Orlando Magic see the power of the 3-pointer… a skill that still escapes them

The Toronto Raptors put on a shooting clinic to defeat the Orlando Magic. The importance of shooting was never more evident in this ho-hum defeat.

At the beginning of the season, coach Frank Vogel wanted to change the Orlando Magic. They were already going smaller, shifting Aaron Gordon to the 4. It was the direction the league was going, Vogel said. And it was where the Magic had to go now too.

If they were going to compete they would have to mimic the style of other teams. It was not a natural fit for them. The Magic were coming off a stretch of drafts where they struggled to draft shooters. The team was consistently one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the league. They, at least, were not a team anyone respected.

The Magic still did not have a perfect fit for this new world. Elfrid Payton was someone who struggled to make shots — a solid 37.3 percent from beyond the arc this year, but never with the respect from the defense.

There was Aaron Gordon, a guy who never shot better than 30 percent from beyond the arc this year. He was moving to the 4 partly because he could not stretch the floor enough at the 3. Still, modern power forwards have to make 3s.

The Magic were still a bit short on shooting.

But much of their 8-4 start to the season came because of their incredible shooting. Orlando made 40.6 percent of its 3-pointers, second in the league. Everyone felt the Magic were a bit of a mirage. They could not sustain that shooting.

Not like a team like the Toronto Raptors could.

The Raptors were among the worst 3-point shooting teams in those early days of the season. They were trying to figure out their new offensive style. A style that promoted more ball movement and called for even more 3-point shooting.

It is safe to say they figured it out.

This season, the Raptors are shooting 35.9 percent from beyond the arc, 18th in the league. Hardly a strong number. But Toronto has modernized itself better than Orlando has. The Magic sank to 26th in 3-point field goal percentage. Things got worse as the season went on.

The team is hardly the 3-point shooting team it was at the beginning of the season. And that might explain why the Magic’s offense has sunk like a rock to be one of the worst in the league.

And it was clear as the Raptors routed the Magic on Sunday at Air Canada Centre. The final score does not show how thoroughly Toronto won the game. It was always more than an 11-point deficit.

Toronto kept feeding in shooters after shooters, moving the ball with speed and pace around the horn. They always found the open man. This was an offense clicking on all cylinders, even with DeMar DeRozan and Jonas Valanciunas getting some time off to rest. Toronto had already wrapped up the top seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs.

The Raptors still worked the Magic time and time again. They hit 17 of 40 3-pointers. That would be 10 more than the Magic made. All this despite Orlando making three more field goals than Toronto.

Vogel might rightly say the Magic played a solid game. Their offense was largely working. But they were never able to keep up. Not without the 3-point shooting.

It has truly become the equalizer in this league. Teams across the NBA are taking more threes than ever before. It is a weapon that is as natural for a team as a layup. There is not getting around it and there is no ignoring it.

Orlando could not hit 3-pointers and the team lost the game. The team could not defend the 3-point line and it lost the game.

The Magic have lost 15 of the 20 games they shot worse than 30 percent from beyond the arc. They have lost 23 of their 29 games when they give up more than 40 percent from beyond the arc.

The 3-point line correlates to wins and losses. Everyone senses that. The Magic just do not have the shooting. Not at this moment.

Orlando is without its best 3-point shooters right now, in fairness. Evan Fournier is out. Jonathon Simmons is streaky but solid from beyond the arc. But the team’s struggles from beyond the arc and defending the 3-point line are as much a key to the team’s struggles as everything else.

The whole league revolves around that line.

Toronto could bring in off the bench shooters that would make the Magic play for late rotations or poor on-ball defense. C.J. Miles drained five 3-pointers in the game. Each one a backbreaker.

It does not take much logic to understand three points is better than two. The league took a while to figure out how best to deploy this weapon drawn onto the floor. The Magic helped revolutionize it with that 2009 Finals run.

The league is still undergoing that revolution. And the Magic are still figuring out how to get their piece of it back. It has been one of the more confounding and frustrating parts of their rebuild.

It does not mean they need to focus solely on finding 3-point shooting in this year’s draft. But it is clear shooting and defending the 3-point line remain major needs for the Magic.

Next: Grades: Toronto Raptors 112, Orlando Magic 101

That was most evident as the Raptors clinically picked them apart from beyond the arc.