Orlando Magic offense still has long way to go
The Orlando Magic offense showed its potential and its shortcomings in giving up and erasing a 26-point deficit to the Brooklyn Nets on Friday.
No one was under any impression the Magic offense would be a runaway success this year.
Victor Oladipo and Tobias Harris figured to be the key cogs offensively with Nikola Vucevic providing a steady base from the low post. In an idea world, the Magic offense would work something similar to the Spurs’ swing motion offense with the ball whipping around the perimeter quickly and fluidly to create lanes to attack and the ball moving inside to out to create open jumpers.
That is how things are supposed to work.
“We need to understand what’s good for us and what helps us win.” –Channing Frye
Decidedly, things have not worked that way. The Magic have the fifth worst offense in the league scoring 99.2 points per 100 possessions. They have a team that has struggled at times to find consistency on that end, sometimes bogging down as players try to force things themselves and get mired in their own inefficiencies.
There would be bumps in the road here for the Magic. This is a team still without a go-to scorer and without a a consistent scoring threat. There will be nights of struggle.
Sometimes though it seems too much and the offense runs into the problems that plague all young offenses trying to find their way in this league.
Saturday could very well have been one of those nights.
“We can’t dig ourselves a hole and then all of a sudden go tell coach to go play free,” Frye said. “We need to understand that he’s giving us a lot of freedom. We need to understand what’s good for us and what helps us win.
“We’re not the best defensively, we’re not the best offensively. But I think when we play together and we play unselfish we are a pretty damn good team. We can compete with anybody.”
On one hand, the Magic erased a 26-point deficit in the fourth quarter, going on a 22-2 run during a seven-minute span to cut the lead to four points. The Magic actually had two opportunities to tie the game — Ben Gordon, a hero who sparked the run by scoring 10 of the run’s first 12 points, missed a jumper along the baseline and then Evan Fournier missed a 3-pointer from the top of the key after the Magic were able to get the ball out of bounds — to no avail.
In that stretch, Orlando scored 37 points, shot 60.9 percent, getting six assists on 14 made field goals. The ball moved swiftly and quickly around the perimeter to the open man and the Magic attacked the basket with aggression, making six of eight shots in the paint.
It was a stark contrast to the second and third quarters.
The Magic scored just 36 points total in the middle two quarters. They shot a lowly 30.2 percent and had eight assists on 13 made field goals. They scored 18 points in the paint on a dismal 9 for 28 on points in the paint — including 2 for 13 in the second quarter alone.
Orlando’s offense was not working well in the second quarter because the team was not finishing. It continued not to work well into the third quarter as individuals tried to force things to get the Magic out of their funk. The defense suffered for it and the Nets built a huge lead.
“Well, it’s just we are inexperienced,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “So it’s just flat out, that is what it is and that is the reality. We are trying to fight that reality by learning how to play just extremely hard and extremely unselfish, and that is what we want to do. If there is a formula, that is it. Just keep it that simple.”
The Magic began to keep things relatively simple as the team desperately tried to make its come back in the fourth quarter.
Things dramatically changed in the fourth quarter as the Magic pushed the tempo more and dug down defensively. Jacque Vaughn pointed out Ben Gordon’s focus and aggression defensively especially for bringing the Magic back into the game. He said it was Gordon’s intensity on defense that got him into a rhythm offensively and had him “losing himself” within the game.
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Gordon went on his run and the Magic followed as Vaughn rode with a small lineup that consisted of four guards — Elfrid Payton, Ben Gordon, Devyn Marble and Evan Fournier — and Channing Frye. That group spread the floor and got things moving with the kind of swing motions and dribble penetration the Magic need to succeed.
Orlando pushed the tempo thanks to the increased focus on defense and the turnovers that were being forced — eight of them for 12 Orlando points — and that helped feed an offense desperate for any kind of spark. The ball started to go in and then continued to go in time and time again.
“I think that’s how we should play all the time,” Channing Frye said. “I think everyone in here can play like that. I think you looked at us we had the intensity. When mistakes were made, guys put their hands up and we kept going.You saw guys get in rhythm. You saw guys pushing up. I think with the talent that we have, we can do that. We shouldn’t get down however many we were down.”
But getting put in that kind of a hole, Gordon said, was too much pressure to put on an offense. Pushing the tempo was kind of what they had to do. They happened to do it pretty efficiently this time around.
“With a young team, we’re kidding ourselves if we can think we can pick spots when we’re going to play hard and when we’re not.” –Ben Gordon
The bigger takeaway is that the Magic cannot rely on playing for 12 minutes and expect to win. The margin for error becomes too thin.
“I think with us, the game is 48 minutes,” Gordon said. “With a young team, we’re kidding ourselves if we can think we can pick spots when we’re going to play hard and when we’re not. It’s the entire game. It’s 48 minutes, plus the layup line, plus the halftime layup line until we can figure out how to win games and how to stay in games.”
The Magic certainly did well within that pressure cooker. That group certainly did. Payton was the only starter on the court at the time and it was not lost on him that he was part of the group that helped dig the hole for the team and that helped dig the team out of the hole. NBA games are very long and there is always a chance.
That is a lesson that seems to be harped on the Magic time and time again. It is a repetitive question for this team how to keep things moving forward and produce consistently on offense.
Through 36 games, it is not something this team has figured out.
Too often, the team can be seen falling apart somewhat at the seams as poor plays lead to poor body language and a lack of focus on defense. Harnessing some focus is a lesson the coaches have to continue to preach until it sticks at the end of the day.
It was a lesson the Magic showed they need to continue to learn. The question is: When will they get the message?