ORLANDO - There was a lot to like about the Orlando Magic’s performance on opening night in a blowout victory over the Houston Rockets – both from an eye test standpoint and from a statistical perspective as well.
Obviously, when a team wins by 30, which was the Magic’s largest margin of victory in a season opener in team history, there are likely going to be way more positives than negatives, and this game was certainly no exception.
The crowd was a big factor. Amway Center was rocking from warmups all the way to the final buzzer, which really fueled the Magic’s players.
“Our fans were incredible,” Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley said. “That was something like I haven’t seen in a long time. That atmosphere – the 35th anniversary, you had Rashard (Lewis) and Hedo (Turkoglu) out there introducing the guys – I thought that was absolutely incredible. And you talk about our guys being able to take the energy and build on it – not get too high, not get too low.”
Defensively, the Magic were as advertised. Multiple players throughout training camp talked about how being a top 10 defensive team was a goal of theirs. Most ambitious in that discourse was Jalen Suggs, who said after the first day of training camp that a top five defensive rating is achievable for this group.
In just about every which way, Orlando overwhelmed Houston with its defensive pressure, intensity, and execution. The Rockets scored just 32 points in the paint on 45.7 percent shooting from this region, which are absolutely sensational defensive marks. Largely because of Orlando’s defensive aggression, Houston committed 19 turnovers, which led to 23 Magic points.
The 57-31 rebounding disparity, favoring the Magic, was huge. Also, the Magic took 10 more free throws than the Rockets. A big topic of conversation throughout training camp and the preseason was related to getting to the line. We know Paolo Banchero is going to initiate a ton of contact, as that’s probably his No. 1 strength. But now others seem less shy about absorbing contact.
The bench came up big. Cole Anthony, who signed a contract extension the prior day, led all scorers with 20 points, while Jonathan Isaac and Gary Harris each had 11 points. Although it came in garbage time, Anthony Black made both of his floor shots in his NBA regular season debut to go along with blocking two shots.
“We did our thing,” Anthony said of the second unit. “We came in and I thought we brought great defensive intensity. I feel like as a unit we changed the game early, got us out to a good lead...It just felt good to be on that side of the court, the winning side.”
The Magic, essentially, won this game doing things by committee. With how unselfish this group is, that wasn’t a surprise. Although there are still plenty of questions that can’t be answered after just one game, it was as good of a start as one could have asked for.