The Orlando Magic have played brilliantly in many stretches. But there are times the team looks off and plays without energy. The problem must be fixed.
Scott Skiles warned about it throughout the preseason. The team had not quite gotten itself together. There were a few moments happening repeatedly. A habit was forming at it was very concerning.
The Orlando Magic would build a lead and play great. Then they would seemingly relax and let things slip. The attention to detail would wane and the opponent would come back.
It continued to happen into the regular season, reaching a nadir in Orlando’s 92-87 win over Toronto on Friday night at the Amway Center.
The beginning of the third quarter saw a team that was not ready to play or withstand any kind of rally. Some lazy turnovers offensively only deepened the hole dug by the Raptors coming out more focused.
Not five minutes into the second half, the Magic had lost a nine-point lead and were giving up a 19-4 run. Scott Skiles pulled the plug, he benched his five starters in favor of five bench players.
“We deserved it,” Evan Fournier said of the third quarter exit. “We weren’t ready to play. He told us at halftime, they were probably the best team in the NBA at starting the second half. We weren’t ready.”
Skiles’ admittedly risky move — it certainly could have turned the other way, he said during his postgame press conference — worked in the end. The Magic stabilized, they picked the energy back up and got themselves back into the game.
When some of the starters returned to the game, the team played much better. Fournier credited the energy of the bench guys for showing them how to play and pull things back.
“I know we went in, he subbed out five guys, subbed in five guys, we knew we had to give some energy,” Jason Smith said of that point in the game. “Give a little spark off the bench. I thought we did an OK job. We could have done better, could have done worse. We did good as a team going out there and running our sets. We really tried to refocus them and get them back out on the court and they did a great job when they got back out there.”
The real issue though was that it took that statement from the coach to spark his team. It was something that has repeated itself throughout the early season.
The Magic face these pockets of lethargic play. They seemingly are cruising along, executing their offense and defense well, and then they hit a wall. The play stops, things bog down and the team just looks bad.
It happened earlier this season throughout the game against Chicago. Skiles lamented how his team just seemed to be going through the motions and lacking any pace to their play. It was frustrating enough for him to put his team through a difficult practice Monday before the game against New Orleans, Orlando’s first win of the season.
What was more frustrating is in that game in Chicago, the Magic snapped to attention and nearly stole the game with just a quarter of energetic play.
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Consistency is still a fight for Skiles’ club.
“It was just disgusting,” Skiles said of his team’s early third quarter malaise. “Our overall effort coming out of the locker room was very poor. And probably wasn’t that good.
“We’ve got to get to the bottom of when we have a chance to beat an undefeated team at home, we have a nine-point lead and have a pretty good game, we just come out with absolutely nothing. We’ve got to get to the bottom of it.”
Orlando’s general lack of energy throughout the game was exemplified in the team’s struggles on the offensive glass.
Orlando gave up 15 offensive rebounds and 18 second chance points. Some of the rebounds the team conceded were just strange. Late in the game, the Magic had a chance to rebound a DeMar DeRozan missed free throw up one point and Jason Smith and Tobias Harris fumbled it out of bounds.
It was not so much a lack of energy on this play, but a lack of attention to detail that nearly cost Orlando the game.
But it was certainly caused by Toronto’s pressure. The Raptors were pushing the Magic in many ways and forcing them to react. On many instances in the game, they struggled to do so.
“We had a lot of 50/50 balls go their way,” Smith said. “We have to shore those things up. The coaches have really been on us about that. It’s not something you want to do. Consciously just have to make an effort to grab it with two hands.”
The Magic were very good at trying to close out shooters and scrambling to recover. It did often bring the Magic out of position. Skiles would not use that as an excuse. He said he expects his players to be able to track back into position and get offensive rebounds.
Generally forgetting to box out when the team is in position? That is a general problem. And it happened throughout the game for one reason or another.
For chunks of Friday’s game, and many times throughout the season, the get-up was not there. It was something the team had to find.
That has become a trend that has to change. Everyone on the team seems to know it. They have seen it repeated time and time again even in this early stage.
The answer is harder to find. At least the problem is somewhat identified.
“We’ve had a lot of close games in the preseason and the start of the season, I think we’re really learning from it,” Smith said. “Keep leads, that’s our biggest thing. We get out to great leads. We hve 6-, 10-, 15-point leads and then teams come back on us in the third quarter. It’s something we have to focus on, but we’ll get better.”
At least this time, the Magic got a lesson while winning instead of suffering through another defeat.