Orlando Magic seek mental edge to close season, be like San Antonio Spurs
The Orlando Magic wanted to model their rebuild after the San Antonio Spurs. After getting worked by the Spurs, the Magic seem so far away from that goal.
There were too many moments like this for a team trying to win’s liking.
The Spurs would drive the ball into the paint. The Magic would collapse to protect the paint and watch the ball kick out to the perimeter. The defense would be slow to react and they would react to the first pass. That is not how the Spurs work. As the defender closes out, the ball whips to the next man who drains the three.
San Antonio had 13 made 3-pointers, a number that completely counteracted the worse field goal percentage for the defending champions. The Magic defense was pushed and pulled apart by the precision, cohesion and excellence that is the San Antonio Spurs. Even with no starter playing more than 22 minutes, San Antonio had more than enough trust in their system to rip Orlando apart from the bench.
“We have to grow in our mental toughness right now.” — James Borrego
“There is a mental edge that we all have to fight through whether it is in a game, after a loss, it’s after a missed shot, it’s after a turnover,” coach James Borrego said. “We have to grow in our mental toughness right now. That’s from game to game and from possession to possession.
“It’s very hard to win in this league. It’s very difficult. You have to continue to stay with the process. Play after play, game after game keep doing what we do and trust it. That’s not easy at times, especially when there is losses in a row and you want to hang your heads. Our challenge as a group right now is to pick our heads up, keep fighting and keep scrapping and keep getting better. That’s our job moving forward.”
Take it as another model of how the Magic one day might want to play? Take it as what it is — a better team ripping apart a young, struggling team?
Whatever and however the Magic want to spin things, they are not the Spurs. Not anywhere close. They could not hope to be this season. But they at least want to be moving in that direction.
James Borrego admitted postgame that his team is efforting to defend the paint, they will concede the 3-pointer. Against shooting teams like the Spurs that means a lot of attempts will go up against them. The Magic have to do a better job getting out to those threes and making them as tough as possible.
Still, the Magic accomplished some of what they want.
The Spurs shot 16 of 38 in the paint on Wednesday. So mission somewhat accomplished. Even the fast-ball-moving Spurs had 20 assists on 35 field goals, four assists and four field goals less than the Magic did in this game. So, again, mission somewhat accomplished.
For the second straight game, the Magic shot a better field goal percentage (41.9 percent to 40.7 percent) overall. Granted, the Spurs were up 22 through three quarters shooting 44.4 percent and holding the Magic down to 37.5 percent.
Orlando is missing that last edge. More than that, really. The difference between the Magic and the Spurs cannot be reduced to one intangible thing. It can be seen though. And it can be both easy to see and difficult to comprehend.
And even tougher to correct.
“The biggest thing is the way they share the ball,” Victor Oladipo said of what he can learn from the Spurs. “The way they hit open shots and the way they hit big time shots and the way the ball never stops moving. How they run — they get the ball up fast. There is a lot we can learn from them.”
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Yes, the Spurs are going to Spur. But the Magic at least aspired to model themselves after the Spurs. They seem as far away from doing that as at any point during this painful rebuild.
It is why the team feels on the edge as they head into this summer and why the frustration is growing among fans over this long rebuild. This team looks as far away from the Spurs as anything. It looks far away from the Playoffs and even matching last year’s 23 wins.
The last three years have led to this point where the Magic are still not quite sure what they have other than a collection of talented players but with no direction.
Yes, the Spurs are a championship caliber team, peaking at the right moments. It is unfair to judge the Magic up against them. But many of these themes have persisted.
San Antonio made things very tough for Orlando. Borrego said the team had some good looks in the first quarter despite a poor shooting percentage. It was 23-19 after one quarter and very much a game. Yet, Orlando seemed to be the first one to put its head down and succumb to the pressure rather than trusting the process.
If the Spurs can teach the Magic one thing, it is to trust that process and believe in a system to compete and win. It is to trust not only an offensive system but also that defense will keep you in the game and feed your offense.
The Magic got a taste of that from the Spurs. They have gotten plenty of tastes of that throughout this season. The growth has been the hard part to see.
And now as the season winds down, it feels like the Magic are simply playing out the string. The effort is inconsistent and the hope and momentum for the offseason and next season seems to be fading. There are just seven games remaining and the Magic do not seem to have gained much from this season.
For the rest of the year, Orlando has to find confidence and be like San Antonio — keep grinding and keep fighting for something.
“We just have to keep grinding,” Tobias Harris said. “Keep coming in here, keep trying to get better as a team. When you look for it with our team, we just have to keep on plucking. There are only seven games left, but we have to find a good rhythm out there.”