Victor Oladipo scored a career-high 38 points in the Orlando Magic’s 105-100 loss to the Phoenix Suns Wednesday night, displaying an array of moves and playing at his absolute best.
When Victor Oladipo is hitting his three-point shot, there is really no answer for him defensively. He knocked down 4 of 8 from behind the arc Wednesday in scoring a career-high 38 points, including a hurried attempt to beat the shot clock in the third quarter. It was as though it was just simply his night, as serendipitous as the bucket seemed at the time.
It was not even a heat check, though those were there too. In attempting 25 shots, he found the arc open, as well as a number of holes in the Suns defense that allowed him to barrel straight towards the basket.
Oladipo was isolated on the final possession of the first quarter and spun through the paint in a blur, eventually funneling his body up toward the rim to finger roll it in and give the Magic a 25-19 lead before Archie Goodwin’s strange buzzer beating heave cut it to three.
Vic was just getting cooking in what was going to be a bit of a bonanza for the dynamic combo guard.
Next: What stood out beyond just the scoring though?
The display was not all about just putting up numbers.
Oladipo does a lot more than score, and he made that most evident Wednesday as the Magic reached a point of stability during a Suns onslaught with Victor running the point guard spot in the third quarter.
His poise controlled the offense and he still got into the paint, scoring seven of the Magic’s first nine in the third quarter.
Oladipo and Markieff Morris essentially traded baskets for a sequence, but it was Victor who was doing more damage on the defensive end, pestering the Suns into a miscue — then getting into the paint to draw another foul to hit two of the four free throws he attempted (odd that he did not get more in light of how often he got to the basket).
The Magic isolated Oladipo again and he got to the paint to score his 21st point and pull the Magic within four points before the Suns closed the third on a 4-0 run.
Trailing by eight, the Magic would need more Victor still. And there was more to come. There was a lot more to come.
Elfrid Payton repeatedly found himself unguarded, but at the 9:53 mark of the fourth he handed it off to Andrew Nicholson who fed it to Oladipo for a wide open three — and he followed it up by knocking down another he teed up from the top of the key. Six Oladipo unanswered points.
The Suns led 82-77 but called for timeout.
Oladipo returned from the timeout to find himself with a run-out opportunity converted into a powerful tomahawk dunk. The fans were starting to come to life with the Magic trailing by three with nine minutes remaining.
Next: How did Orlando keep pace with the high scoring Suns?
It was Oladipo’s two-way effort, along with Elfrid Payton’s anticipatory defense and Dewayne Dedmon’s persistent attack of the glass—that kept the Magic fighting in this one with a Western Conference playoff contender.
The Suns are hardly the toast of the league, but Phoenix is arguably more formidable than all but four or five Eastern Conference teams, and the Magic stayed in this one for the entire 48 minutes, even building a double-digit lead in the first half.
Oladipo ensured that the game would come down to the wire, and he measured the defense methodically in a pick and roll with Dedmon before channeling himself towards the rim again to pull the Magic within three with 1:15 remaining. His tough winding layup in transition following Nikola Vucevic’s defensive thievery would pull Orlando within a point as Phoenix called for timeout, 31 seconds remaining in the game.
Brandon Knight and Eric Bledsoe would ice the game at the line for the Suns as the Magic failed to get a look on an inbounds that could have tied the game with a triple. But Oladipo had made his mark, and he’d shown that one of the NBA’s quicker backcourts could be rendered as statues with his jarringly quick first steps.
Thunderous Intentions
At this point it is looking as though Oladipo is a player an offense can be built around. He has the talent to be a number one option in an offense, but the real luxury is that Nikola Vucevic is just as much of a franchise player.
For a team that is mired with just 19 wins thus far in a season coming to its close, there are two definitive talents that can be built around. Vucevic is the best chip to come from the three-team deal that sent Dwight Howard to the Lakers, and Oladipo is the prize draft chip that Rob Hennigan snagged in a draft that was said to be among the weakest of the lottery era.
That really has not turned out to be the case, and Oladipo comes out not as just a game-changing, quality starter, but as a potential All-Star and a guy whose talents are only now starting to be displayed to the nation at large.
His dunk contest performance was kind of an exhibition to show the greater NBA audience what it might be missing, and this is now the juncture at which we begin to see this team getting picked to be on NBA TV’s Tuesday Game Night.
People are going to want to see this guy in Orlando that dropped 38 on the Suns, that outclassed Eric Bledsoe, a max-contract guy who many dubbed “mini LeBron”. That’s a show.
The Magic clearly have a guy on this team that fans are going to clamor to see, and most feared that may take a while. He’s been here the whole time—and he’s only getting better.
Definitively, Oladipo is the franchise player that can be the face of this Magic team.
Next: What's next for the Magic's young backcourt?
Simply, at this point Oladipo is putting on an exhibition with the basketball, and after he makes the adjustments towards being a high usage player the turnovers will begin to come down.
Presently, the Magic lived with Oladipo’s seven turnovers, because he was doing everything seemingly — and a lot of the blame goes to the chaos of the Magic offense, not an inability of Oladipo’s to structure four other guys who weren’t always accenting his penetration with solid off-ball movement.
Given the attention Oladipo drew, five or six assists should have been the absolute minimum amount of offense created — but the Magic failed to find the gaps in the Suns’ still-soft defense.
Oladipo is not yet Chris Paul with the rock in traffic. And when guys are not in the places the offense dictates they should be, it often results in a turnover for a guy like Oladipo or Elfrid Payton.
The inexperience of both Payton and Oladipo alone accounts for more than just a couple of the 12 turnovers the pair had between them, but the growth is evident when one of these guards erupts for 38 points like Victor did Wednesday night. He has done a lot of amazing things and his 13-rebound performance in the 93-90 loss to the Miami Heat on Feb 25 marked an effort that showed he can be an impacting player on the glass as well.
Pelican Debrief
Oladipo came up with three steals to go with his 38 points, and between he and Payton, the Suns guards looked rushed and bothered, but most particularly so in the first quarter. The issue is that Oladipo and Payton need to learn how to sustain the effort and hammer teams when the advantage is gained. The Magic led by as many as 15 points late in the second quarter but came out of the half flat and allowed the Suns back in it.
Developing that killer instinct to put teams away and rush out to 20-plus point leads has to come next. There is a certain value in demolishing a team so badly that the entire fourth quarter is a formality, and that chance was there Wednesday night. Instead, the Suns clawed back in it, took the lead and put the Magic on ice in the final minutes with good execution and one standout defensive play by Knight on the inbounds.
Next: So when does it equal 'wins'?
There will be these nights where Oladipo, Payton or even Vucevic has an absolutely dominant game but the team still loses.
The rose-colored glasses approach is that we take these performances as snap shots, and in our minds compile what this team can be if the pieces al click in unison.
It is not hard.
Imagine Payton dishing the rock through traffic. Imagine Vucevic’s jumper making the net dance. Imagine Oladipo picking apart defenses for everything from dunks to triples. Imagine Tobias Harris hitting triples on the wing and Channing Frye teeing up net pretzels.
It all seems like it could work so artfully, even down to Dewayne Dedmon making gritty maneuvers on the offensive glass.
But instead we are watching the Magic drop their fourth straight games, despite all of those things happening smattered throughout the ‘Ls.’
It is hard to continually draw encouragement on microcosmic observations, but Oladipo is now on the level of talent offensively that the Magic can definitively say there will be a 20-plus point per game scorer on the roster.
Vucevic is already almost there, too, at 19.8 — but having two guys who can be isolated late in games, or even used together in pick and rolls, will give the Magic the kind of closing pressure that teams don’t really want to see. Oladipo hits 81 percent from the line and Vucevic is a more than competent 77 percent in his own right.
All the pieces are coming together for the Magic to be good, but it is like a jigsaw puzzle that is partially assembled because there are pieces needed that will have to be added via the draft or free agency.
At this point, it may be that the most crucial piece is one we cannot anticipate. It seems whatever it is, it will be a piece complementary to what is already here, because Oladipo and Vucevic are both franchise talents.
Oladipo set the tone early in the game Wednesday when the Magic leaped out to a lead, and the game kind of has to be viewed as a snapshot: at that point, the Magic were playing like the kind of ball club the team is capable of being.
Oladipo was attacking and effort was covering the mistakes by forcing Phoenix into hurried and sloppy basketball. The Magic can build an identity off creating offense through defense, and tonight was the first example of that against the Suns.
The seven turnovers in the first quarter led to the Magic getting easy looks, and this is really what Rob Hennigan had in mind when he started drafting guys like Payton, Oladipo and even Aaron Gordon. Dewayne Dedmon is the free agent acquisition version thereof.
This team will carve its identity though effort and defense, while Oladipo’s diverse arsenal of offensive talents drives an improvement in scoring. Putting up 100 points is not bad, even if it comes in a loss. Getting 38 from Oladipo on a focused 25 shot night exemplifies the young talent’s drive to be the primary option for the Magic’s offense.
Victor hit three three-point field goals in the fourth quarter while also scoring three times at the rim. The Suns could do nothing as Victor basically made the perimeter players choose between letting him tee up a three or spend the possession back pedaling as he charged at the basket.
It is clear to see Oladipo has a very James Harden-like future at making teams pick their poison, and that kind of offensive acumen has to excite Magic fans.
There has not been a guard this explosive and powerful since Steve Francis, and Oladipo is showing he is going to be a force in this league every bit as formidable as “Franchise” was during his time in pinstripes.
Oladipo’s exciting play is now punctuated with a new found aggressiveness that could render him one of the best two-way guards in the Association.