Orlando Magic find BIG help discovering their defense

The Orlando Magic debuted their B-I-G lineup to devastating defensive effect in a game where it was the Magic’s defense keeping the team afloat.

The Orlando Magic were in that beautiful grind.

A game where neither team was shooting the ball particularly well and every inch is earned. This is the kind of team that defined Steve Clifford’s teams with the Charlotte Hornets and the kind of team he wants the Orlando Magic to become. A preview of all the potential they can be.

For a four-minute stretch, the Orlando Magic’s length and speed were overwhelming a team even as offensively gifted as the Toronto Raptors. The B-I-G lineup of Mohamed Bamba, Jonathan Isaac and Aaron Gordon made its debut and was everything everyone could have imagined on that end.

And Orlando needed it in this game. The Magic put forth one of their best defensive efforts against the Raptors on Tuesday night in a 93-91 loss.

They did everything they had to just to stay in the game. The Raptors, a team with the sixth-best offense in the league at 112.3 points per 100 possessions, was suddenly stuck in the mud. Orlando held Toronto to a 96.9 offensive rating.

This was not a game where individuals had great defensive stats. There were no highlight defensive plays aside from Aaron Gordon’s three blocks and one steal. This was an all-around team effort.

Orlando held Toronto to 45 percent shooting from the field, 26 percent from three. The Magic forced 16 turnovers.

That proved important in a game where Orlando itself shot 40.5 percent and had an offensive rating around 93 points per 100 possessions. It was Orlando’s defense despite its offense that made this game.

The Magic had the game tied on the final possession and their defense was to thank for most of that. As it was for the team erasing an 18-point deficit and a 10-point halftime deficit to make it a game.

A big catalyst was indeed the debut of the Magic’s long-awaited B-I-G lineup. Orlando started the fourth quarter with Jerian Grant, Terrence Ross, Jonathan Isaac, Aaron Gordon and Mohamed Bamba on the floor. And it delivered defensively in a big way.

It was nearly impossible for the Raptors to score. Whenever the Magic put its young bigs in Isaac and Bamba on the floor, they provided a glimpse of just how dominating defensively the two can be with all of their length and athleticism.

In the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, Orlando gave up just five points on 2-for-5 shooting. Far more impressively, they forced six turnovers, clogging passing lanes with their pure length. The Raptors scored just 50.0 points per 100 possessions.

This was the Magic’s full defensive potential on full display.

Orlando Magic

Of course, things were not all rosy. The Magic were unable to take and expand a lead despite that stellar defense. That lineup did not generate much offense because of Jerian Grant and Terrence Ross’ struggles.

The two guards did not have a good offensive outing and were cold from the field. The group went 1 for 10 from the field as a whole.

Typically this year, when the Magic struggle that much defensively for so long, they lose their handle on the lead. But the Magic were still right there with the Raptors.

Orlando found some offensive footing when Evan Fournier and Nikola Vucevic re-entered the game. The duo was solid defensively as well and Evan Fournier even came up with a big steal toward the end of the game. The Magic never let go defensively even with the team’s struggles offensively.

That is an important lesson for the team to learn.

Despite Orlando’s gritty defensive effort, the game would come down to a defensive collapse. In the game’s final play, the Raptors’ Serge Ibaka set a pick for his teammate Danny Green. Wesley Iwundu could not recover and the Magic failed to rotate over fast enough to Danny Green.

The effort was there, but just the slight hesitation from Wesley Iwundu to get around the screen caused the collapse defensively. Gordon got a decent challenge to make Green’s shot tough. But it was a bitter pill to swallow, especially after the strongest defensive effort of the season so far.

Orlando dug itself an 18-point hole at least in part because of the team’s poor rebounding. The Raptors grabbed four of their six offensive rebounds in the first half. The Raptors scored 17 second-chance points in the game, a killer stat for a Magic team struggling to score.

Orlando still has to improve finishing its defensive possessions with a rebound.

Although, the Magic fell short, there is a lot to build off of this game. This kind of defensive effort will lead to a whole lot more wins.

Ultimately, Orlando went neck and neck with one of the favorites to win the Eastern Conference. The Magic did not back down. If this game is a measuring stick of how good the Magic are, then they are right up there with the best in the East.

And they are just scratching the surface on their defensive potential.