Through eight games of the season, the Orlando Magic have shown flashes of great play, but also inconsistency. They are still seeking some form of normal.
The Orlando Magic took a step back Monday against the Indiana Pacers.
Scott Skiles said it explicitly. The positive play of winning three games in four nights disappeared pretty quickly with the Pacers’ 97-84 win over the Magic on Monday night.
“It’s exactly how we felt,” Skiles said after practice Tuesday. “Even though we had a three-point lead, we didn’t play very well. Usually something bad is going to happen when you play like that. We had guys open all ove rthe place, and for whatever reason we kind of drove it in and we didn’t see each other like we have been. The low-assist, high-turnover game is not a formula for us to win.”
Orlando was undoubtedly extremely sloppy in Monday’s game, committing 22 turnovers and 21 Indiana points off turnovers. It was not a sharp offensive performance. And the Magic at least started the game off defensively sloppy, giving up 19 first-quarter points to Paul George.
That sloppiness carried over to the end of the game and on the offensive end for much of the contest.
The problem with this is that it goes beyond one game. Now that the Magic are eight games into the season, trends and habits are starting to set in and statistics are beginning to normalize. This is a stage of the season when there is still some change to be made.
And there is certainly some change left to be made on the Magic roster as far as their habits and tendencies are concerned.
“We need to pick it up,” Tobias Harris said. “We expect more from ourselves and more from each other. We want to pick up the pace and win these next few games.”
With how the Magic are playing right now, there is certainly a lot to control and a lot to improve on.
Orlando struggled to get that break through play in Monday’s game. There were opportunities to extend that lead out to five and then plenty of chances where the team got stops against Indiana but could not get the ball into the basket.
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Not everything is in sync.
Entering Wednesday’s game, the Magic rank pretty strongly across the league. They have the 12th best defense in the league with a 98.3 defensive rating. They 12th in the league in forcing turnovers with a 16.1 percent turnover ratio.
Those numbers are very encouraging for a team that struggled so mightily defensively throughout last season — they were tied for 12th in opponent turnover rate and 25th in defensive rate last year.
Offensively though, the Magic are still struggling. And Orlando also cannot stop fouling. They are 23rd in opponent free throw rate and 26th in offensive rating.
More alarming is the crazy range so far this season. According to Basketball-Reference, the Magic’s range of offensive rating has been varied, but essentially the team wins when they have an offensive rating of 100.0 or more. They are 0-3 when they are below that mark.
Things are normalizing but there is still plenty of inconsistency. And with the team committing a lot of fouls and struggling to get offensive traction, the margin for error is small.
“Yeah [the margin for error is small], which means we need to play very good defense,” Skiles said. “We need to have a 13-14 turnover game. Make a key play near the end of a game. There is an awful lot of games like that in the NBA.”
And so far, the Magic have played a lot of close games. That would be expected with how the Magic have played and the stats noted above.
Things are not normalized yet for this team. It is still finding its footing and finding its base.
Habits are forming and normal will come soon. The Magic are nearly 1/10 of the way through their season. Orlando is simply finding itself still.