Orlando Magic refocus efforts on defense
The Orlando Magic have let the rope go a bit defensively, falling from third to 12th in defensive rating. Their focus now is fully on regaining their D.
No one on the Orlando Magic can quite explain what happened the last week to their previously stellar defense. One week ago, the team was riding high with one of the top defenses in the league. They seemed to be achieving their goals.
And then, quite suddenly, they let go of the rope. In a four-games-in-five-night stretch, the Magic conceded 100-plus points in all four games. It was the first time they had given up 100 or more points in that many games since the beginning of the season.
The team looked more than a step slow, giving up dribble penetration and losing contact with players. They were getting beaten in the very basic principles and getting outmuscled at every turn. This was not who Orlando was or wanted to be.
“That’s the biggest thing in the last four games,” coach Frank Vogel said. “We let our guard down for whatever reason on the defensive end. We have to return to form. It’s got to happen a lot mentally rather than having three hard days of practice. There’s still not a lot of practice time. We have to get that end of the floor performing at a higher level.”
The Magic know they can play that level defensively again. The schedule has afforded them little time to truly drill those defensive principles back in and get back on track on that end.
Not that anyone will use that as an excuse. That strong defensive team still exists and is who this team yearns to become every night.
In their first practice in nearly two weeks, the team put its attention largely on the defensive end. But Vogel said it was still a light practice with another back to back upcoming. Both Bismack Biyombo (shoulder) and Nikola Vucevic (back) did not practice and remain questionable for Tuesday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks.
Still, Monday gave the team an opportunity to reset.
“Just to get back to the drawing board on the defensive end,” Jeff Green said. “We relaxed, we let go of the rope and we allowed teams to score a lot of point son us. That hasn’t been our m.o. the last couple weeks. We have to continue to click on the offensive end. But most importantly, we have to will each other in, get back to the defensive side and get stops.”
Orlando was truly flying high before this recent spat of poor play.
Heading into last week, the Magic had the third best defensive rating in the league at 100.8 points allowed per 100 possessions.
In four games this week, giving up 100 points in each, the Magic had an 117.7 defensive rating, 27th in the league. Those kinds of performances caused the team to tumble from third to 12th, at 103.5 points allowed per 100 possessions.
To be sure, the Magic have to get back to playing defense at a high level to have any shot with how poor and inconsistent their offense can be.
“That’s what made us successful on the previous trip. It was defense,” Evan Fournier said. “For some reason since Washington, we just lost it. No focus. No intensity. Just a lot of stupid mistakes. We have to fix that.”
How the Magic go about doing that is a bit more complicated.
Certainly, the Magic can be a lot more precise in their help-side rotations. And they certainly need to do a better job containing ball handlers and being responsible for their own man. The team’s communication definitely could improve back to where it was just a week ago.
The schematic things should be easily fixable. They just take repetition to become habit, always an important piece to forming a team’s defensive identity.
The repeated message from the Magic is defense will give them the best chance at winning games overall, even if their offense continues its improvement. It will not matter much if the defense is not playing at a hight level.
It certainly will not be consistent.
For the Magic to be successful, they need a top-five defense. That is something they are working to restore.
Next: Is Bismack Biyombo underperforming
“Play better defense. It sounds cliche, but that’s how we get back to the team we were on that road trip,” Jeff Green said. “We have to put these past games behind us, continue to build on our offense, which has been clicking, but defensively we have to continue to make progress and get back into the top five defensive teams that we were in that stretch.”