By John Denton
Feb. 19, 2015
ORLANDO – The Orlando Magic changed coaches, changed a few aspects of their game plan and partly changed their personnel, but the biggest change in their defense came when the players collectively decided that enough was enough.
The Magic dismissed Jacque Vaughn from his duties as head coach on Feb. 5, and Orlando’s dramatic defensive improvements have coincided with that wake-up call of a transaction.
In the 14 games before the coaching change, the Magic yielded 100 or more points, including especially unsightly games where they surrendered 127 points to Oklahoma City, 128 to Detroit and 113 to New York. But since promoting interim head coach James Borrego, the Magic limited four consecutive foes to fewer than 100 points, they won two of those games and were within 30 seconds of toppling the Chicago Bulls for a third victory.
The change? Sure, Borrego made some alterations to Xs and Os, and he’s been more willing to use defensive-minded power forwards Kyle O’Quinn and Dewayne Dedmon over stretch-four Channing Frye. But the primary reason for the turnaround, Magic players unanimously agree, is a change in mindset.
``I think it’s a pride thing. I think guys got tired of getting beat and tired of getting 100 points put on our heads every night,’’ Magic guard Elfrid Payton said. ``We’ve been able to pick it up and guys are helping each other now. And there’s more of an emphasis (on defense). We’re doing a good job now.’’
Orlando talked openly during training camp about having a top 10 defense this season, but it slumped badly on that end of the floor and plummeted into the bottom five of the league at getting stops. The Magic (17-39) were well aware that any chance that they had at turning around their season came down to making improvements on the defensive end of the floor, and in the four games before the extended break for the NBA All-Star Game they responded accordingly.
``Numbers don’t lie in this league and when you look at teams that win and win championships, the teams that have success defend at a high level,’’ said Borrego, whose Magic let the NBA trade deadline pass on Thursday with no activity. ``It’s not a secret. It’s who we have to become and it is who we’re becoming. We’ll stay with that (mission) every day.’’
Orlando will try to keep its defensive momentum going tonight when it hosts the New Orleans Pelicans at the Amway Center. The Pelicans know a thing or two about defense what with shot-swatting power forward Anthony Davis being the favorite to take home the Defensive Player of the Year award. Davis, who leads the league with 2.74 blocked shots a game, is likely to play after missing the All-Star Game with a shoulder injury.
The 7-footer was a one-man wrecking crew when New Orleans beat the Magic 101-84 in the season-opener in late October. He had 26 points, 17 rebounds and nine blocked shots and the Pelicans were a plus-19 during his 36 minutes on the floor. Magic players know that they will have to do a better job of accounting for Davis this time around.
``He changes games a lot, he’s a good player and his length is a problem,’’ said Payton, who had three of his shots blocked by Davis in his first game as a professional. ``He’s blocks a lot of shots and he’s so athletic, so you’ve just got to find different ways to score on him. That will be our challenge.’’
Orlando’s challenge in improving its defense was figuring out ways to better keep guards out of the paint and big men away from the rim. And in the past four games, they’ve done a much better job of doing just that. In those games, Orlando has allowed foes to shoot just 41.3 percent from the floor and 35.2 percent from 3-point range. As a result, foes are scoring just 93.5 points over the past four games – a dramatic improvement over the 112 points that the Magic yielded during the 10-game losing streak that ultimately cost Vaughn his job as head coach.
``We’re definitely more aggressive and we’re communicating more,’’ said Magic forward Tobias Harris, who has been fully cleared for game action after bruising his right knee against Chicago two weeks ago. ``(Magic center Nikola Vucevic) doesn’t get much credit for this, but in the last four games he’s been really good at the basket with verticality and challenging shots. Coach (Borrego) has challenged him to do that and he’s been an influence on all of the other guards to pick up their games. I really think he’s one of the keys on why we’re playing better defense.’’
Frye, who has practiced the past two days despite dislocating the index finger on his right hand last week, said the Magic defense has been better because players ``don’t feel like they are on an island’’ because of more help from teammates. Frye, who also lauded Borrego’s attention to defense, said he thinks the defensive improvement could allow the Magic to make a late-season run.
``You know what, I’ve seen crazier things happen,’’ Frye said of the chances that the Magic can continue to make major strides the rest of the way this season. ``The way that we’re going now, I wouldn’t say no (to Orlando making a run). I think guys are energized and starting to develop. I’m pretty sure that we’re going to continue to get better and it’s going to be a good year.’’
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