Orlando Magic get stern message as Scott Skiles pull starters

Scott Skiles sent a message to the Orlando Magic in the preseason opener. He pulled his starters early in the third when they were not playing with energy.

The whole nutshell of what Scott Skiles wants eventually from his team can be summed up in one play from the first quarter.

Dewayne Dedmon forced the ball back out to the perimeter where Elfrid Payton stole it and started the fastbreak. He fed it to Victor Oladipo who dished it right back to Payton for a one-handed jam.

These kind of plays are what the Magic want in the end when things are working well and the team is executing. Those moments came in flashes of what the Magic can become, delighting a bigger-than-expected crowd at the Amway Center. There could have easily been a few pats on the back.

That is not what Scott Skiles saw. Nor was it what Magic fans should have seen with the way the Magic came out in the second half and played flat with no energy. At least when the Magic made mistakes in the first half, it was done with energy and effort. The tone and tenor of the second half was different.

It helped explain a 37-point third quarter from the Hornets and helped explain why Scott Skiles pulled his starters less than four minutes into the third. The Magic let their reserves take over from there in a 106-100 loss to the Hornets at Amway Center on Saturday night.

Jeremy Lin (CHA) — 17 pts., 7 assts.; Jeremy Lamb (CHA) — 16 pts.
Andrew Nicholson (ORL) — 23 pts., 8 rebs.; Victor Oladipo (ORL) — 16 pts.

This was not the performance or carry over Skiles wanted to see in his team’s first game.

“We just got beat. Our main players didn’t play very much int he second half. And, god bless our fans, they are lining up in the tunnel there cheering for us and everyone is back there shaking each other’s hands,” Scott Skiles said. “At some point we have to get past everything is OK. We did not start the second half with any energy whatsoever. And they did. That is not OK.

“If you want to win, it’s not OK. We need to understand that. You have to start games, you need to be ready. Many times tonight, we were in proper position but not ready. They would just run a backscreen and be right by the basket and we would foul.”

The Magic should have received that message in the third quarter when Skiles removed all five of his starters four minutes into the half. The things they got away with in the first half — perhaps being a little late rotating to weakside shooters or focusing too much on the ball defensively — started to burn them.

The Hornets certainly seemed to overwhelm the Magic as they started to make shots. In the third quarter, the Hornets made 11 of 16 shots, missing all five of those shots beyond the arc. They also got to the line for 15 free throws in a truly preseason-like performance.

So even though Orlando seemed to be doing fine offensively — shooting 11 for 23 and committing just one turnover — the defensive intensity and energy were plainly and clearly missing.

That is where Skiles was most disappointed. And that kind of culture shock is what the team needs to feel to change the mentality of this team.

“A lot of it is getting used to some things,” Victor Oladipo said. “There is nothing where we can go on the drawing board and try to correct as far as effort. We just have to continue to go out there and give our all, especially on the defensive end.”

Everything, Oladipo said, has to change and has changed about the culture. The team’s body language and actions and effort have to be different. That is something that will continue to come as the team practices more.

Victor Oladipo did stand out among the starters. He scored 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting with five rebounds and three assists in 20 minutes of play. He was confident hitting jumpers and did not go out looking to dominate. Where he and especially Elfrid Payton were most successful was in transition.

Orlando had 13 fast break points and did a good job particularly in the first quarter turning its defense into offense. Those highlight plays did not come from nowhere. They were part of the four or five minutes and brief spurts of good Scott Skiles saw.

Andrew Nicholson had a game-high 23 points and eight rebounds for the Magic. Tobias Harris had nine points as did Mario Hezonja, whose highlights included a pull-up 3-pointer on his first shot and a fast break dunk set up by C.J. Watson‘s pass and steal.

The team though needed an overall kick

“As a team we can’t get relaxed,” Harris said. “We’re a team still trying to prove who we are and still trying to prove ourselves to the league. We have to come out and treat everything like it’s the beginning of the game. We have to have that energy and that focus. At the start of the third quarter, we didn’t really have that. He showed it and he just took us out of the game. That’s how it’s going to be and that’s what he’s going to expect of us. We have to accept that and play better.”

That may be what the team needs. And that may be the biggest and most important lesson from this first game.

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