Orlando Magic refocus on sharpening small details on defense
The Orlando Magic have seen some slippage defensively of late as the team struggled to end the road trip. Getting back to defense is key to their success.
The story of the Orlando Magic’s season so far has been the defensive reformation. That is something Scott Skiles has been well known to do throughout his coaching career to this point.
And the transformation for the Magic was very real.
After finishing 25th in the league last year with a defensive rating of 105.2 points allowed per 100 possessions, the Magic have had one of the bigger turnarounds in the league today. Orlando is currently eighth in the league with a 99.4 defensive rating.
There have been numerous games where the Magic’s still inconsistent offense has not played well and the defense has stepped up to give the team a chance to win. It is a big reason the Magic are sitting at and above .500 and have found themselves very much a part of the conversation in the congested Eastern Conference.
That hardly means everything is perfect at this point though. Nothing can be after a team gets beat at home by 35 points, regardless travel weariness or not.
Orlando has lost three of its last four games and has seen some incredible defensive slippage. It is a small sample size, but the team is posting a 100.9 defensive rating. Considering how poor the offense has been, that has equalled some pretty bad basketball. Something that needs to be tightened up considerably.
“There is no question about it,” coach Scott Skiles said. “We had a great defensive second half in Salt Lake and a poor first half. We are having big areas during the game where we are doing both. We are playing very well, a certain lineup is playing well defensively and then we are having other areas of the game where we are not. Without that anchor for us, we need that. We have to have that.”
The offense has been somewhat inconsistent throughout the year. This is not a team with a ton of consistent offensive weapons. The inconsistency seems like it is going to be an ongoing storyline for this team.
It is not only because of Skiles’ penchant for defense the Magic have to commit on the defensive end, it is almost a necessity because of this fact.
Much of the reason the Magic have won games this year that even they have admitted they would not have won last year — including a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves where they gained and lost a 17-point lead or the grind-it-out affair over the Denver Nuggets, the lone win in the last four games — is because of that defensive backbone the team has gained.
This team has shown itself to be a good defensive team at this quarter point of the season. Something is just a bit off right now, and it is hard to say what.
“It’s hard to say,” Aaron Gordon said. “I’m not 100 percent sure honestly. I would have to go back and watch. I know on my part, I’m trying to do the best that I can. It’s a five-man defensive scheme. If one person is not in position, it starts with one thing and then it dominos. We have to be more disciplined and more detail oriented.”
Some slippage as a team goes through the course of a schedule without tons of practice time can certainly occur. It is not an excuse but there are certainly principles that at times need reinforcing. The coaching staff is always working to prevent bad habits from creeping in.
Skiles said the hope is a team has gone through enough repetitions that defense and defensive principles have become second nature. When that happens slippage is less likely to occur. But it can happen.
The Magic got back to practice Sunday after an off day Saturday and focused on all the inconsistencies on both sides of the ball. There was certainly a bit of an edge to practice after the blowout loss.
Evan Fournier said there has been something of a lack of attention to detail lately. All the little things, he said, are where the team has struggled of late. Whether that be bumping a cutter or boxing out or being more aggressive.
“I think we’ve just got to go out there and execute the principles we have been executing all year, get a little sharper, continue to trust each other and have each other’s back and make defense an emphasis,” Victor Oladipo said. “I wouldn’t want to say we are trying to figure it out per se. We almost have to go back to the drawing board, go back to the basics, continue to just buy into the schemes and continue to buy into realizing defense wins us games. If we continue to do that and continue to play hard, I think we’ll be all right.”
Without a bailout superstar on either end really, the Magic need to be pulling together at all times and staying focused and sharp within their offensive and defensive systems.
This has been the thing that has slipped the most of late and what needs to get reigned back in starting with Monday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets and during the upcoming homestand.
“Right now we only have two or three guys playing well and then the next game it will be two or three other guys,” Fournier said. “We basically need everybody. That’s what it takes to be a good team. Everybody has got to be on the same page and we’re going to be in good shape. Right now, we’re playing, we’re playing bad. It’s alternating.”
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And the Magic are searching for consistency as much as any team to this point. On either end of the floor, the Magic need more than just one or two players playing well. The biggest thing to learn is playing as a unit.
The Magic have improved in that area for sure. But it is still something that is becoming more and more ingrained and becoming a part of the team.
Little slips like this stretch show there is still some learning to go defensively.
“It’s not only learning it, it’s understanding the importance of it and committing to it and doing it on a regular basis and just realizing totally inside yourself it is what bails you out of a lot of situations,” Skiles said. “We have had games that we won already this year that we shot the ball poorly and we won because we hung in defensively. We don’t know yet if we are a good shooting team or not. Statistically it doesn’t look great. If we don’t have that to hang our hat on, then we are in trouble.”
Defense will remain important for the Magic as they continue to fight to turn the corner and remain in Playoff contention throughout the season.
Next: Aaron Gordon must become Orlando Magic's defensive stopper
Turning it around after these last four games will be even more critical for this team.