Leading late in the fourth quarter, the Orlando Magic looked poised to break their four-game losing streak. Then Chicago Bulls guard Coby White took over the game.
White closed the game on a personal 9-2 run as the Chicago Bulls came back to beat the Magic, 125-123. He scored a career-high 44 points in the victory, with 14 of those points coming in the final 6:18 of the game, when he outscored the Magic by himself.
The Bulls also got a surprising performance from White’s backcourt mate, Tre Jones, who scored a season-high 20 points. Add in Josh Giddey’s near triple-double with 19 points, nine assists and 13 rebounds, and the Bulls’ backcourt was simply too much for the Magic.
White was highly efficient in Thursday’s win, shooting 16-for-28 from the field and 7-for-15 from three-point range. The much bigger Magic squad got to the foul line for 40 free throws, but the Bulls trio kept things relatively even by combining to shoot 17-for-19 from the line themselves.
For the Magic, it’s their fifth straight loss, with the last four coming by just 11 points combined, and the last three by just five. They’ve been getting torched by guards throughout the losing streak, whether it was White’s 44 points, Steph Curry’s 56 points Feb. 27 and even Ty Jerome’s 20 points in 21 minutes Feb. 25.
Some of that is bad luck in close games, but some of it is the absence of All-Defensive guard Jalen Suggs, who was ruled out for the year this week. With Suggs on the floor, the Magic are 20-17. Without him, they’re 9-17.
Now they’re in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, facing two play-in games just to make the playoffs — one of which would be against these Chicago Bulls. The Magic aren’t dropping these games by much — six of their last seven losses were by six points or fewer. But they’re still dropping the games, and they’re running out of time to turn things around.
