Orlando Magic: It will take defense to sniff the Playoffs

The Orlando Magic started off the year as one of the big surprises on the defensive end. They slipped and fell hard. Still within range, defense can save.

The message has seemingly been the same everywhere the Orlando Magic can turn.

It has been the same message from training camp to now, on repeat with increasing and decreasing volume at various times. Early in the season that message had to be a point of pride. And then slowly it began to slip.

There were warning alarms sounded and stern messages that they might be getting away with it now but they would not get away with it for long.

And then January hit. The defense crumbled, the losses piled up and the Magic found themselves on the outside trying to work their way back in. All the warnings went unheeded.

Now the Magic cannot seem to find their way back to that level of defense. Or any level of defense. And the warning bells have not dissipated. To reach the Magic’s goal of making the Playoffs the change has to start on defense.

“That’s been my message for two months [to play better defense],” Skiles said after Sunday’s game against the 76ers. “I’m sure they are sick of hearing it. But that is the message.”

Two games against the Philadelphia 76ers giving up more than 100 points was not cause for too much celebration. This was by far the worst offense in the league. And yet the Sixers posted a 104.1 offensive rating against the Magic this year. Their season average is 95.6.

Maybe that is just a bad matchup. It is possible. But the defense overall has been a problem.

The season has more or less been divided into a few parts.

In the first 26 games, the Magic had a 98.9 defensive rating, good for seventh in the entire league. With a 15-11 record and nearly one-third of the way through the season, the Magic had a top-10 defense in the league. And this is not something that was statistically insignificant.

From December 19 until the end of January, the Magic’s defensive rating dropped to 107.9, 25th in the league in that time frame. The offense took a small jump up, but the defensive drop made that almost irrelevant. The Magic went 6-14 in that time, erasing all the goodwill they had built until then.

The defense has recovered some statistically, but not much. In February, the Magic posted a 106.7 defensive rating. That was 17th in the league for the month. But that is relative improvement, not anything permanent or encouraging.

The drop is noticeable not just statistically but visibly. The Magic will have no chance to make any kind of push and cut into this four-game deficit to make the Playoffs without a defensive push.

“We still got to figure the defense out because moving forward, we’re not going to get many wins playing defense like that,” Payton said. “We’ve got to clean up those things.

“It’s good when we have nights like [Sunday], where we are rolling on offense. But we’ve got to play defense.”

That is a common refrain throughout the roster. They know there has to be some change defensively or some uptick or recommitment to principles to get that step up and back into the playoff race.

The Magic certainly believe they are capable of doing so, as they should. They have stood toe to toe with some very good teams. That lies at the heart of the frustration as much as anything.

But they know they stand no chance without defense. The important thing is after Wednesday’s win over the Chicago Bulls, and sitting 3.5 games out of the final Playoff spot, there is still plenty to play for, but a lot of work to get there.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Nikola Vucevic said. “The teams that are in front of us aren’t going to give up games. We’re going to have to win as many games as we can for the rest of the year. We’re going to fight to the end and never give up. We have to be prepared every game and give everything we have and hope that we can make it in.”

It is going to take a little more than hope. It is going to take getting back to business. And Wednesday was a good sign for sure. It was a sign the team could get down and get stops and make important defensive plays.

Gordon said the team just needs to keep playing hard and be about the process of playing good defense. That was what got them going early in the season. That is what got them off to that strong start.

For whatever reason, the defense just seemed to slip. What that reason was is irrelevant now. The team’s Playoff goal still lies ahead of it, with plenty of work to do on top of that.

The directive is simple for the Magic to have a shot.

Next: Orlando Magic (nearly) win from start to finish

“We just do it,” Oladipo said. “At the end of the day, we are capable of doing it. We just have to do it.”