Orlando Magic finding their way inside

The Orlando Magic have begun to get the offense moving with superb ball movement. It is the opportunities inside though that are transformative.

The Orlando Magic were going to force-feed the ball into the paint. They did so it seemed to the point that it took them out of the fluid offense that had dominated the last two games.

The ball went into Nikola Vucevic on the first four half-court possessions — each ending with Vucevic taking a shot. In fact, 12 of the Magic’s first 15 possessions ended with the Magic taking a shot within 10 feet. They did not have a possession with consecutive jumpers until eight minutes in the game.

“Some plays early in the game were ran for me,” Vucevic said. “I tried to be as aggressive as I can to get to the rim and score and get some fouls, get the team going and open stuff up for us. I think we did that throughout the whole game. Not only me but guys were trying to drive and get to the basket. We did a good job with that tonight.”

That was not enough for the Magic to establish firm control over the game, but it was enough to set the tone for how this game was going to be played.

Orlando was attacking. Attacking to the tune of 52 points in the paint on 26-for-39 shooting in the paint. And that does not include 22-for-31 shooting from the foul line that surely came as a result of some paint field goal attempts. Elfrid Payton alone shot 11 of 17 from the foul line.

There are a variety of ways a team can get those points — Orlando added 15 fast-break points and a couple run outs after steals and 23 points off 19 Portland turnovers — but the point was the Magic were going to score where the scoring is supposedly easier.

“One of our goals was to get in the paint plenty,” coach Scott Skiles said. “They switch bigs onto smalls and we wanted to drive by those bigs and make pretty good plays. I feel like we did. One of the main things is the disparity in turnovers and points off turnovers. We were able to turn them and that led into breaks which turn out into paint points. We were able to convert some points in the paint, which we always haven’t this year.”

The Magic have had their struggles in the paint this year. According to NBA.com, the Magic shoot the fifth most field goal attempts within 10 feet at 39.7 per game. However, they shoot fifth worst field goal percentage within 10 feet at 51.5 percent.

That is a pretty large disparity.

Orlando’s offense is based largely on ball movement. But the way to initiate that ball movement is to get into the lane and cause the defense to collapse. Then the ball can be whipped out to the perimeter to a 3-point shooter, passed to the next open man or driven back into the paint past an off-balance defender.

At times, Skiles said, the Magic have dribbled too deep and gotten crowded rather than passing at the right time to the open man. The last three games, it seemed the Magic have started to find the formula for driving into the lane.

In the last three games, the Magic’s attempts within 10 feet has dropped to 29.5 attempts per game. But the team is shooting much better at 61.0 percent within 10 feet.

This would suggest both that the Magic are getting to the paint and making shots at a higher rate and that they are kicking it out to shooters. Considering the results — the Magic have an offensive rating of 111.1 points per 100 possessions.

“If you take it in there and make a good decision, you are going to do better whatever it is,” Skiles said before the game. “If the ball is moving around and guys are knocking down jump shots and we’re hitting people in time, and in rhythm, which we have the last couple of games, inevitably during the game lanes are going to open up.

Certainly defense helps too. The Magic did convert 23 points off 19 Trail Blazers turnovers and scored 15 points in transition.

Orlando had several runouts after steals and were quick to the ball and aggressive in transition. The Magic’s spacing on fast-break opportunities and passing to the open man in transition was just as important as anything else the team did in this game offensively.

Tobias Harris said the team’s defense was really what charged them in the game and got them into the paint pretty consistently. It created opportunities and helped open up the offense by keeping the defense unbalanced.

In the half-court though, Orlando’s diligence to get into the paint was critical to the win and kickstarting the offense. As it has been all year.

“We’ve done it a bit in reverse, we’re trying to drive, drive, drive and then throw out,” Skiles said. “Hopefully the guys are beginning to understand if we start the game in some sort of offensive rhythm and get a couple guys knocking down some shots by making simple plays. But then as the game goes on, we can open the other team up and get to the basket a little better and make a better percentage.”

Things have begun to open up for the Magic in that way exactly.

Orlando scored 22 points in the paint in the first quarter on 11-for-16 shooting. They went away from it in a second quarter where they really struggled — six points on 3-for-4 shooting in the paint that period as the team failed to make on any of its five 3-pointers. But then they returned with 10 paint points in the third quarter and a devastating 14 on 7-for-10 shooting to close the game.

Skiles said before the game he wants the team shooting in the mid-60s in the paint for the season. The Magic got there Friday night in making two out of every three attempts in the paint essentially.

Next: Orlando Magic break and bash to defeat Portland Trail Blazers

“That’s the way we try to play — drive and kick,” Vucevic said. “We try to get to the paint as much as we can, create an advantage to where the defense has to help and then you make a pass and the defense is in scramble mode. That’s what we try to do. When teams play like that, we know how hard it is to defend that. The thing that helps a lot is it is hard to defend when a team goes in and out, especially if you are downing the threes, which we didn’t really do that tonight, but when you are able to do that, it makes it really tough to do.”