A New Identity
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| Tony Battie battles for a rebound |
Before there would be offense, there would be defense. Coach Brian Hill wasn't at Magic courtside last year but the season-ending stat sheet told him everything he needed to know.
Orlando allowed 101.8 points a game -- the third highest average in the league -- and put its offense under a near nightly challenge of keeping pace.
"He went down the line of all our percentages and stats from last year and told us we need to improve defensively," forward-center Tony Battie said of the inaugural team gathering with Hill.
The tone was set and the direction was clear: offense may dominate the highlights, but defense wins the games.
"That's just my philosophy," Hill said. "I just don't think you can win consistently in this league until you become a good defensive team. We've had our problems offensively and we're working on that and we're getting better but at the same time you can't go out with the mentality of trying to outscore people every night."
Hill's preseason emphasis was paying off after 29 games, as only seven teams allowed opponents fewer points than Orlando (93.6 points a game). Look no further than defense to see what Orlando's early-season calling card has been.
"We have definitely established an identity," said forward Pat Garrity. "We've established the way we're doing things defensively. And so now it's a matter of not letting any slippage happen where you get lazy with certain things that were making us an effective defensive team early on."
The Magic suffered through a four-game losing streak before it reeled off three consecutive wins in late December. While it was a revamped offensive approach that drew much of the credit, Magic players and coaches know the turnaround would not have been possible had it not been for steady defense.
In the victories, the Magic held Milwaukee, New York and Minnesota to 93, 95 and 87 points, respectively, and a fresh start seemed to be taking place, one that saw Orlando become more of a freewheeling, fast-paced team that possessed energy and determination.
"It's easy to score when you're getting [defensive] stops and you're running off fast breaks," Garrity said. "The only way you can do that is to prevent the other team from scoring. It definitely starts with good defense. It gets everyone's confidence up and creates an advantage in everyone's mind."
While good defense leads to good offense, it can be downright demoralizing to an opposing team's top player. Magic guard Steve Francis can relate to that feeling.
"I know how it feels because it's happened to me before," Francis said. "The player who the defense is targeting, a lot of times you try to get in their head and make them force shots, try to force passes. That is demoralizing."
Adds Garrity: "Every NBA team usually has two or maybe three guys who are their main guys and if you shut them down a lot of times other guys aren't used to carrying the load. If you're able to knock the two main scorers out, you have a pretty good chance to win the game."
While defense requires a team effort and buy-in from every teammate, the Magic can point to two players who are leading the charge. Guard DeShawn Stevenson and Battie usually draw the assignments of guarding the opposing team's top backcourt and frontcourt players.
For Stevenson, this includes trying to slow the likes of Kobe Bryant while Battie battles players of Kevin Garnett's level. Battie welcomes the assignment that he sees as NBA job security.
"That's what I do, not only shutting down my opponent but helping other guys with their opponent, too," Battie said. "That's what has kept me in this league for nine years and that's what I'm going to continue to do."
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| DeShawn Stevenson |
"Grant and Steve are our scorers and they can't defend and try to score at the same time," Stevenson said. "So I try to take on that role and try to stop any perimeter player so Grant and Steve can have a lot of energy going into the fourth quarter and have a lot of fouls available.
"I'm just trying to do my best against good shooting guards, good point guards, good three guards ... just trying to make it tough on them and when you do that, good things happen. Sometimes it'll be a situation where they get the best of me and there will be times when I get the best of them."
But these players are far from alone in making Orlando's defensive presence felt. Second-year player Dwight Howard is becoming more of a force in the middle and leads the Magic in blocked shots and is second among all NBA players in defensive rebounds per game (9.1).
"I think when we're at our best defensively is when Tony and Dwight combined can set the tone with our interior defense and we play good perimeter defense; by that I mean we don't give up a lot of middle drives and a lot of blow-bys," Brian Hill said. "We don't get that every night but by and large Tony on the inside and DeShawn on the perimeter have really helped our individual defense and our team defense tremendously.
"We still have to make improvements with our defense. I think a lot of teams do. You have a little bit of slippage as you move through the year defensively. I think we're a very improved defensive team and our guys have worked hard at it. Obviously winning helps everything. If we continue improving defensively along with some continued improvement in our offense, then I think we can be the team we're capable of becoming the second half of the year."
This story originally appeared in the January issue of Magic Magazine. Get your favorite Magic fan a subscription to Magic Magazine! To subscribe call 1-877-841-7070 or e-mail subscription.service@skies.com and specify you want Magic Magazine. A one-year subscription is $18.95 and two-year is just $24.95.
