3 Takeaways from the Trail Blazers disappointing loss to the Orlando Magic

The Portland Trail Blazers dug themselves too big of a hole – twice – and dropped a winnable home game to the Orlando Magic 109-106 at Moda Center.

The Blazers needed to close the first half on a 30-11 run just to draw even with the Magic at the break. Orlando held a nine-point lead entering the final period, and despite a late rally that saw Portland come within one at 107-106, too many unforced errors and mistakes once again proved too costly.

Damian Lillard led all scorers with 30 points. Jusuf Nurkic finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds, while Franz Wagner finished with 29 for the Magic.

Here are three takeaways from Portland’s fourth straight loss and ninth in the past 12 games.

1. Blazers buck the trend

Heading into the matchup with Orlando, Portland was 8-1 against teams with bottom-five defenses and 11-6 against those in the bottom 10. Facing teams allergic to that end of the floor allowed the Blazers to make up for what’s become a nightly barrage of turnovers and poor decisions.

A young Magic team arrived in Portland 25th in the league in defensive rating, which provided a glimmer of hope that this would be the night the Blazers got back in the win column.

Nope.

Despite nearly a half season’s worth of proof that Portland’s best games come against bad defenses, the Blazers only managed to score 106 against an Orlando team that allows more than 114 on average.