Steve Clifford teams are said to be difficult to play against. As the Orlando Magic face injuries, they must get back to basics.
Orlando Magic coach Steve Clifford likely recognized all the problems he saw in the team’s 111-106 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Saturday.
There was the poor pick and roll coverage, allowing a guard to walk into a mid-range jumper with little thought or, worse, straight to the basket for a layup. There was the missed rotation giving the team an easy outlet and forcing the team into scramble mode that could easily lead to an open 3-pointer.
There was a poor block attempt, exposing the backline of the defense. Or there was a missed box out or a 50/50 ball the opponent fought for to keep the possession alive. All in critical moments.
These are all plays the Magic made last year. As they made their run, they could rely on certain things to go their way and it greatly reduced their margin for error.
Since the beginning fo the season, these basic tenets for the team have not been guaranteed. Orlando might have been able to survive when the team had its full complement. It will not be able to survive without Nikola Vucevic and Aaron Gordon on the roster.
The Magic’s defense is built on solid ball containment, forcing long 2-pointers, securing the defensive glass and limiting second-chance opportunities, and limiting turnovers to prevent fast-break chances. Everything else is an outgrowth of that.
Facing the injuries the Magic are facing, the team needs to recommit to this identity. The team needs to get back to the basics of what makes it work and secure these central tenets.
Things were already slipping before Nikola Vucevic and Aaron Gordon got hurt. The team’s defensive rating had slipped out of the top-10 after Wednesday’s loss to the Toronto Raptors. The team needed a reset anyway.
Saturday’s loss and how it went down was a familiar story.
The Pacers scored 111 points on a 113.3 defensive rating. Indiana had a 27.8 offensive rebound rate. The Magic stayed in the game because they hit an abnormal amount of 3-pointers (13 3-pointers on a 41.9 percent 3-point field goal percentage) and they converted 19 Pacers turnovers to 21 points.
Orlando suddenly has started to show some life offensively. And even without two key offensive players, for one night the Magic were able to still score.
But the overall trends are still going in the opposite direction.
The Magic are now 11th in the league in defensive rating, giving up 104.7 points allowed per 100 possessions. That is a far drop from where they were to start the season. The team’s offense has kept it alive but still ranks 29th in the league. Their -1.1 net rating is still 16th in the league.
It is not like the Magic are not competitive, but the signs are not encouraging. Even though the numbers suggest the Magic are still doing a lot of the right things. It is easy to see things slipping.
Orlando is still elite as a rebounding team — third in the league at 76.2 percent defensive rebound rate. But that was the case for much of this season so far, but Clifford has remained frustrated with his team’s physicality on the glass and overall defensively.
He often says the team needs to do a better job getting “into the ball,” a catch-all term for being physical and making it more difficult for teams to initiate their offense.
The Magic’s game against the Pacers turned for the worse when Myles Turner was able to beat Jonathan Isaac to an offensive rebound in a tie game with 30 seconds left. That gave the Pacers the last possession and the chance to reset their offense against a scrambled defense. Khem Birch got caught guarding Aaron Holiday and he worked a pick and roll with his brother Justin Holiday catching Khem Birch sinking against a 3-point shooting guard.
Securing a rebound seems like the easiest thing, but it is part of the core identity. And Vucevic was the Magic’s most surehanded rebounder. Orlando loses a lot when he is not in the game, even if he is not the most physically imposing.
The team’s turnover issues all season have been bubbling up at various times. But the Magic have remained one of the best teams at protecting the ball.
Orlando is third in the league with a 13.3 percent turnover rate. It is tough to get the Magic to cough up the ball.
Against the Pacers, the Magic had 14 turnovers leading to 15 Pacers points. These are all important. But again, in the biggest moment, the Magic had poor spacing and gave up the ball and a chance to tie the game.
The Magic gave up an offensive rebound and had a turnover in the biggest moment. Two uncharacteristic errors for this team.
But they were signs of how uneasy Clifford has been about his team for some time. Even when they were at full health.
Those signs will only get amplified now that the team is without a pair of their best players. Down several key players, the team will have to double down on these key facets to their game and to their identity.
More than anything, Orlando has to be more focused on strengthening the parts of the team’s game that are central to this identity. Rebounding, defense and protecting the ball are all the hallmarks of a Clifford team.
Everyone would always say Clifford teams do not beat themselves. They limit these mistakes and are tough to break down, even if they do not have the best talent levels. That will be the same now. That will be double now.
The Magic showed in Saturday’s loss they can compete. But they also showed they cannot compete if they do not harden their fundamentals.
If Orlando wants to win in this time, the team needs to get back to its basics.