TORONTO – The Orlando Magic trudged into Scotiabank Arena on Sunday afternoon very much the same way that they somberly staggered out of it back in April – frustrated with their shaky shooting and puzzled by a sputtering offense.
Orlando was ousted from the first round of the NBA playoffs last spring by the eventual champion Toronto Raptors largely because of an offense that shot just 38.8 percent overall and only 29.9 percent from 3-point range in the five-game series.
The Magic (1-1) returned 12 players and approximately 86 percent of the minutes played from last season’s playoff team and vowed to have learned valuable lessons that would help them going forward.