Orlando Magic see the problem, but disconnected on solution
The Orlando Magic clearly see the problems happening on defense. They are increasingly disconnected on the solution and how to implement it.
Final. 112. 38. 133. 41
The Golden State Warriors are a team that demands perfection. They are a team that is going to bend and to shape a team in a way that few teams can do. Playing them is like playing an entirely different animal. Even a team’s best efforts may not be enough for them at half speed.
The one thing no team can do is forsake its principles or give up its defense.
It did not take the Warriors to do that. The Orlando Magic have long been on the road to struggling on defense. The Magic rank 27th in the league in defensive rating. That is something that has dropped more and more in the last three weeks.
Every loss comes with the same refrain and the same patterns. The poor and inconsistent defensive efforts. The inability to string multiple stops together. And the poor defensive rebounding. Orlando has looked lost on that end.
Every game seems to bring with it a familiar yet different complaint. If it is not one of those things, it is another. The Magic have rarely gotten all of their ducks in a row on that end.
They were not about to do so against the Warriors.
The Warriors made them look even more lost. Golden State shot 62.5 percent and recorded a season-high 46 assists.
The problems are apparent. How the Magic diagnose and resolve them are not.
"“Tougher, more alert, more physical, compete more, follow the plan more,” coach Frank Vogel said. “We just got to play tougher. I mean, we’ve got to play better than that to beat the champs.”"
Vogel impressed toughness on this team during the losing streak. He has come to postgame press conferences and discussed the team’s struggles to fight through physically and to compete every game. Vogel would not elaborate too much on it.
But the problem has persisted. The Warriors did not blow the Magic out by any means — not until the fourth quarter. But Golden State did not find much of a resistance from Orlando either.
Orlando Magic
The Warriors cut and drove with relative impunity from both interior and perimeter defenders. Golden State scored 70 points in the paint and 18 fast break points.
While the Magic are starting to play offensively as they did earlier in the season, Vogel said the Magic need to play tougher defensively.
That was not the diagnosis from Evan Fournier. He did not feel the team’s lack of toughness was the problem. It was more about their focus in transition.
"“I thought we played hard,” Evan Fournier said. “You can always play, not harder, but with passion, with that kind of f*ck you mentality. I thought we played hard. I thought we made a lot of mistakes on the transition matchups, trying to match up in transition. I thought that was the biggest thing tonight.”"
The Magic can play angry all they want. And Orlando had good energy in Friday’s loss. But that is clearly not enough.
There was a laundry list of things the Magic did poorly.
Everyone agreed the Magic’s transition defense was poor against the Warriors, one of the best transition teams in the league. That was certainly a carryover from a loss earlier in the week to the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers caught the Magic a bit flat-footed after missed shots and beating them down the floor.
A frustrated Vogel had the team working on their coverages ahead of Wednesday’s win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Orlando partially held Golden State in check in transition, but there were plenty of moments where shooters got free and the team lost track.
The team lamented its poor coverages on the Warriors’ ball movement and player movement. Vogel said the team had to switch to cover the constant movement. The coverages were not good enough. And even as he has tried to scale back the amount of switching to try to simplify the defense, the Magic still find themselves unable to execute their coverages.
Again and again, the Magic got beat off backdoor cuts. In Nikola Vucevic‘s estimation, it happened eight out of 10 times. The Warriors found the gaps the Magic left open as they were unable to close down dribble penetration or cover the roll man.
"“I think we were back on our heels a little bit,” Aaron Gordon said. “I think against OKC, we were going at them all game long. There were points in time in this game we were on our heels.”"
There seems to be a bit of a disconnect then on what the exact problem is for the Magic on that end.
Is it a lack of toughness? Is it tightening up rotations and paying closer attention in transition? Are the Magic not always aggressive enough defensively?
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All these diagnoses have plenty of evidence to support them. And they all may be correct. Pinpointing the exact cause or the exact reasons for Friday’s loss — and all the losses that came before it — may not be the correct exercise.
It will take everyone getting on the same page to resolve these issues.
The Magic are not going anywhere without their defense. They do not even have a chance.
"“When you play against a team like Golden State, you’ve got to give it all,” Nikola Vucevic said. “You’ve got to keep scrambling and keep fighting. We definitely didn’t do that. We didn’t execute any of the gameplan like we should have. We were able to score, which is why we kept the game close. But we never had a chance.”"
The Magic kept the game close for much of the game. Even in the second half, Orlando stayed within 10 points and made runs to cut it closer. But the Magic never really closed the gap.
Vucevic said it never felt like the team was going to make the push. And indeed it always felt like the Warriors were in complete control.
The Warriors do this to everyone, though. They are their own animal. They put every team on edge with how much attention they demand.
But these problems are not new. The problems that plagued the Magic on defense are ongoing. The Warriors made them look worse simply because they are the Warriors, able to exploit and twist them apart.
Next: Grades: Golden State Warriors 133, Orlando Magic 112
The Magic will have games against more manageable opponents coming up soon as they come out of this “vortex” in the schedule. But the laundry list Gordon, Vucevic and others listed after Friday’s game are not going away.