For two weeks, the Orlando Magic had to focus more on getting consistent energy and effort. That is present, and so the focus returns to scheme and wins.
The Orlando Magic might be back to doing what is supposed to be a given — playing hard, executing and working together and rotating and communicating on defense. If anything put Jacque Vaughn in jeopardy the last few weeks and caused the firestorm of rumors that began circulating late last week, it was the team’s perceived lack of effort and lack of cohesion.
At home, no less.
The last two games have seen the Magic get away from the noise to some extent and get back to playing basketball. Basketball at an energetic, if not high, level. Things have been annoyingly compared to a low bar of late with the Magic — that is what happens when you get blown out by 20 on consecutive outings at home.
Whatever Jacque Vaughn has been preaching has started to sink in with his team all of a sudden. They are playing together offensively and moving the ball in a way that they have not in several weeks. Defensively, the effort is there at the point of attack. The Thunder and the Spurs both scored well, but not nearly as easily.
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In essence, the Magic went from getting blown out before the game could even start to forcing their opponent to grind out a game against them.
No game was closer, or could be closer, than the Magic’s 110-103 loss to the Spurs on Wednesday. Here was finally a game where the Magic had a chance to win throughout the entire 48 minutes — not just some crazed comeback at the end of the game.
The bar has been set so low the last two weeks that this feels like something to celebrate.
For now, the Magic have played two consecutive games where they have played well through mistakes and stuck to a gameplan and to the system (even the flawed one they run) to get opportunities for results. The results will come if they trust the process.
There were once again open shots and solid effort. Nikola Vucevic and Tobias Harris produced solid games each with double doubles. Willie Green, Victor Oladipo and Ben Gordon missed open jumpers. But they got open jumpers. That counted. And Oladipo was a bit wild, but got to the basket. He was aggressive.
Again, the bar is set so low, this feels important to point out.
What has to change now are the minor tweaks to get wins. And it has been a long time since the Magic have picked up any wins. There was certainly some confidence that needed to be regained. Wins have to be on the horizon if the team keeps playing this way.
Again, there are little tweaks that need to be made. Much more beyond making or missing shots.
Wednesday, the Magic committed to digging down in the paint on pick and rolls to prevent Tim Duncan from torching them too bad. They hoped Victor Oladipo or Evan Fournier would be able to rotate out to the 3-point line to contest.
The strategy had its holes, but it seemed like a necessary one with Nikola Vucevic’s limitations on defense.
You can see on this play early in the first quarter that Vucevic did a good job hedging hard on Tony Parker and forcing him far away from the screen on the side pick and roll. Elfrid Payton struggles to get around the screen and cut off Parker (most players do) and Vucevic cannot quite cut him off. To protect the paint, Victor Oladipo has sunk in hard on Tim Duncan while Tobias Harris steps up to cut off Parker’s penetration.
This leaves Danny Green completely open in the corner. He misses this shot and seven other 3-pointers, but this was the kind of defense the Magic were playing. They were playing hard to collapse the paint and corral the Spurs ball handlers.
That can be extremely difficult in its own right.
It happened time and time again:
On this second quarter play, Ben Gordon rotates in to cut off Aron Baynes as Maurice Harkless is late to recover to Belinelli and Frye overcommits to the ballhandler, leaving Green open.
And in this play, which ends in a Danny Green make, everyone is caught trying to cut off Boris Diaw. Tobias Harris and Elfrid Payton make a late switch and Diaw comes down the lane. Vucevic is supposed to cut off, but look how far Oladipo has come to help. And Evan Fournier is . . . somewhere.
These plays sacrificed the paint points to give up a 3-pointer, with the hope that they can close out, reset and scramble.
This seemingly has long been the Magic’s strategy — to sacrifice 3-point attempts to protect the paint. The Magic actually give up the ninth fewest 3-point attempts per game at 19.3 per game. Teams shoot 36.2 percent from beyond the arc against them. The problem of late, has been keeping dribble penetration under control.
The Spurs are too good offensively to leave open the way the Magic did. Marco Belinelli drained 3-pointers in the second half to keep San Antonio in the lead. Tony Parker’s dagger at the end put it out of reach.
And, worst of all, Tim Duncan still had a big game with 26 points.
Turnovers by Orlando did not help either. Especially since the Magic seemed to turn it over in a spot where the Spurs could take it and run.
There were plenty of execution mistakes which the Magic can clean up. The confidence and aggression were present which is the step the Magic needed to make.
Also important, the Magic were executing the gameplan, even if it is a flawed one. The hard digs into the paint to cut off the roll man or the dribble penetrator are meant to slow things down to give Vucevic time to recover. The thought is Oladipo or Payton or whoever is fast enough to get back and contest.
At least after this game, we are talking strategy and schemes and not effort or energy. For too long, that has been the conversation when it comes to the Magic. There are plenty of things to correct, even after a good effort.
Now, we can finally get back to fixing them.