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By John DentonMarch 31, 2016
INDIANAPOLIS – At long last, the Orlando Magic got standout center Nikola Vucevic back on Thursday night – even if he didn’t come back in his usual role.
Because he had missed the past 3 ½ weeks with a right groin strain, Vucevic was used as a reserve rather than as the team’s starting center. Dewayne Dedmon, who has played especially well of late, will most likely remain in the starter’s role until Vucevic gets his conditioning back in top form.
The Magic went 4-9 without Vucevic, the team’s leading scorer (17.8 ppg.) and top rebounder (9.0 rpg.) on the season. More troubling was the fact that Orlando was outrebounded in 11 of the 13 games that Vucevic missed – including Tuesday’s 139-105 demolition of the Brooklyn Nets.
Vucevic has been vocal about his disdain for sitting out of games, but he said the view from the sidelines provides a vantage point from which he can learn from to better his own game.
``When you just watch games in general – even if it’s not our team – you can learn a lot as a player,’’ Vucevic said. ``For me, when I was watching us play the last few weeks, you can see the little details that maybe you don’t see when you are playing. You have more time to analyze stuff and I was seeing stuff and telling guys to try and help them.’’
Reserve forward Ersan Ilyasova also returned on Thursday night after missing the past three games with a sprained right shoulder. Like with Vucevic, Ilyasova was used off the bench by the Magic.
Vucevic started his first 213 games with the Magic before being used off the bench on Nov. 11 following a three-game absence with a sprained knee. In his first game as a reserve with the Magic, Vucevic played 26 minutes, scored 18 points and had the game-winning basket on a fade-away jumper from the left wing.
Asked on Thursday if he would be hitting the game-winner again in his second stint as a reserve, Vucevic chuckled and said: ``That would be nice, but hopefully it doesn’t come down to that and we can win this without a game-winning shot. But if coach calls my number, I’ll be ready to respond.’’
DEDMON’S IMPACT: While the Magic have undoubtedly missed Vucevic’s scoring and rebounding, Dedmon has helped to stabilize things in the middle with his ability to roll hard to the rim and catch alley-oop passes for thunderous dunks. He became the first player in Magic history to lead the team in scoring (a career-best 18 points) and rebounding (a season-high 13 boards) in less than 24 minutes played on Saturday and he added 15 points against the Nets on Tuesday.
Whereas Vucevic and reserve center/power forward Jason Smith prefer to pick-and-pop for mid-range jump shots, Dedmon puts pressure on the rim. If the defense doesn’t collapse around him he can catch lobs for dunks. And if it does sink in on the rolling 7-footer, it often opens up shooters for 3-pointers.
In the two games prior to Thursday – lopsided wins against Chicago and Brooklyn – Dedmon has caught six alley-oop dunks and he has two other dunks and four layups. Nearly half (seven) of Dedmon field goals the past two games (15) were set up by assists from Elfrid Payton. Having the explosive Dedmon rolling to the rim has helped open up more options inside for the Magic point guard.
``(Dedmon) is our quickest guy getting to the rim, so even when he’s not open, he’s pulling the defense down and opening up someone else,’’ Magic coach Scott Skiles said. ``And he’s one of our best runners at end-to-end running. He’s one of the reasons that our pace has picked up a little bit.’’
SMITH’S STROKE: Not only has Smith been Orlando’s most consistent and productive reserve all season, but he has been one of the NBA’s deadliest mid-range shooters.
This season, Smith has 116 field goals from 15-to-19 feet – the 10th highest total in the NBA and the most among any reserve player. Smith is shooting a stellar 49.2 percent on those shots.
From 10-to-14 feet, Smith is even more accurate (54.1 percent) and his stroke has even stayed true when pushed out to 20-to-24 feet (48.2 percent).
Even though more than half of Smith’s field goal attempts for the season have come from 10-to-14 feet (236 of 451 for 52.3 percent), the 7-footer is almost always left open for shots that he hits with a high frequency.
``We do a good job of finding him, for sure, but teams arte trying to take away threes and layups – that’s where the NBA game is mostly won right now,’’ Skiles said of Smith, who came into Thursday averaging 7.3 points on 49.2 percent shooting. ``I’m not saying they’re flat conceding that shot because you don’t want to give a 50 percent shooter those shots. But he has a knack of sliding into openings and finding his spots. We do a good job of finding him and when he comes into the game we immediately start going to the pick-and-pop game and utilize him that way. He’s had a very, very good year all season long.’’
REST IS COMING SOON: Skiles was asked prior to Thursday night’s game if there was a temptation to simply shut down Vucevic for the rest of the regular season following his long absence. Skiles said that he could not be more fundamentally opposed to that strategy, especially since Vucevic is healthy enough to play.
Brooklyn held out one of its best players, Thaddeus Young, on Tuesday against the Magic and leading scorer Brook Lopez was rested in the second half of a 34-point rout. While not talking specifically about Brooklyn’s actions, Skiles sounded appalled that non-playoff teams would keep healthy players out of games.
``I really don’t understand these teams that are out of the playoffs and you read in the morning that they are resting guys. I don’t get that at all because the rest is coming soon enough,’’ Skiles said with a sarcastic snicker. ``I do understand the teams that are in (the postseason) wanting to rest some guys and stay fresh for the playoffs. But, with us, (Vucevic) is healthy and ready to go, so we’re going to get him back out there. If a guy is healthy, he should be playing.’’