After watching the Portland Trail Blazers play with the urgency of a high schooler strutting to detention, Terry Stotts decided he had seen enough.

His team was riding a three-game losing streak. His defense was yet again leaky and uninspiring. His patience had worn thin.

So the man known for his calm demeanor and positive vibe laid into his team with a rare halftime tongue-lashing Wednesday night at the Moda Center, excoriating the Blazers for their embarrassing defense and spotty effort.

"He was irate," CJ McCollum said. "Irate and whatever other adjectives you want to use that describe upset and disappointed."

The Blazers responded to their coach's uncharacteristic outburst with a comeback victory, defeating the Orlando Magic 115-112. Fittingly, the win not only ended the Blazers' skid, but also delivered Stotts the 400th win of his career.

"He was really only yelling at us because he wanted to get his 400th win," Evan Turner said, laughing, in the postgame locker room. "I said, 'Look, bro, we know what it's about. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out when we want to figure it out.'"

Of course, there was no joking in that locker room at halftime. Not after the Blazers had allowed Orlando to whip the ball around and run through its sets with little-to-no resistance for 24 minutes. Not after allowing the Magic punish them with a bevy of unabated three-pointers. Not after allowing Nikola Vucevic to score at will inside. The Magic led 63-55, but it felt like double that many as they shot 56 percent from the field, including 57 percent from three-point range. Nine Orlando players scored, seven made at least one three-pointer and 16 of the Magic's 23 field goals came off an assist.

It was a first-half clinic and, worst of all, it was merely the latest example of the Blazers getting gashed. After opening the season with such inspiring and stingy defense -- which helped push them to the top of the Western Conference -- the Blazers had devolved into one of the NBA's worst. Milwaukee torched them for 143 points in a 43-point bloodbath. Golden State made mincemeat out of them, scoring 125 points in a 28-point beat down. Heck, the Blazers barely beat the New York Knicks after allowing 114 points at Madison Square Garden.

Over their last 11 games, the Blazers boast a defensive rating of 113.2, third-worst in the NBA.

"The first half was very disappointing with our defensive focus, aggressiveness -- everything," Stotts said. "I didn't think we had very much of an impact on the game at all in the first half defensively."

So, when Stotts entered the locker room at halftime, he let his team have it, chastising their effort, challenging their will and criticizing their communication. This, Stotts said, was a perfect example of why they had lost three in a row and five of seven. At one point, as Stotts turned to a large marker board at the front of the locker room to point out their awful quarter-by-quarter defensive statistics, he pounded the board a few times out of anger.

McCollum said it was as animated as he's seen his coach. "Top five for sure," McCollum said.

Usually, the entire coaching staff has free rein to address the team at halftime. But Stotts' speech was so passionate, so gripping, nobody felt the need to follow him Wednesday night.

"He's always calm," Damian Lillard said. "All of our coaches, they all have their moments when they get on us. But Coach is usually the most positive one. The most calm. He came in and right away addressed our defense and what we weren't doing, what we haven't done well while we've been losing games. He was loud, hit the board a few times. I think everybody felt where he was coming from. We agreed with him."

The Blazers responded with a dominant third quarter, outscoring Orlando 40-21 to snatch momentum. They held the Magic to 42 percent shooting -- and just three three-pointers -- as their defense did a 180-degree turnaround. At one point, the Blazers were so tenacious and the Magic so flustered, Orlando players heaved passes into the front row on back-to-back possessions. Later, when the Blazers' free throw shooting betrayed them down the stretch, they forced the Magic into four turnovers over the final 1:45 to sneak away with a win.

This defense, combined with a remarkable offensive outburst from Lillard -- who scored 41 points and made a franchise-record 10 three-pointers -- helped the Blazers (13-8) snap out of their three-game funk. And it was all inspired by Stotts' halftime rant.

"He's usually calm and always kind of even-keeled," Zach Collins said. "But you could tell at halftime, he was definitely pretty angry. And, again, rightfully so. We needed to wake up."

By the end of the night, in the very locker room where he had lambasted his team, Stotts, who became the 47th coach in NBA history to reach 400 victories, was presented with the game ball.

"This is well overdue," McCollum said. "We prolonged it and made it interesting. I was glad he was able to get that done today."

Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman