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Elfrid Payton Playing With Supreme Confidence During Recent Stretch

Josh Cohen
Digital News Manager

By John Denton
Jan. 15, 2017

DENVER – After seeing the way Elfrid Payton confidently stepped into a wide-open 3-point shot and buried it to seal the Orlando Magic’s win in Portland on Friday, Frank Vogel spoke glowingly about the point guard like a proud papa.

As it turned out, that Payton performance was just the start of a stellar stretch where he is beginning to play with the confidence and conviction that his coach has looked for all season.

A night after pouring in 19 points against all-star guard Damian Lillard and delivering the game-winner in Portland, Payton battered the Utah’s NBA-best defense and put his Magic in position to capture a second straight victory. Over the game’s first 44 minutes, Payton pumped in a career-best 28 points – the final two being a layup that gave Orlando a seemingly safe 102-97 lead with 3:54 to play.

However, it was Payton’s last shot attempt of the night, and Orlando’s offense proceeded to collapse from there. A Utah offense that struggled to make outside shots all night got hot from the 3-point arc and the Magic melted down offensively in a frustration-filled 114-107 loss to the Jazz.

Afterward, Payton wanted nothing to do with talk of the Magic (17-25) playing well for most of the night and his career-best performance. Sure, he smashed Utah’s defense to the tune of 10 of 17 shooting and had a thunderous dunk over 7-foot-3 shot-blocker Rudy Gobert, but surrendering a 13-0 run and the losing the game gave Payton no solace whatsoever.

``I’m not really encouraged right now because it’s too late in the season for moral victories,’’ said Payton, who also had nine rebounds, nine assists and two steals to narrowly miss out on the fourth triple-double of his career.

The fact that Payton was irate with the manner that the Magic lost on Saturday could be a good thing for the team going forward. Orlando tends to go as Payton goes, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing that the mild-mannered point guard is playing now with a chip on his shoulder. Officially beyond the halfway point of the season, Payton knows that the Magic need to play with an edge – starting with Monday’s matinee in Denver against the Nuggets (15-23).

``It’s the start of the second half of the season and we know that every game really counts now,’’ Payton said. ``We need to pick it up from top to bottom to get these games. We’ve got to continue to dig deep and ask ourselves how bad we want to win. That goes for everybody, including myself. There’s more that I can do because I didn’t play perfect (Saturday). Everybody’s got to do more.’’

There’s not much more that Payton could have done on Saturday night as he attacked Utah guards George Hill and Dante Exum from the jump ball. He got into the lane at least a dozen times in the first quarter alone, resulting in five layups or dunks and six free throw attempts and four assists. Orlando scored a season-best 42 points in the first quarter – and Payton was responsible for 31 of them with his 15 and four assists leading to four 3-pointers (16 points).

``I was just trying to be aggressive and make plays,’’ Payton said. ``I wanted to get into the paint and make the defense commit, but for the most part they didn’t really help. So I was able to finish at the rim and get to the foul line. When they did help, I was able to find my teammates.’’

Payton’s play was so impactful that Utah took to diving down under screens in an attempt to keep him out of the paint in the second half. Payton opened the second half with another layup, but then helped to set up others with four assists in the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, with the Magic trailing 95-94 Payton asserted himself once again to put the team in position for a possible victory. Left alone on the left side of the floor when Utah feared him coming off a screen and driving to the rim, Payton never hesitated in drilling a 3-pointer from the break of the arc.

Some 24 hours earlier in Portland, Payton did the exact same thing after the Blazers had charged back to within 105-103 of the Magic on two free throws by Lillard. This time, Payton connected on a 3-pointer from the left corner after Portland purposefully backed off him and dared him to shoot. His shot sent the Magic on their way to a 115-109 win, and it made Vogel smile from ear to ear.

``He’s not forcing it. Obviously, we don’t want him to shoot 20 shots when they run under (screens); we want him to stay in attack mode to get to the paint,’’ Vogel said. ``He’s got to have that counter-balance to keep the defense honest at times in both the catch-and-shoot game and driving. He’s doing a really good job with that.’’

Payton’s shot has improved to the point that he’s now making 45.7 percent of his field goal attempts. He’s still shooting just 26.9 percent from 3-point range, but he’s at least proven that he isn’t afraid to let big shots fly when he is left comically open by sagging defenses. In addition adding 11.9 points, 5.8 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 1.1 steals a game, Payton is already within six 3-pointers of setting a career-high for makes in a season.

``It’s the same thing that I’ve been doing all year, but I’ve just started to knock down a few of them by the grace of God,’’ Payton said of his improving outside shot.

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