Almost every Orlando Magic player preached toughness entering Saturday’s practice
Evan Fournier laid things bare following the Orlando Magic’s 101-94 loss to the Jazz on Friday night. The team just did not put forth the effort needed to win the game.
As the media went from locker to locker the same refrain came up. Nikola Vucevic said the team just did not have the toughness it needed to knock the Jazz off their game long enough to get back into the game or pull ahead to win. Things came too easily and the Magic were not aggressive enough.
Tobias Harris echoed those sentiments. He said the team did not have the same mental toughness it had when the team was playing well a few weeks ago.
The refrain was the same. Evan Fournier suggested the team needed to take the night, review game tape and look themselves in the mirror. Then come into practice ready to work.
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“It’s the toughness of if the team does score on us, and that’s going to happen, being able to respond and not letting the one possession carry over to the next possession,” Vaughn said. “That’s a part of toughness that you need throughout the course of the game.
“Overall, we can definitely be better whether it’s overall body language or whether it’s just our awareness of not letting one possession carry over to the next. It’s a tough task. But it’s a part of growing up and being good in this league.”
It is easy to put a finger on what is going wrong with the Magic right now. The trick is buckling down and changing it. Not an easy thing to do.
In Orlando’s last three games, opponents are shooting 50.8 percent from the floor and posting a 109.7 offensive rating. Teams are scoring nearly 110 points per 100 possessions against the Magic while the Magic are only managing 97.3 points per 100 possessions (a 12-point difference). This is a huge mountain to climb.
“I just think right now we’re trying to find ourselves.” –Channing Frye
As Vaughn said following Friday’s loss, it really is all connected between the offense and defense. There are times when it feels like players are trying to get it all back on offense for mistakes made on defense. That can lead to more mistakes when there is a failure to deliver.
Vaughn said there is nothing schematically wrong with the Magic. Overall, he said, the problems are beyond that into the abstract problems of effort and toughness. Nikola Vucevic agreed it was not a schematic issue but an issue of the toughness and aggressiveness from the defense. The team just needs to play better team defense.
“I just think right now we’re trying to find ourselves,” Channing Frye said. “We’re trying to find the level of discipline we need each game to win. A level of unselfishness and encouragement for each other.”
Vaughn admitted the team has had difficulties keeping mistakes to the previous play and not letting it carry over to the offensive end of the floor or back to the defensive end of the floor. This is part of the growth process.
Channing Frye though did not seem willing to use youth as an excuse anymore. This team has had plenty of experience and plenty of minutes under their belt to understand what needs to happen.
Soaring Down South
Frye said there is a trust issue that is still developing within this team. Or, at least, an understanding of what each individual’s responsibility is. When one player misses an assignment defensively, it causes other to let down. Frye said it is not necessarily anyone’s fault, it is just understanding what the team has to do to win.
Getting easy buckets would help. Orlando’s offense has obviously struggled too and that might be putting too much pressure on the defense to get the job done. Right now, it is not delivering.
The team seemed excited to get back to work at practice however and get to work fixing some of these issues. But Frye said mentally the team is not playing tough enough right now to do the hard work to be successful on defense.
Things have to turn around quickly though. The games keep coming. The Magic have to do their jobs.
“I think we still have a lot of hope in each other,” Frye said. “But to me it’s getting to be that time where maybe once, maybe twice, I’ll give you that. But three or four times, we have to really look at each other and say are we giving enough, are we being unselfish, are we doing what is asked of us? The best thing for us right now is everybody just do their job. To have enough sense of responsibility to each other to do their job.”