Orlando Magic defense melts down under Washington Wizards’ threes
The Washington Wizards have completed its sweep of the Orlando Magic this season, and Orlando’s regression on the defensive end is the cause this time.
The Orlando Magic just not have been able to keep pace with John Wall and the Washington Wizards — this season, nor the last three. Wall finished with 24 points and 10 assists in helping the Wizards knock off the Magic 105-99 at the Amway Center on Saturday night.
Wall averaged 20.3 points, 10 assists and two steals per game in the sweep of Orlando this season, and any hopes the Magic had that Victor Oladipo could do a better job than Elfrid Payton dissipated rather quickly on Saturday night.
Wall and one-time Magic center Marcin Gortat teamed up to slow cook the Magic with the pick and roll. The Wizards would move the ball crisply and, midway through the second quarter, the Wizards had extended their lead to 47-36 behind the strength of 6 of 9 from downtown. Jared Dudley would go on to hit back-to-back threes after that to show just how effective the stretch-4 model can be as the Magic were just not hitting at the same clip.
“We made some adjustments defensively, we switched at the end,” Evan Fournier said. “I thought it was pretty good for us. It’s just a tough coverage when you have a long guard like that who can pass, that can shoot coming at you at full speed. It’s very hard for the bigs. It’s got to be a full team commitment to stop him.”
And that is the thing: This Magic team is not loaded enough offensively to out-gun most opponents. When Washington showed it had the triple locked in, Orlando needed to make defensive adjustments and force Washington to put the ball on the floor.
Jared Dudley barely had to dribble the entire night and knocked down four of Washington’s 13 three-point field goals.
This is not the same Magic team we observed in the first two months of the season while the Magic held opponents one of the five-worst marks in the NBA from behind the arc. And it is really difficult to determine how to get Orlando back to making those kinds of rotations.
Where is the sense of urgency?
Does any of it stem from Orlando’s offensive confidences brimming to the point the team feels it can sandbag defensively?
Because this is not a Magic team that is going to simply run opponents out of the gym. The Magic can look very good in transition, but the Wizards managed to keep the Magic away from their fast break offense. The Magic did score nine fast break points in the game, but the Wizards frequently got the shot they wanted on the offensive end.
The Wizards hit 55.3 percent from the floor and 13 of 23 from 3-point range.
“They just do a great job getting John open setting screens and a great job getting into the paint and finding open guys,” Victor Oladipo said. “They’re great in transition as well. Credit them, they played a very good game today.”
Even with the Magic functioning fairly well offensively and getting to the free throw line (see: 18 of 24), it can only go so far when the opposition is pick and choosing its spots like the Wizards were.
Washington’s starters shot 10 of 18 from three, and that kind of marksmanship can only be attributed to not closing out on shooters.
All five Wizards starters would reach double figures and Gary Neal came in throwing flames off the bench to put in 16 off the Wizards’ bench.
“Their skill and speed on the perimeter pretty much dominated us all four games,” coach Scott Skiles said. “Right from the beginning of the game, they were so much faster than us. Later in the game, they were running screens for Gary Neal, who is a very capable player, but we were 15 feet behind him. All four games, they put us in a blender. Their skill and speed on the perimeter owned us.”
Orlando looked good on offense, but that is just half the battle. Nikola Vucevic‘s well-rounded offensive arsenal was on display, but it was hard to notice with all those Wizards’ threes. The Magic suffered one of those unique defeats where they shot better than 50 percent from the floor and were scarcely in the game.
Before the Magic can resume their winning ways, the defensive efforts and communication must vastly improve.
Next: Orlando Magic still unable to solve Washington Wizards
Philip Rossman-Reich contributed to this report.