Orlando Magic continue their search for toughness, nastiness

The Orlando Magic got manhandled from the start by a more aggressive Oklahoma City Thunder team. They continue to search for that mean streak.

It was clear the Orlando Magic were missing something. Besides talent and the experience and seasoning to play with one of the Western Conference’s elite teams, when healthy as they have been lately.

It showed up very briefly in the third quarter when Nikola Vucevic and Steven Adams got tangled up fighting after a rebound. Vucevic shoved Adams and drew a technical foul.

Perhaps that was more frustration at falling behind by as much as 38 points and getting popped in the mouth from the very beginning. Perhaps it was a sign of a team toughening up or finding its courage to go up against the bully in a moment of aggression. A spark of the kind of nastiness the team needs to be aggressive and to win.

Whatever the case may be, the Thunder outworked and outplayed the Magic in a 127-99 drubbing which was probably not as close as the final score indicated.

The Magic are missing a major part of the formula to winning games. And no amount of pace is going to fix that. Magic coach Jacque Vaughn wants to see an assertiveness and hostility from his players from the tip to be the aggressors in the game.

“I want confrontation, I want hostility, I want aversion, I want nastiness, I want all of the above for us to grow as a team.” –Jacque Vaughn

“I want you to not like the dude you are competing against,” Vaughn said. “That’s what I want. That’s the old school that is in me and I am OK with that. It’s a different era, a different age where social media and laughing and understanding and joking with each other.

“I want confrontation, I want hostility, I want aversion, I want nastiness, I want all of the above for us to grow as a team. I do not have to like the guy I am competing against, that’s OK.”

Orlando never had a response. Not a clear one at least.

Sure the Magic posted a 31-24 third quarter and looked a bit more alive in forcing nine turnovers for 19 points, finally slowing the Thunder down to 33.3 percent shooting in that frame. But it was always too little too late. The Thunder posted 79 points in the first half, a record for points given up in a half by the Magic, and had everything happen too easily.

Oklahoma City pushed in transition and flustered the Orlando defense. As the Magic tried to shade Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, they often left the passing lanes open for cutters that Westbrook and Durant easily found. The scheme may not have been the problem, just the aggression and physicality the Magic brought to them might have been.

The Thunder simply found things too easy in shooting an astounding 72.7 percent from the floor in the first half. Sure, some of that is randomness and Durant and Westbrook’s brilliance, but not that much.

“[Coach Jacque Vaughn] wants us to play with more toughness, we didn’t have enough of that tonight,” Nikola Vucevic said. “They brought it to us from the beginning. They just kept throwing punches at us. We never responded and that’s why they got this big win.”

It is completely intangible to say that a team is displaying enough toughness or not. We cannot look at the numbers and say the Magic are not playing tough enough.

Orlando’s defensive numbers are not completely down — 104.8 defensive rating this year for 22nd in the league compared to 104.8 defensive rating for 17th in the league — but there is definitely a sense the team’s defense is a work in progress. Teams have eclipsed that average efficiency rating in seven of the last 10 games.

Defense still has to become this team’s backstop in many ways.

And certainly, as Vaughn has warned, there are going to be nights when things do not look pretty because the Magic are playing at such a fast pace. The Thunder were able to run right back at the Magic and control the tempo with their aggressive defense.

Vaughn would not have his team revert back to the plodding style, but it was clear the Magic were taken aback.

Some of it was the randomness of the bounce of a basketball. The Magic had some bad bounces go their way, but the Thunder also took them. Defending Durant and Westbrook too can be tough. And they worked well together with the “other” players such as Kendrick Perkins, Serge Ibaka and Dion Waiters to get easy buckets. The Magic always seemed a man short on their rotations.

This was an Oklahoma City team completely dialed in. There may not have been a ton Orlando could do.

The “competitive spirit” was certainly there. The Magic competed and played hard, if not frustratingly mediocre at best, particularly on the defensive end. Whatever they were trying was not working.

But, it was also clear with a more aggressive mindset, maybe Oklahoma City does not get on a roll. At least, not the roll they got on.

The Magic struggled when that initial punch came and never recovered. That has been a problem at many points throughout this season. It appears not to have completely gone away.

Orlando still has some kinks to work out. The team seams committed to playing this fast-paced style and dying on it if it comes to that. That might have happened anyway against Oklahoma City.

“We’ve just got to come out and play harder. They were the aggressors today. They set the tone. I’ve got to do a better job of making sure we’re ready to play. It was a tough loss, but we’ve got to move on. We’ve got to continue to keep playing the way we’ve been playing.”

But the defensive drive, energy and physicality? That has to remain a constant. That has to be the way the team decides to play.

Next: The Magic are learning the weaknesses of their new offense