Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy has never seen his locker room clear out faster than it did after Game 3 against the Toronto Raptors. It was the Magic’s lone loss in the playoffs so far, and at 14 points their worst defeat since February.
He gave his players a rare day off from practice to think about it, and Orlando responded with a 106-94 gut-check win Saturday at Toronto to take a 3-1 lead. It was a huge step for a franchise that hadn’t won a postseason road game since 2003, and hasn’t gotten past the first round since 1996.
But an even bigger one will be closing out the best-of-seven series with a win Monday, instead of having to try again in Toronto.
“For our team it’s a maturity level,” Van Gundy said. “Over the course of the year we’ve handled adversity better than we handled success. We have to come with hopefully our best game of series.”