Orlando Magic display defensive inepititude despite win

The Orlando Magic made about every mistake possible but still walked away 124-115 victors against the Philadelphia 76ers.

There is the saying that offense wins games and defense wins championships. This was a game offense won, but further wins will not come without actual defense. This is about as weak a victory as possible against a team that has struggled to wins this season.

What can be said is simply defeating the Philadelphia 76ers is not enough. This is a win that should have come definitively, and the Magic needed a strong fourth quarter to even secure victory.

That is, after surrendering 30-plus points in each of the first three quarters — to one of the worst offensive attacks in the entire league.

On paper, many may walk away with this and think the Magic notched a clear and easy victory, but such could not be further from the truth.

Even forcing 22 turnovers looks good on paper. But the 76ers shot 54 percent from the field and knocked down 10 3-pointers. The Sixers also got to the line for 26 free throws, and Orlando really let Ish Smith do the business to its perimeter defense.

Elfrid Payton’s on ball defense continues to lag, and the Magic had to turn to C.J. Watson to get the requisite defense to win this game.

Scott Skiles plugged Watson in midway through the third quarter and nearly left him in the remainder of the game. Watson helped put an end to coverage so bad that T.J. McConnell was able to dance into the paint on several occasions.

Philadelphia looked like a good offensive team in this game. This was the worst offensive team in the league with a 95.3 offensive rating.

The Magic turned borderline starters like Ish Smith into something like a star, and at this point the Magic really have to find a way to dig deeper and start putting forth the defensive effort necessary to be a good team.

The 76ers ended up posting a 108.0 offensive rating in Tuesday’s game. Quite the bump up above their season average.

At least in the loss to the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night, the pick and roll defense was aggressive and the Magic made a strong effort to push the guards further away from the action, to make plays more difficult.

For the Sixers to score 115 points, there was more than a regression to the mean. Orlando showcased just how poor a team it can be on the defensive end, and it really should not ever become a shootout with a team as talent bereft as the Sixers.

Philadelphia has just eight wins this season for a reason, but the Magic nearly became the cause again of another Sixers’ victory having already fallen once earlier this season.

The Magic looked good offensively, but only because the Sixers were as lethargic defensively as Orlando was. To draw any meaningful conclusions on the basis of Orlando’s offense would be folly. This is a game that had little to no defense, often looking like an exhibition or some type of game where defense was an after thought.

In an NBA game one expects to see some effort and some resolve, and the Magic simply had little of either.

Needless to say, a similar effort could result in the Golden State Warriors scoring 200 points (I wrote that about five minutes before Scott Skiles remarked the Warriors would score 300 with this kind of defensive effort).

Perhaps that is more than slight hyperbole, but to give up 115 points to the Sixers does not bode well for a team about to take on the NBA’s highest scoring club.

Orlando appeared to be getting back to its strengths defensively against the Pacers, but any good notions stemming from that loss certainly evaporated in this ugly win.

The Magic improve to 25-30, but it could not have come in worse fashion. This was a game Orlando should have won easily, and taking a nine-point victory seems like enough. That is only looking at this on the basis of wins and losses, but Scott Skiles and indeed most coaches do not use that as the sole evaluation of a team’s performance.

Related Story: Orlando Magic's offensive display ekes out win over Philadelphia 76ers

Skiles can not have been happy with this, and this game shows more holes than any win really should.