Orlando Magic getting off on wrong foot
The Orlando Magic are finding themselves down early and down often. Poor first and third quarters are putting the team in a deep hole to fight out of.
98. 170. Final. 83. 38
The game was not over shortly after it was started. This was not that type of game.
The mad dash the Orlando Magic had to make to erase an early seven-point deficit and then climb out of the first-quarter hole has become an all-too-familiar refrain in recent games.
It went double in the third quarter on Sundayas the Magic went into the locker room trailing by one and then fell behind by 14 points in the next five minutes — losing eight points on the lead within three minutes of the second half.
This time period sees the Magic’s starting lineup of Elfrid Payton, Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris, Channing Frye and Nikola Vucevic. This is supposedly the team’s best lineup, the one that gets trusted to start the game and half on the right foot.
Of late that is not what is happening, and it is a responsibility that is falling heavily on them.
“It was a tough game overall,” Victor Oladipo said. “We have these games unfortunately. Just got to move on to the next one. Learn from this one. We’ve got to come out with better starts. In the first quarter and the third quarter, that’s on us starters. I take the blame for that. I’ve got to be ready to play.”
According to NBA.com, that starting lineup has posted a 96.4 offensive rating and a 121.7 defensive rating this season. Since James Borrego took over, that lineup is at a 109.8 offensive rating and a 102.6 defensive rating. The renewed focus on defense changed some things.
But focusing on the last three games particularly, the unit has struggled. This to the tune of a 94.5 offensive rating and a 124.7 defensive rating.
On Sunday’s game against the Hornets, at the beginning of the first and third quarters, that unit gave up a 147.1 defensive rating (25 points in 17 possessions) and scored a 76.5 offensive rating (13 points in 17 possessions). In the third quarter particularly, the Magic gave up 11 points in seven possessions while managing just three points on eight possessions.
No matter how you slice it, that is the not the start you want to get off to.
“When you don’t have it going offensively, it can kind of bleed over into your defense,” Willie Green said. “We’re learning how to be a team that can still get stops even when the ball is not dropping for us. Tonight just wasn’t that night for us.”
When you look at games in this three-game losing streak, those starts and those first quarters tend to stand out.
The Magic are giving up 104.2 points per 100 possessions in first quarters during this three-game losing streak. They are only managing to post 79.5 points per 100 possessions. You have to assume the Magic are relying heavily on their starters in this time and so a lot of the struggles offensively have to fall on them.
Since James Borrego became head coach he has used the same starting lineup. But his teams have struggled in the first quarter, posting 88.2 points per 100 possessions in the nine games he has coached. Defensively, the team has given up 103.9 points per 100 possessions. That defensive numbe rmight be down from the Magic’s season averages, but it is a glaring weakness in the renewed focus on defense that has pervaded the team the last month.
It is asking a lot for the second unit to come in and consistently save the day.
“I was proud of that group,” Borrego said. “They inspired us again. They got us back in that game. On both ends of the floor they had some nice rhythm going. Defensively, they were active and they had hands again. That group has been a real positive for us lately.”
For the most part, the Magic have and they have been able to save themselves at the end of the day. Orlando cut the deficit to four on a surprising run to open the fourth quarter keyed by Maurice Harkless, Andrew Nicholson and Ben Gordon.
Then the Hornets reloaded. Then the Magic reloaded. And the lead ballooned back out again.
Sunday was the first time since the Wizards the game — Borrego’s third as interim coach — that the Magic were effectively blown out and never really in it in the fourth quarter. After such strong defensive games during the win streak, the Magic have given up more than a point per possession in back-to-back games since the first games Borrego took over.
The 1.03 points per possession conceded against the Hornets might have been below the season average, but certainly not below the Borrego-tenure average. For the first time, it did look like the Magic’s struggles on offense affected their ability to defend. The turnovers were not helping either as the Hornets were able to spread the floor and score quickly in transition before the team could get set.
“It’s very troubling,” Borrego said. “In this league, you depend on your starters to set the tone for the game. For whatever reason we have not gotten off to good starts. We have to figure that out. I will figure that out. We will look at the film and look at ways to correct that and get better from here. But we believe in that group. We believe in that locker room and we’ll stick together through this.”