Orlando Magic 2017 Season Review: Top 10 Games of 2017

December 23, 2016

The Orlando Magic’s defense was slipping. Everyone could see it happening. The team’s promising start on that end was beginning to collapse and the Magic needed to take a stand.

That stand began in the huddle before the team went onto the floor for the game.

Serge Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo, the leaders of the Magic’s supposed defensive renaissance, stepped up to that bill. They told their teammates to take care of their business and play physical. If anything came their way, they would clean up the mistakes.

It was a bold statement of leadership — one the Magic would need more often, it would seem. And both Ibaka and Biyombo delivered in a major way.

The two combined for eight of the Magic’s 11 blocks as the team set a franchise record with nine blocks in the first quarter. Orlando set the tone from the first play in an 109-90 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.

"As the Magic huddled up after pregame introductions, Serge Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo told their guards to get up in their man and play physical. The two bigs the Magic acquired this summer to shore up their rim protection would handle everything at the rim. From the first play, that proved to be true. Ibaka came from the weak side and blocked a Timofey Mozgov shot at the apex of its arc. On the next possession, Ibaka stuffed Mozgov and on a drive to the basket, just before he could go up for a dunk."

This was the menacing defense the Magic imagined when they acquired Ibaka and opted to pair Biyombo with him. The two dominated the Lakers’ interior from the start and helped spot the Magic a sizable lead. From there, the Magic simply took care of business.

Orlando followed this game up with a win over the Memphis Grizzlies, blowing them out through three quarters and resting their starters for the fourth.

That would be the last time the Magic won consecutive games until March.