Magic Give Poor Effort in Loss to Cavs

The Orlando Magic once again had no answer on the defensive end. The Cleveland Cavaliers dominated the Magic from start to finish and came away with a 102-93. The Magic out-scored the Cavaliers 25-14 in the final period to make the score look respectable but the Cavs held a double-digit lead for the majority of the game.

If you look at some of the numbers, you can see why the Cavs came away with an easy victory.

They out-rebounded the Magic 42-37, but had a 22-11 advantage at halftime. The Cavaliers out-scored the Magic in the paint, had more second chance points and had 17 fastbreak points compared to Orlando’s 7. Cleveland shot 48% from the field (37-of-77). The Cavaliers shot 10-of-14 from beyond the arc while the Magic shot just 4-of-18. The Cavs had an open man on seemingly every play and unlike in last season’s Eastern Conference Finals, they made the Magic pay.

Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy knows what went wrong and its the same few problems that have been going wrong all season.

"“It was a broken record again tonight. No defense, no rebounding, not a whole lot of effort and we just don’t defend and we don’t play hard. That’s where it all starts. There’s a lot of other things but until you’re going to try to guard and until you play hard enough, then you’re going to be in trouble. And that’s where we are right now.”"

Mo Williams played out of his mind in the first half. He scored 22 points on 9-of-9 shooting (4-of-4 from three) and had 4 assists. He dominated both Jameer Nelson and Jason Williams and was the catalyst for the Cavs in the first half.

LeBron James was his usual self. He averaged about 38 points per game against Orlando in 9 total games last season and went for 36 tonight. He also had 8 rebounds and 4 assists. He was 13-of-23 from the field and made some incredible fadeway shots and beat the buzzer (either the shot clock or the game clock) on several occasions.

The only other play in double figures for Cleveland was a rather ineffective Shaquille O’Neal, who scored 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting and had 4 rebounds.

The Magic, on the other hand really didn’t play the badly on offense. At least not in the first half. The Magic shot 55% in the first half (22-of-40), but they were just 2-of-11 from downtown(18.2%) and were 5-of-11 from the free throw line (45.5%). The Magic wound up shooting 45% for the game (37-of-82) but their woeful 3-point shooting (4-of-18) really cost them.

Despite Orlando’s terrible defense, they had some opportunities to get back in the game. With 1:32 left in the first half, Vince Carter’s jumper cut what was a 15-pont lead back down to 8. Then, Matt Barnes picked up a foul and LeBron hit 2 free throws. Jameer Nelson threw a bad pass and LeBron was fouled again, hitting his first free throw, but missing the second. Cleveland got their own rebound and J.J. Hickson hit 2 more free throws. Barnes missed a long three and LeBron rebounded. He missed a shot but the Cavs got another offensive rebound and Hickson hit another free throw. The Magic missed another shot but finally got a rebound to cut the lead back down to 12. That shot was topped by LeBron’s buzzer beating 3-pointer and just like that it was a 15-point game.

There were also some stretches in the second half where Orlando could have made a game of it. After Anthony Parker hit two consecutive 3-pointers to start the second half, the Cavaliers went three minutes without scoring, but the Magic could not take advantage. The few times that Orlando did play any kind of defense at all, their offense was nowhere to be found.

Vince Carter’s ankle appeared to be fine. Carter scored 29 points on 11-of-23 shooting and scored several different ways. He shot 2-of-7 from downtown but he seemed to attack the basket a lot more. He even posted up a couple of teams, hitting one shot over Jamario Moon. Carter was pretty much the only reason Orlando stayed in the game during the first half.

Stan Van Gundy did not want to talk about offense during his post-game press conference and only fielded questions related to the defense. He sounded very upset but he knows that there is plenty of time to correct Orlando’s mistakes. Van Gundy believes that his team knows what they must correct.

"“It’s one thing to understand and it’s another to do something about it so we’ll see what happens from here. We got absolutely and totally out-played.”"
"“We’re not nearly as good as Boston, Cleveland or Miami. We’re not in the same league with them right now. There’s not one of those teams that if we started now, now thankfully we don’t – we have 73 games, but if we played them in a playoff series right now, there’s not one of those teams we can be competitive against in a playoff series. We’ve got to start there and start understanding why we win when we do.”"

Van Gundy held himself accountable, admitting that he did a poor job of coaching. The other Magic players know that they are not playing like they can and they want to make a change.

Van Gundy said that the effort starts with his captains – Nelson and Dwight Howard. He is disappointed with their play and thinks that they must set an example for their teammates.

"“It’s got to start with Jameer and Dwight. I mean, Dwight’s having trouble having double-figure rebound games. I mean, a guy that averaged 14 a game last year, go check the numbers. He’s rebounding. He’s blocked one shot in the last three games. It’s two returning captains, two guys who know your system, two leaders – it’s got to start with them, it’s not all them, but it’s got to start with them. And then it’s got to be everybody.”"

Dwight Howard has been getting whistled for some more-than-questionable calls but he needs to play through. His foul trouble is taking away from his defense. Howard was the Defensive Player of the Year last year and he needs to get back to that level for the Magic to have the success they want to have. In fact, Van Gundy made a point of saying that Howard is not anywhere near the defender he was last year. Howard finished the game with just 11 points and 7 rebounds. He attempted just three shots in the game.

Jameer Nelson has struggled on defense for three consecutive games. Russell Westbrook, Raymond Felton and Mo Williams all played well against him. Jameer admitted that he must play better defense. I asked him what he could do as an individual to help Orlando’s team defense.

"“Not let my man score. Nah, just be better in rotations, put more pressure on the ball, you know, make guys feel me different.”"

Stan Van Gundy is hoping that the Magic can use this game to build on.

"“Hopefully that will end up being a good game for us and maybe we’ll start to learn something. The main thing and J.J. said it in the locker room. He was the first one to speak up in the locker room and he’s absolutely right. We’ve got to be honest with ourselves. We’re not very good right now. Forget all the excuses and everything else.”"

Game Notes:

  • To be fair, the Magic did look tired. Orlando played Friday, Sunday and Tuesday, while Cleveland hadn’t played since Friday.
  • That also doesn’t allow for the Magic to get a whole lot of actual practice in.
  • Cleveland only played 4 of their bench players.
  • Those bench players scored just 10 points but had 22 rebounds.
  • Cavs Guard Delonte West inactive tonight and during the pre-game, Cleveland did not want to talk about why.
  • The Magic only have to go one more game without Rashard Lewis. Lewis was the guy who really spread the Cavs out in the Conference Finals last year.
  • The battle between Dwight Howard and Shaq was a big nothing. While covering each other, Shaq managed 3 points while Howard had 11 points.
  • Shaq covered Howard throughout the game but Gortat for the most part, guarded Shaq because of Howard’s foul trouble.
  • O’Neal finished with 10 points and 4 rebounds.

Final Thought: I think the Magic really can use this game as a learning experience. From the post-game reactions in the locker room, you can tell that the Magic really want to be a better team. They have been pretty ho-hum so far in the season and this game may have been the wake-up call they needed.

Next Up: The Magic will host Courtney Lee and the New Jersey Nets at 7:00 pm EST on Friday night at Amway Arena.

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)

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