MEMPHIS – To fully comprehend just how important smothering and suffocating defense is to the overall success of the Orlando Magic, consider this one very telling set of statistics.
In their 31 victories this season, the Magic have a defensive rating (100.6 points allowed per 100 possessions) that ranks third overall in the NBA. However, in their 36 losses that defensive rating (113.9 points per 100 possession) jumps more than 13 points allowed a game and it knocks them down to 11th in the NBA.
Simply put, when the Magic are at their best defensively, they have displayed an ability to beat any team in the NBA and they look very much worthy of being a playoff team. When they’re not as sound defensively – as has been the case in a handful of puzzling losses against sub-.500 teams since the break for the NBA All-Star Game – the Magic usually encounter troubles that put their small margin for error at risk.
``Absolutely, the numbers speak for themselves and they don’t lie,’’ said nearly 7-foot forward Jonathan Isaac, one of the Magic’s most versatile defenders. ``If we can take that defensive approach into this last stretch of 15 games, I think it can take us to another level as a team and we’ll be in a good position to make the playoffs.’’
Orlando (31-36) heads into Sunday’s 6 p.m. ET game in Memphis (27-40) and into the rest of the challenges on the schedule knowing full well that the quality of its defense will likely decide its playoff fate. The Magic came into Saturday tied for ninth with Charlotte (30-35) and a game back of Miami (31-34) for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. There figures to still be plenty of movement among those three, and also with No. 6 Detroit (33-31) and No. 7 Brooklyn (34-33), because of the differing degrees of the schedules remaining among the five teams.
The Magic are trying to end the longest postseason drought in franchise history and make the playoffs for the first time since 2012. Not coincidentally, Orlando’s current head coach, Steve Clifford, was a part of that 2012 team that reached the playoffs as an assistant coach. Clifford is known throughout NBA circles for being a defensive guru and he has brought a toughness and an accountability that the Magic haven’t had defensively over the past six seasons.
For the season, the Magic sit at No. 9 in the NBA in overall defensive rating (107.8 points per 100 possessions). Of the eight teams ahead of the Magic defensively – Milwaukee (104.4), Indiana (105.2), Utah (105.8), Oklahoma City (105.9), Memphis (106.4), Toronto (107.3) and Miami (107.5) – seven are currently locked into playoff position. The Grizzlies, Orlando’s opponent on Sunday, ranks first in the league in defensive rating since the All-Star break and first in the NBA in defensive rating in their 27 victories this season.
While Orlando’s top-10 defensive mark is significantly better than any over the previous six seasons, Clifford has been blunt with his team all season – and even more so since the return from the All-Star break – about the level of defensive commitment needed to break through into the playoff mix in the Eastern Conference.
``My message (to the players) was that if you look at our best stretches of the season, we were an elite defensive team,’’ Clifford said with conviction. ``So, if you look at this stretch of games since we came back (from the All-Star break), we’re (ninth) in defense. I told them yesterday, `That probably won’t be good enough.’ We’re going to have to be top-three or top-four (to reach the playoffs).’’
With a starting lineup that features defensive ace Aaron Gordon, the long-armed Isaac, improved shot-blocker Nikola Vucevic and gritty one-on-one specialist Evan Fournier and a bench with capable stoppers in Wes Iwundu and Khem Birch, the Magic have shown the potential to be great defensively. Gritty point guard Isaiah Briscoe also brought some defensive toughness to Orlando’s second unit, but a knee injury will keep him out for the foreseeable future and the team will now look to 6-3 guard Jerian Grant for a defensive spark behind starting point guard D.J. Augustin.
During the team’s five-game winning streak from Feb. 7-17 – a spree where the Magic whipped Minnesota, Milwaukee, Atlanta, New Orleans, Atlanta and Charlotte – they had the league’s most dominant defense. During that stretch, Orlando’s defensive rating (97.4 points allowed per 100 possessions) was far and away tops in the league.
``What we do when we’re really good is we play good defense, and sometimes we get away from that,’’ Fournier said. ``It’s not easy to do and it’s a commitment (playing well defensively), but that’s what it’s going to take for us to take that next step.’’
There’s been a distinct correlation between the Magic’s defensive effectiveness leveling off and their record taking a dip this season. From the start of the season to Dec. 31, the Magic had an underwhelming 16-20 record largely because they ranked just 14thin the league in defense (108.7). But from Jan. 1 through Feb. 14 and the break for the NBA All-Star Game, the Magic went a more respectable 11-12 by rising to third in the NBA in defensive rating (106.2). Since returning from the All-Star break, the Magic have been hot and cold on that end of the floor, sitting at ninth defensively (108.0) while going 4-4.
Asked on Saturday if he had mentioned to his team about its slippage to ninth in defense over the past two weeks, Clifford firmly planted his tongue in his cheek and joked that, ``it was mentioned, yes, in a totally noncombative and positive nature.’’
Clifford, an old-school type of coach who doesn’t hold back when it comes to expressing his true feelings, didn’t mind getting combative following Friday’s forgettable 111-1106 defeat of Dallas. Orlando won after Terrence Ross returned from a one-game absence because of a sore Achilles’ tendon and scored 22 points while drilling six 3-pointers. Overall, Orlando shot 48.3 percent both from the floor (42 of 87) and 3-point range (14 of 29) and had six players reach double digits in scoring.
Defensively, however, Clifford fumed that the Mavericks ``got whatever they wanted’’ and ``outplayed’’ the Magic and their defensive struggles. Showing just how far Orlando has come in a year’s time, their coach’s rebuke came following a victory. But his message – both to the players in the locker room and during his media session – spoke of the sense of urgency that the Magic need to have going forward if they want to elbow their way into the playoffs.
``Two things (come to mind) to me, and I believe they always go together for us: When we’re playing freely and kind of stress-free offensively and the ball is moving, we defend better, too,’’ Clifford said on Saturday after watching the film of the defeat of the Mavericks. ``(Friday) night the ball didn’t hit the paint with the regularity that it needs to, nor did we have the (defensive) activity on the ball that we needed to have. That has to change.’’
Isaac, who has been the team leader several times this season in deflections and is second in blocked shots per game (1.33), has taken that message to heart. He knows the Magic are capable of being the best defensive team in the NBA and they just have to play that way going forward.
``It’s the truth and it has to become even more (of a focus) than it is now,’’ Isaac said of the Magic’s massive potential defensively. ``We have a chance to be the No. 1 defensive team in this league and we’ve proven that over a stretch of time. But we have to put it together and make it an every-night, every-possession type of thing.
``It just about continuing to pay attention to detail,’’ the prized second-year forward added. ``We have to come out thinking about our hands and thinking about our deflections. It’s not something that we haven’t done or aren’t capable of doing. It just has to be something that’s mindful for every guy on our team.’’
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