ORLANDO, Fla. _ Just when it looked like the Orlando Magic were making progress with their injury problem, they took a painful step backward Friday night.
Aaron Gordon played against the Portland Trail Blazers after a two-game absence due to a concussion, but he injured his right leg as he ran back on defense with about 7:55 remaining in the fourth quarter and didn't return to the game.
Team officials said Gordon strained his right calf.
Gordon's departure made a bad night even worse for the out-of-sync Magic, who lost to the Trail Blazers, 95-88, at Amway Center.
Magic center Nikola Vucevic scored a game-high 26 points, but his team made only 38 percent of its shots.
The Magic cut the Trail Blazers' lead to 75-69 when Marreese Speights sank a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter.
They couldn't sustain their momentum.
Speights committed a shooting foul against Pat Connaughton, and Connaughton made one of his two free throws.
On the Magic's next trip down the floor, Speights missed a 3 and then received a technical foul for arguing with a referee over a non-call. The Trail Blazers made the ensuing free throw and then received a pull-up jumper from former Magic point guard Shabazz Napier.
A short while later, Zach Collins made a layup, and Portland suddenly led 83-69 with 8:30 remaining.
The Magic made another run a few minutes later, cutting their deficit to 86-81 on a close-range basket by Vucevic with 3:04 to play.
But the Trail Blazers responded with a layup by Jusuf Nurkic.
After D.J. Augustin had a 3-pointer blocked by CJ McCollum, McCollum made a mid-range jumper as he was fouled and sank the ensuing free throw to put Portland ahead 91-81.
Gordon, who suffered a concussion Dec. 8, started for the Magic and scored 10 of the team's first 16 points.
But Gordon's play was uneven. In the first half alone, he committed a charging foul, had the ball stripped in the low post by Damian Lillard and shot an airball from 17 feet. Worse, referees whistled him for his second foul with 1:52 to go in the first quarter, forcing coach Frank Vogel to sub him out. Gordon picked up his third foul with 4:12 remaining in the second quarter, and Vogel had no other choice but to sit Gordon again. Gordon finished with 13 points and six rebounds.
Portland led by as many as 13 points late in the second quarter.
Orlando then received a badly needed lift that prevented Portland from extending the lead. Augustin drained 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 48-38 and made another trey to cut the deficit to 50-43 just before halftime.
The loss ended a relatively easy five-game stretch of the Magic's schedule that players and coaches had hoped would enable them to make up ground in the standings. They had home games against the Atlanta Hawks and Denver Nuggets, a road game against the Hawks and home games against the Los Angeles Clippers and Trail Blazers. But the stretch was a disaster. Hurt by injuries to Evan Fournier, Jonathan Isaac, Terrence Ross and Gordon, the Magic posted a 1-4 record.
The Magic (11-19) had played the Blazers (15-13) once before this season.
On Nov. 15 in Portland, the Magic did a respectable job slowing Lillard and McCollum, but that understandable emphasis on slowing Lillard and McCollum created opportunities for their teammates. Napier scored 19 points and made all five of his 3-point tries that night.
On Friday, the Magic did a good job against Lillard and McCollum, holding them to 41 points combined. Lillard scored 21, and McCollom had 20.
Napier scored eight points on 4 of 7 shooting, and power forward Al-Farouq Aminu caused problems for the Magic. Aminu scored 15 points on 6 of 9 shooting.
Aminu's contribution gave his teammates the cushion they needed.
