A disturbing trend has developed over the first four games of the season for Orlando. The Magic have shown the tenacity and the ability to hang with more talented opponents in every game this season before ultimately falling flat at some point in the second half and letting the avalanche consume them. Against the Pelicans, Wizards and Raptors, the third quarter spelled doom for the Magic. Tonight, it was the fourth quarter that did Orlando it.
The Bulls took what was a tie game after three quarters and turned it into an eight point victory thanks to a solid defensive effort and some big plays down the stretch from Nikola Mirotic and Aaron Brooks. It’s not the largest margin of victory that you’ll see, but eight points in a game that played out like this one was a significant margin.
And, of course, the Bulls were without Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, which means the Magic lost what was actually a winnable game this evening. On top of the absence of Rose and Noah, Chicago also got an inefficient game from Pau Gasol and defensive ace Taj Gibson sat in some critical moments with foul trouble. Jimmy Butler is a promising young player, but if he is forced to be Chicago’s leading scorer, and you’re staring at an 0-4 start, that’s a game you have to win.
But alas, the Magic fell apart a bit in the fourth, falling asleep on a couple of big threes by Mirotic and making it too easy for the Bulls to bottle up their first few options offensively and to force Vucevic post-ups late in the clock. The Magic started the game with a great flow offensively, getting the ball to Vucevic earlier and cutting well around him, but those post touches became gradually less effective as the night went on, and the Bulls, as always, were up to the task on most of Orlando’s pick-and-rolls.
Orlando did have success getting to the juicy middle of the floor when Tobias Harris was acting as the screen setter, which is something that’s worked well dating back to his first days with the team. He’s a dynamic finisher on the catch and we saw him get to the rim cleanly and knockdown a couple of inbetween shots tonight en route to a 21 point performance on efficient 9-of-14 shooting. It’s hard to argue that Harris works better as a slasher rather than a hybrid four man, and it’s up to Jacque Vaughn to come to this realization and start rationing more of the power forward minutes to Harris.
Harris wasn’t the only bright spot. Even on a night when he shot 3-of-14, Elfrid Payton was electrifying in spurts and typically a strong distributor even against a stout Chicago squad. He finished with seven assists, six rebounds and three steals, the kind of miscellaneous production we can expect to make up the majority of his value until he becomes a more comfortable scorer, because it can be quite an adventure watching him try to finish around the rim right now, often rushing his shots too high off the glass, and he’s not even looking at the rim when catching the ball at the three-point line.
Vucevic was on his way to a solid performance worthy of adulation, but his effectiveness downlow dwindled as the game went on. His hook shot was working and he made some nice moves on the block, but he ended up taking 22 shots to get 21 points and turning the ball over 6 times compared to just two assists. Vucevic has also struggled defensively to begin the year, allowing any and all dribble penetration to result in easy lay-ups at the rim. He needs to become more of a menace at that end, focusing on getting into help position quicker and going straight up to challenge shots – even if it means his cartoonish rebounding numbers take a hit and the wings have to crash the boards more frequently.
There was positive moments for Orlando throughout the night, but at the end of the day, a loss to a Chicago team missing its best offensive and defensive players is a rough one, even for a team that expects to lose a lot of games this season.