Rotations by James Borrego Largely to Blame in Magic Loss to Washington

3) Dual point guard sets gave the Magic problems, but mostly because John Wall was in “jaw drop” mode.

John Wall continually got by Elfrid Payton and Victor Oladipo. Granted, Wall does this to a lot of teams, but it created a multitude of problems for the Magic defense.

The ‘D’ was very good at points, forcing two shot clock violations early in the third quarter, but the transition defense was weak and resulted in a lot of open threes for the Wizards. Had the looks been falling, this would have been an ugly (em, even uglier) blowout.

Wall’s 11 assists seems conservative and deceiving.  He beat the Magic up all night, even missing seven of his 10 looks at the goal.

Andre Miller dropped four dimes in just four minutes while committing just one turnover.  Teams seem to know the Magic can be beat with penetration and that it tends to lead to huge runs.

Payton came up with six steals, but Orlando can get sloppy even in transition. With Oladipo being the dunk threat he is, a more Toronto Raptor-like breakaway would result in more highlights, and points.

The acquisition of a rim protector via trade or draft remains the most needed component addressable only by picking up a true shot blocker, not creating one out of existing talent. Dewayne Dedmon can do it in spurts, but is out of control otherwise — as shown when he grabbed an offensive rebound, failed to make the layup and then knocked Kris Humphries out of the game trying to run to the other end of the court.

Even while committing 22 turnovers, the Wizards had no problem because the Magic defense was so inconsistent.  It hit stretches of brilliance and others where the defense was nothing more than a sieve.

Next: Guards must attack