Halftime is the Orlando Magic’s time to adjust, win

The Orlando Magic have established themselves as one of the best third-quarter teams in the league. It is a key sign of the team’s ability to eke out wins.

Coach Frank Vogel was not happy when he looked at the stat sheet at halftime.

It showed his team ahead 64-63 but hardly how he wanted it. The Orlando Magic had given up those 63 points on 52.8 percent shooting. His team saw the Phoenix Suns play their fast-break style right back at his team. Josh Jackson scored a career-high 16 points largely by attacking a retreating Magic defense. No one was stepping up.

Orlando was making a lot of self-inflicted wounds too. It was not merely the poor defense. The Magic had 11 turnovers and looked sloppy with the ball. Their defense looked unenergetic and out of focus.

This was a team that looked jet lag heading out to the West Coast. Or something was off. Maybe this team had settled into playing up and down to its competition. Orlando clearly could have played better.

The Magic needed halftime to regroup. The question was how would they come out of the locker room and respond.

The answer so far this season has been well. One of the many signs of a team turning the corner. Halftime is not a time where momentum runs dry, it is a time where the team regroups and gets better.

It is their chance to bounce back.

The third quarter proved that out. Phoenix scored on the opening possession on a post up from Alex Len. From there, it was all Magic as they extended their one-point lead out to 15 and took full control of the game.

Orlando shot 11 for 22 from the floor and 7 for 10 from the line. They scored 33 points. The offense kept going and Orlando got the ball moving. In a game where the Magic at times struggled with turnovers, they had five in the quarter. Hardly perfect, there was slipping at the end of the quarter.

But the defense had shifted. The Magic allowed just 22 points in the third quarter, giving up 8-for-19 shooting. The Suns slowed down and the Magic were the reason why. They shut down that lane for Jackson. They closed the lanes down for everyone and forced turnovers to get out in transition.

Orlando controlled the pace on both ends. Halftime was their time to settle down.

And that has been the case all year long.

The Magic are second in the league in third quarter scoring, averaging 29.8 points per game on 51.8 percent shooting. They are third in the league in offensive rating, scoring 114.4 points per 100 possessions. Orlando is second in the league with a 60.0 percent effective field goal percentage in the third quarter.

That makes sense, the Magic offense has been strong all season. Their defense has stepped its game up in the third quarter.

Orlando is ninth in the league in defensive rating in the third quarter, giving up 99.2 points per 100 possessions.

This is a dramatic change from last year, as many of the team’s stats are.

Last year, Orlando was among the worst teams coming out of the locker room. The team was 23rd in the league in offensive rating in the third quarter, scoring 102.0 points per 100 possessions. They gave up 108.9 points per 100 possession, 24th in the league. That -7.0 net rating in the quarter was the fourth-worst in the league.

It is just one quarter — no more important than the others in the game — but it does create major momentum. The third quarter can be as challenging as any. It is the quarter where a team implements adjustments and has to figure out what the other team is doing. It is not starting a new game, but it is a bit of a reset. And Orlando has struggled with that reset on both ends for several years. The bad teams always do.

A sign of the Magic’s success this year is their ability to adjust and come out of the locker room focused. That break is where many teams begin to break. Their loss to the Chicago Bulls, their only loss after holding a halftime lead this season, the Orlando Magic struggled coming out of the locker room. It buried the team in a hole it could not figure itself out of.

More often, the team has looked like it did Friday coming out of the locker room. More often, the Magic have made the proper adjustment and taken control of the game in the third quarter. That is a great sign of the team’s growth. They take that time to pause and adjust.

And not only do they take halftime to pause and adjust, they take it to implement and learn. They have made shifts defensively at halftime. Sometimes dramatic strategy changes to cut off what the other team is doing. And they execute them.

That is a sign of the team’s buy-in with what the coaches are trying to preach every day in practice. They do not doubt the gameplan or the adjustments to it. They come out of the locker room firing.

Orlando will have its hiccups. There is adversity to come. The Golden State Warriors loom and they are the best third-quarter team in the league to this point. They blitz teams as they lumber out of the locker room from the break.

That is something the Magic are doing now too. They are the ones coming out of the locker room in control, erasing deficits to get back into games or expanding leads.

That is what they did against the Suns. Their one-point lead expanded quickly on the back of an 11-4 run. And Orlando never really let up. Not until the Magic brought their second unit in. Things slowed some then, but just a bit. Phoenix got the deficit back to single digits.

But Jonathon Simmons closed the door. He hit a tough, contested runner to put the Magic up seven and leave the Suns discouraged. That is the other thing a strong third quarter can do. It can leave a team discouraged after the break.

Next: Grades: Orlando Magic 128, Phoenix Suns 112

Orlando has done that throughout the season. it is a big part of the team’s hot start.