Orlando Magic need defense to feed their pace

For the first few minutes of Tuesday’s game, the Orlando Magic were getting stops and getting in transition. Then the pace slowed and frustration grew.

The first quarter was the ideal start for the Orlando Magic on Tuesday against the Dallas Mavericks.

The Magic were active defensively, getting steals and deflecting the ball. They were grabbing rebounds cleanly and turning up the court. The pace quickened and the Magic to in transition.

This was the Magic at their very best and most dangerous.

Elfrid Payton or Victor Oladipo or even Aaron Gordon bringing the ball up the middle of the floor with Mario Hezonja, Oladipo or Gordon on the wings. Their athleticism on full display and the anticipation of a highlight on the way.

They had the Mavericks defense at their whim, slowing it sometimes to wait for Nikola Vucevic trailing the play to dart down the lane and sending a pass to him as he cut through. Or they would speed it up even more, attacking the basket and drawing the foul.

There is a good offensive team in Orlando. And it comes out more often when the team’s defense is tuned in, getting stops and pushing it down the floor. It is effective when it gets going early in the shot clock and can run through its set fully. And more importantly when it runs through that set with pace and speed in the half court.

That is when the Magic are bubbly and in that groove the team needs with its margin for error always razor thin. Everything feeds off each other.

That was made more painfully obvious in Orlando’s 121-108 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday.

After building up a lead in the first quarter with defense — three turnovers and 46.2 percent shooting in the first 7:30 of the game as the Magic took an eight-point lead — it all began to collapse. Fouls slowed the game and frustrated the Magic.

The defense was already beginning to crack and allow too much dribble penetration. Without the stops the Magic too would have to slow their pace both overall and within the half court.

It is hard to display all the athleticism this team has on the break when it has to take the ball out of the basket and play a set defense. Especially against a sound, veteran team like the Mavericks, using every trick in the book.

The Magic had 26 fast-break point on 9-for-12 shooting in transition. They were doing something they have not done very much this year — get out on the fast break. The team has scored 11.1 percent of their points on the fast break, 20th in the league. Getting out in transition as much as the Magic did Tuesday, is a rare occurrence.

Pace is not something that can be encapsulated in statistics clearly. The game Tuesday night was played at a pace of 98.7 possessions per 48 minutes. That is better than the Magic’s average, but lower than some of their recent games. And Orlando still scored 108 total points and posted a 110.4 offensive rating.

It is an observable intensity.

So even though the Magic are able to score and get points, they are somewhat shallow. Not without this added benefit. And it is easy to tell.

In Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers, the Magic were rolling. They built a 29-point lead even without much defensive intensity because when they did get stops they got out in transition. They ran through their sets.

A major turning point in the game came when Philadelphia implemented a full-court press to slow Orlando’s offense down. The team lost its offensive thrust, Scott Skiles said. It slowed the team down. By the time the Magic entered their offense it was late in the shot clock. And the team was muddling through its offense. The lead predictably dwindled.

It was clear when teams are able to ratchet up their defense, the offense bogs down. It slows down to a crawl and the Magic lose their punch. They lose a whole lot actually. Like they did throughout January, they are one of the worst teams in the league.

The Magic are not going to go anywhere without figuring their defense first. When that is figured out, the Magic will have to quicken their pace.

Doing so after getting stops should be the relative easy part.

The Magic have always had the athletes to run. That is how Scott Skiles wanted his team to play. He has talked all season about the need to play with pace. Not only getting out in transition but running the offense with speed and intensity — cutting through the lane quickly and moving with speed to make the defense react quickly.

When Orlando has been successful for long stretches the team has done this. It usually goes hand in hand with the team’s defensive intensity.

When the team is struggling, the mood on both ends seems to come crashing down.

For this Magic team, everything is very much tied together. When they get stops, they get out and run and attack. When they are struggling to do so, they slow down.

That happened again Tuesday as frustration kicked in. They came out flat and slow in the third quarter and that decided the game.

The defense feeds the team. It energizes it and pushes it to the next level. When they do, they speed the game up and get to the basket more and score more effectively and efficiently.

Related Story: Orlando Magic show little intensity in loss to Dallas Mavericks

Pace still matters with this team. And pace is generated from stops. The one thing the Magic could not get Tuesday and have not gotten in a while.