The Understated Brilliance of Evan Fournier, Elfrid Payton in Magic Loss to Heat
Evan Fournier and Elfrid Payton created a lot of offense, but plays gone awry were largely to blame, as Orlando’s shooting faltered.
Evan Fournier finished the Magic’s 93-90 loss to the Miami Heat with 10 points and three assists, but his impact on the second unit offense ran far deeper. Fournier effectively broke down the Heat defense, creating a lot of gaps and spacing which led to Magic buckets.
Elfrid Payton created offense sometimes out of thin air, too. But at the end of the night the Magic had more turnovers (18) than assists (17). It is somewhat perplexing, but the issue runs to the core of what team basketball really is — knowing one’s teammates.
This is something coach James Borrego has said repeated his team is still learning how to do, particularly since he took over as interim head coach.
The immediate statistical contributions of having a mere three assists did not display Evan Fournier’s impact on the offense. Elfrid Payton had all nine of his assists through the first three quarters, but resulted in a lot of gaps opening up for Magic shooters (who were unable to convert often). Fournier and Payton are imperative to this team’s motion sets, and it showed Wednesday despite a tough loss.
Over the course of this season, Fournier has tended to rely too heavily on the three-point shot, or even long twos (by most accounts the worst shot in NBA basketball). But Wednesday night against the Miami Heat, the Frenchman broke a little more out of his arsenal.
Fournier finished with a team-best plus-11 mark in a game the Magic lost, and his impact on the game can be seen both through that and the fact that the Magic proceeded to play its best basketball with Fournier more or less running the show.
Evan’s strong play and aggressiveness complemented Willie Green well, and the Magic reserves hit 8 of 12 from the floor during a 5-plus minute stretch over the end of the first quarter and beginning of the second. When Fournier checked in the Magic led 13-12 at the 4:09 mark of the first. By the 9:46 mark, he and Green had connected on back-to-back three-point shots to give the Magic a 25-17 lead, forcing a Miami Heat timeout.
Following the timeout, Fournier went back to work — hard.
His drives to the basket were of the “head up” variety, and it kept the Magic moving the ball. He had a bit of a heat check taking a tough three from the corner that could have put the Magic up 12 at the 8:14 mark, but it rimmed out. Dwyane Wade proceeded to get things cooking and get the Heat back into the game via a 13-5 run over the next three minutes.
But Fournier’s point-forward play served the Magic well while Elfrid Payton rested. When the two played together, it created numerous holes in the Heat’s defense and led to a lot of good looks. Problematically, not all of those shots fell, as the Magic shot just 42.3 percent from the floor, and even worse, just 6 of 22 from three-point range.
With Fournier and Payton both able to create, Aaron Gordon is going to get a lot of easy buckets. He proved to be the biggest beneficiary in his short stint on the floor before an injury forced him to the sideline in the first half.
The rookie connected on all three of his field goals and was on his way to having a very nice night before rolling his ankle. Given that Dewayne Dedmon is usually hacked when catching the ball in position, the Magic need both he and Gordon (poor free throw shooters) to get their looks off quickly. Only Nikola Vucevic has the touch to remain patient while near the basket. But that is the thing, Payton and Fournier continually found backdoor cutters and the Magic bigs lurking around the basket.
And the result? Turnovers.
The Magic had 18 in the game, three of which were credited to Payton. And part of that really is not fair. Fournier picked up a pair of turnovers too, but most of Payton’s were due to his passes being simply too good, too bullet-like.
When it works, it is a thing of beauty. His fastball pitch into Nikola Vucevic at the end of the first half showed just how sharp he really can be. Other times, he needs to realize that Vucevic is the only Magic big with the hands to catch those passes.
Even Victor Oladipo found himself unable to corral Payton’s looks to him on backdoor cuts — although, the pair functioned very well in tandem most of the night.
Even though Oladipo hit just 4 of 13 from the floor, a lot of that was not due to poor offensive execution, but due to Whiteside forcing tough looks at the rim, or Oladipo rushing mid-range jumpers. This entire team is a work in progress, notwithstanding that Oladipo is very polished for a second-year guard.
While it is the point guard’s job to be familiar with the hands he is throwing it towards, a lot of this is just Magic players not being prepared to score.
A truly great point guard finds his teammates even when they are not expecting it. The lack of anticipation the Magic show in being caught by surprise from Payton’s feeds is frustrating. Even beyond the 11 turnovers committed between Fournier and Payton, there could have easily been more if not for a few lucky bounces…
Fournier created a bucket out of a near turnover by picking up his own deflected pass and floating it into the bucket at the 2:36 mark of the second quarter. But plays like that are fortuitous and if the Magic remain careless, it’s going to get the better of them regularly.
This Magic squad is not a team so loaded with talent that it can afford to get too fancy—and when it does, it results in a lot of bobbled passes and blown looks at the rim. Erik Spoelstra clearly gave his players the scouting report on Dedmon, opting to hack him any time he got near the bucket. Dedmon shot 1 of 4 from the line and the Magic missed 13 of its 31 free throws. Even Victor Oladipo blew a free throw late in the game after having hit 39 of his last 40 prior to that trip.
Turnovers and free throws can lose a lot of games, but it hurt Magic fans to watch this one slip through the cracks. Overtime felt like a punishment after seeing the Magic hand the Heat a golden opportunity to push it there. Even converting just a few more of the charity looks would have given the cushion necessary to prevent the game from hitting OT.
Fournier and Payton created a lot of free-flowing offense. Payton had all nine of his dimes by the 1:05 mark of the third quarter. The Magic guards did a great job of rebounding (Oladipo had 13, while Green and Payton combined for another 11), which enabled the Magic to continue to play small: Channing Frye saw 13 minutes and Dedmon received 16.
The Magic mostly played three guards and Tobias Harris along with Vucevic. The small lineup will not work every night, but against a weak Heat interior it seemed to make the most sense in this one. It has to be wondered if Channing Frye might not have thrived given all the open threes the Magic found, however.
In the fourth quarter, Fournier had to play the role of playmaker again with a lineup of Dedmon, Green, Harris and Ridnour on the court. Most of the game James Borrego left at least two starters in at all times, but during the first stretch of the fourth he just left Tobias Harris on. Fournier created a couple open looks for Willie Green, and the veteran knocked down a long two-pointer to put the Magic up 66-64 before Payton eventually checked in mid-quarter.
Live Feed
Hoops Habit
Elfrid Payton remained aggressive, but Hassan Whiteside played smarter and avoided fouling out after getting in foul trouble. He had his second block on Payton at the six-minute mark, and then Dwyane Wade got going. Luol Deng had already punished the Magic for 13 points in the third-quarter, and though the Heat backcourt of Wade and Dragic shot just 9 of 29 from the floor, it was there when the Heat needed it.
Wade’s three-pointer at the 5:25 mark pulled the Heat within two at a point the Magic could have turned the corner and ran away with the game. Tough defense appeared to seal it for Orlando, before nearly inexplicably frittering away an eight point lead with just 47 seconds to go in the game.
In all, this was a game that looked sloppy. One could easily view Orlando’s 18 turnovers and conclude Payton contributed towards awful play; that he didn’t keep the offense under control.
But that is not the case.
Turnovers are not always the result of one player making a bad play, and scorekeepers are left to guess quite often as to which player is to blame for any given turnover. Some of it could be laid on Payton, but a lot of it is him just playing on a higher level than his teammates.
The Heat had no respect for Payton’s shooting ability, and that forced the young floor general to consistently dribble through traffic. While it often results in a beautiful breakdown of the opposing defense, sometimes it just confuses the offense and muddles up plays. All of these things take time to adjust to, and the Magic are a young team. But when evaluating the games of Evan Fournier and Elfrid Payton.