Everything is a collective effort for Orlando Magic
The Orlando Magic are struggling right now and examining themselves to recover. What is clear is that it will not take one person, all have to come along.
It was not hard to see what was going on with the Orlando Magic in the fourth quarter of Friday’s disappointing loss to the Charlotte Hornets.
The ball was no longer moving with any confidence or speed. The team was walking into sets, leaving it precious little time to run anything resembling a functioning offense. The team pressing was as much a function of the team not moving the ball as it was not having the time to run anything else.
As Orlando reviewed the video of the fourth quarter it was clear there were plenty of missed opportunities but also a shift in the mentality and play style the team took in the fourth quarter.
The shift was baffling and raised questions from players, from fans, from everyone about where this team stands and what it can do moving forward.
“It wasn’t like we quit or anything like that,” Scott Skiles said. “We just stopped paying with the pace we were playing with. We became very slow and at the same time we had trouble stopping them.
“When you are in fourth quarters of NBA games, whether it is double-digit leads or behind by two, your focus has to be on the actual execution at that moment. Not on did we miss three in a row, are they coming back on us. It has to be on at that moment, on both ends of the floor, what is our plan of attack and are we executing that plan. Like a lot of teams, we struggle to stay with that. We leave the page sometimes.”
At this point, the Magic have admitted there is pressing. The team is not quite coming together at the right moment. There are plenty of moments where the team gets punched and staggers back.
Why that is has been the intractable problem for the Magic throughout this losing stretch to this point.
By all accounts from the players and coaches, the team is saying all the right things. They are recognizing the problems and speaking to each other. But even Skiles admitted it may not be translating to games. Even Tobias Harris, one of the team’s captains, admitted he needs to be more vocal.
Skiles said the team has to get better at communicating with each other through the course of the game and limit bad body language.
Something is not clicking right and the team has obviously not been able to place it.
“Everybody knows,” Evan Fournier said. “Everybody has a job. The thing is we have to do it collectively and try to be on the same page all together. If there is one guy missing, it messes everything — offensively and defensively. We need everybody to be focused.”
Harris said he and the other two captains on the team are always communicating and trying to talk with teammates about what they need to do just as the coaches are. It is not a lack of recognition, it would seem.
The Magic though are a different kind of team. Harris said the bottom line is every player has to do his part to help the team win. There is no superstar to dump the ball to and get easy points. There is no sure thing like that.
Instead, the Magic are at their best when several players are scoring and playing well. This is not what has happened lately as the Magic are seeing many of their top players struggle.
It has been a puzzle to get the group to snap back to attention for whatever reason.
“I think energy is contagious,” Tobias Harris said. “As a starter and a captain, I try to bring energy every game. Hopefully everybody else can feed off it. I think being a little more vocal over the course of the game and continuing to bring energy, but just continuing to move the basketball is key for us. That’s something I’m trying to do and we are all trying to do really.”
The Magic’s need to have many contributors and many players going at a high level is paramount to the whole thing working for this team. This is not a team that can rely on one player to get the job done. It has to be different players at different times.
Through it all, the Magic are trying to approach practice and games with a positive attitude. They are trying to continue to say the right things and practice with intensity. By all accounts they are.
When it comes to games though? The translation is not there. The offense devolves into isolations and stagnant movement — both player and ball — and it affects the defense.
There is pressure, Fournier said. This team felt like it was in position to make the Playoffs for sure and it feels like now that dream and that goal is slipping away. When a team is losing, they have a tendency to fall into a comfort zone rather than the difficult things it takes to win games.
This rough patch has been particularly low, but the team’s goals are still very present and possible. Skiles has seen teams with losing stretches recover and make the Playoffs.
This three-game road trip could change everything if the Magic can get back to playing well, or it could further throw the Magic into the abyss. That decision is up to the group itself.
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“In difficult times, you’ve got to fight your way through,” Harris said. “You’ve got to come in with a positive attitude and flip the page and be ready for the next week. We could sit around and pout and be upset about our last game, it is going to affect us going into the next game. We need to have a clear mindset for our next game and get back to where we want to be.”