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Magic vs. Pistons: Postgame Report

Dan Savage
Director of Digital News

By John Denton
Dec. 4, 2016

AUBURN HILLS – Before his Orlando Magic left Philadelphia on Saturday to board a plane for suburban Detroit, head coach Frank Vogel stopped his team’s buses at the Museum of Art for a motivational lesson that applies to both life and basketball.

Vogel, a native of southern New Jersey and a fan of Philadelphia sports since he was a child, wanted his team to climb the 72 stone steps leading up to the museum the same way that actor Sylvester Stallone famously did more than a few times in the 1976 movie ``Rocky.’’

Showing his team a few video clips from the Oscar Award-winning movie a few days ago, Vogel explained to his Magic that they – like the fictional ``Rocky Balboa’’ – could quickly hit their stride despite their several early-season stumbles.

``(Vogel) pointed out that when people bring up Rocky, everybody always talks about him running at the steps at the end, but no one talks about the first time he ran up them and it was tough for him,’’ Magic point guard Elfrid Payton said Sunday night. ``It’s not always about how you start; it’s how you finish – like with us.’’

Possibly sparked by Vogel’s rags-to-riches Rocky story, an Orlando team that was so wildly erratic early in the season continued to put it all together Sunday night in a 98-92 knockout of the Detroit Pistons.

``Frank showed us the part of the (Rocky) movie a few days ago where (Balboa) first struggled with the run and he was saying, `It’s a work in process, you have to keep believing and working hard,’’’ remembered Magic center Nikola Vucevic, who had 16 points, eight rebounds and two blocks on Sunday night. ``The message was that it will happen for us, but we had to be patient and keep believing. Now, it’s happening.’’

The Magic (9-12) won their second straight and a third time in the past four games on what figured to be a season-defining road trip throughout America’s heartland. An Orlando offense that was off target so often early in the season made a jaw-dropping 72.7 percent of its shots in the second quarter and 53.2 percent for the night to throttle a Pistons (11-11) team that had won three in a row before Sunday.

``I’m proud of our team for how it played on both ends,’’ Vogel said. ``That team was averaging 118 points a game the last three games on the road and we hold them to 92 points, mostly because of our second-half defense. … We continue to show our defensive identity and we’re hopefully starting to see the values of the pass on the offensive end. When we pass with good timing, good intent and good delivery, we’re going to shoot the ball better. We have guys who can make shots and we’ve shown that the last few games.’’

How quickly can the fate of a basketball team – much like Hollywood’s ``Rocky’’ – change in the matter of a few days? This time a week ago, Orlando was down on the proverbial mat. The Magic were a season-worst five games below .500 and reeling following a four-game losing streak – with the final three defeats coming at the Amway Center against teams with losing records. Since then, however, the Magic captured impressive victories in San Antonio and Philadelphia. Only a painful collapse over the final 6:12 in Memphis on Thursday – when it was up by as much as 14 points – kept Orlando from starting the trip with a somewhat-stunning 4-0 record.

However, 3-1 is not too bad either considering the quality of the competition and where the Magic were mentally this time seven days ago.

``I’m excited about the win but we’re still 9-12, I’m not happy about that and we’ve got some ground to make up,’’ Vogel said. ``But certainly we were feeling a lot different a week ago.’’

Serge Ibaka shot the ball well (nine of 11) and had 21 points, seven rebounds, four blocks and three steals in a dominant all-around performance. Vucevic (16 points and eight rebounds), Jeff Green (14 points and two 3-pointers) and D.J. Augustin (12 points and two 3-pointers) also played well for a Magic offense that had 23 assists to set up their 42 field goals.

``It’s great that we’re heading in the right direction and we’re taking the right steps toward getting better,’’ Green said. ``We’ve just got to continue this process and continue to work.’’

The only nervous moments came when the Pistons cut the score to 95-90 with 40 seconds to play with an 8-0 burst. But Green was there to bail Orlando’s offense out with a spinning, fade-away shot with 20.3 seconds to play. That sent what was left of the crowd at The Palace into the blustery, snowy Detroit night.

In a boisterous, victorious locker room afterward, Ibaka marveled at the about-face that his team has pulled off in a short period of time.

``We’ve just changed our mindset around,’’ said Ibaka, Orlando’s prized offseason acquisition via a trade. ``We know that we’ve got a defensive team and offensively we’ve got to play more for each other to make games easier.’’

Sunday’s win by Orlando snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Pistons, who got 21 points and five 3-pointers from Marcus Morris. Point guard Reggie Jackson had 18 points in his first game of the season after being out with a knee injury. Orlando limited center Andre Drummond – long a Magic killer in the past – to 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Barring a Magic-Pistons playoff series, Sunday’s game will be the final for Orlando at The Palace of Auburn Hills. That will be just fine with the Magic, who finishes 15-37 there in regular-season play and 2-8 in the playoffs. Orlando twice saw playoff series end at The Palace – in a Game 7 in 2003 and in a Game 5 in 2008.

Prior to Sunday, Orlando had not won in The Palace since Nov. 17, 2014. Sunday’s game looked nothing like the two team’s first meeting of the season on Oct. 28 – a 108-82 Pistons’ win in which the Magic trailed by as much as 38 points.

``We talked about how we had a terrible showing when we were here (five weeks ago), but we’ve made big improvements and our chemistry is so much better,’’ Vucevic said. ``We’re starting to play together better and defensively we’re starting to trust each other more and the communication is better. We’re more comfortable with the schemes with coach. That (Oct. 28 loss in Detroit) was so early in the season, and it was a terrible showing, but it was good for us knowing that we had to play much better if we wanted to beat this team.’’

Orlando’s nine-night, five-game road trip – one that features so much promise almost a week ago in San Antonio – mercifully comes to an end on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. it will be the third meeting of the season against the Wizards after the two teams split the first two games at the Amway Center.

Tuesday’s game also starts one of Orlando’s most torturous stretches of the season what with it scheduled to play four times in five nights. After playing Tuesday in Washington, the Magic will be at the Amway Center on Wednesday to face Boston. Orlando will be back on the road again a day later to play the Hornets in Charlotte on Friday. A night later, the Magic will be home again to host the Denver Nuggets.

Up eight following one of their most impressive first-half performances of the season, the Magic played even better in a third period to extend their lead out to as much as 11 points. Orlando even held firm after Detroit made a push and it took an impressive 78-73 edge into the final frame.

Orlando seemed light years from the team that struggled in Detroit back in Detroit in the first half, storming to a 58-50 by intermission.

Showing a toughness that was missing early in the season, the Magic weathered an early punch by the Pistons – they drilled five first-quarter 3-pointers – and responded with a haymaker of their own. The Magic incredibly drilled 16 of 22 shots (72.7 percent) in the second quarter for a 35-point period that allowed them to blow past the Pistons.

``The last time that we were here, we weren’t very good,’’ Vogel recalled. ``Quite frankly, early in the season we were playing for ourselves too much and not playing for each other. We’ve got to continue to change and (know) that when we play for each other, we’re going to be really good.’’

Orlando could do no wrong in the second quarter, using 11 assists to set up its 15 field goals. Three players – Green (five of five, 12 points), Ibaka (three of three, six points) and Biyombo (two of two, four points) – didn’t miss a shot in the period. The Magic offense was humming so efficiently that it allowed them to outscore the Pistons 35-23 even though Detroit made 55 percent of its shots in the period.

As he has done much of the season, Ibaka shot the ball with great confidence in a highly efficient first half. He had 16 points by intermission by drilling seven of eight shots on a variety of face-up jumpers and running hooks. And when the Pistons paid too much attention to him, Ibaka moved the ball well for three first-half assists.

``When we move the ball like that, we can make shots and make plays and it feels so good,’’ said Ibaka, who is now averaging 14.8 points per game on 49.2 percent overall shooting and 40.9 percent 3-point accuracy. ``We knew this was going to happen, but we just needed that time. We just had to keep working. We believe in ourselves that we can do this.’’

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