ORLANDO, Fla. _ Frank Vogel hated the way his Orlando Magic played in their first two games against his former team, the Indiana Pacers, this season.
It's safe to say Vogel didn't like what he saw Wednesday night in the teams' third matchup, either.
Lacking energy and precision, the Magic lost to the Pacers 98-88 at Amway Center.
The Magic's offense struggled, especially in the fourth quarter, when the team made just four of its 17 shots.
Orlando cut the deficit to 89-84 on a floater by Elfrid Payton with 4:50 to go.
On Indiana's next two possessions, Jeff Teague launched an airball from 22 feet, and Paul George threw a cross-court pass to no one in particular, and the ball sailed out of bounds.
But the Magic could not take advantage of their opportunities.
After George's miscue, Evan Fournier committed an offensive foul for the Magic's 12th turnover of the night.
When Thaddeus Young made a cutting layup, the Magic responded with a traveling violation by Payton.
It was that kind of night.
When Payton missed pull-up jumper from 14 feet a short while later, the Pacers' C.J. Miles gathered the rebound and sped upcourt in transition. Miles made a layup to extend the Pacers' lead to 93-84 with 2:38 remaining.
When the Magic cut the deficit to 93-88 with 1:52 left, Miles drained a 3-pointer.
Magic center Nikola Vucevic scored 15 points, collected 15 rebounds and dished out five assists. But he was a non-factor in the fourth quarter, scoring only two points without an assist.
George, the Pacers' superstar, managed to score a season-low eight points.
But Miles finished with a team-high 16 points, and Teague added 13 points and nine assists.
Orlando entered the day only 4{ games behind the Eastern Conference's eighth-place team, thanks to the mediocrity in the East.
The Magic (19-32) are fading with 12 losses in their last 15 games.
The Pacers (26-22) won their fourth consecutive game.
A weird vibe pervaded Amway Center on Wednesday night. A bunch of empty seats dotted the lower bowl. The fans who did attend seemed even more disengaged than usual.
Then again, the Magic gave them precious little to cheer.
The team looked out-of-sync and discombobulated on both ends of the floor. C.J. Watson stole an Indiana inbounds pass during the second quarter and then bungled a point-blank layup attempt. In the third quarter, Vucevic air-balled a 3-pointer from the top of the arc.
Vogel tried to snap his team out of its funk. With 7:50 to go in the third quarter, he picked up a technical foul for telling the referees that a moving screen should have been called against George.
Early in the fourth quarter, Watson tried to prevent a loose ball from going over the sideline, and he careened face-first over the scorer's table. In some ways, it was the Magic's best moment of the night.
The Magic were awful in their two prior games against the Pacers _ an 88-69 loss on Nov. 14 and a 117-104 defeat on Jan. 1.
Vogel disliked his players' lack of energy.
Energy was a problem again Wednesday night.
After the Magic played the third, and final, game of their recent three-game road trip through Boston, Toronto and Minnesota, the team stayed over in Minneapolis so players could receive a decent night's sleep and would not arrive back in Orlando around 4 a.m. Tuesday.
On Wednesday night, the Magic looked half-asleep.
