By John Denton
Feb. 18, 2015
ORLANDO – In the midst of addressing Orlando Magic players for the first time upon being named the team’s interim coach, James Borrego noticed a palpable sense that the team was angry and embarrassed with how the season had transpired up until Feb. 5.
Then, Borrego saw a passion and a purpose coalesce from a group that is eager to not only salvage the season, but make a major push toward playing games of great importance down the stretch. Orlando might sit frustratingly at 17-39 before Friday’s home game against the New Orleans Pelicans, but the squad is convinced that it has the talent to be much better.
What the Magic did just before the break for the NBA All-Star Game – beating the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks and coming within 32 seconds of whipping the Chicago Bulls – was a good start toward proving themselves. But what will ultimately define this season is how the team channels its embarrassment and anger from the first three months of the season to make improvements over the final 26 games.
``There’s a sense among the group that we could have played better and there’s a frustration level, a hunger, an anxiousness, a fire and a spirit about us that we know that we can play better,’’ Borrego said. ``We want to play better and we have to play better. That’s our mentality.’’
The Magic know now that they will be playing for Borrego for the rest of the season after he was informed by GM Rob Hennigan on Tuesday that he will be the coach for the rest of the season. Borrego’s staff also grew on Tuesday with the addition of assistant coach Igor Kokoskov, who worked his first official practice with the Magic on Wednesday morning.
Orlando has responded well since Jacque Vaughn was dismissed as head coach on Feb. 5 and Borrego was appointed as interim head coach. The team’s top assistant coach the past 2 ½ seasons, Borrego already had a strong relationship with many of the players. Since his appointment, Magic players have talked about wanting to play well in support of Borrego. Knowing that he will be the team’s coach over the final 26 games was reassuring, standout forward Tobias Harris said.
``It gives us some clarity knowing that J.B. is going to be here,’’ said Harris, who practiced on a limited basis on Wednesday because of a bruised right knee. ``He’s done a great job so far with setting the tone for us and what he expects from us. I think everybody is being held a lot more accountable for their play out there on the court and that has helped us.’’
With seven of the next eight games at the Amway Center and 16 of the final 26 in Orlando, the Magic feel like things are lining up for them to make a late-season push under Borrego. With the team playing better defense, Harris returning to health and a string of home games ahead, the Magic still feel like they are very much in the hunt for a playoff spot in the East. Orlando is seven games back of rival Miami, but it has four teams (Brooklyn, Boston, Detroit and Indiana) between it and the No. 8 seed.
``It’s very realistic and anything is possible,’’ said guard Victor Oladipo, who knows a thing or two about doing the unthinkable after pulling off a 540-degree dunk in the Slam Dunk Contest on Saturday night. ``But we just have to take it one game at a time and keep coming out and playing as hard as we can. Hopefully, that turns out with a lot of wins and us making a run.’’
Orlando was 9-14 early in the season and filled with optimism after ending a 10-game, three-victory West Coast road trip with back-to-back wins. But from there, the Magic disappointingly dropped 13 of the next 17 games. The Magic seemed to finally get their running game on track in impressive defeats of Chicago and Houston on Jan. 12 and 14, but a 10-game skid followed that cost Vaughn his job. Seeing Vaughn – a coach that they admired so much – get fired proved to be a wake-up call for many of the Magic’s players.
``We feel as a team that we’re better than we’ve played,’’ said Harris, Orlando’s second-leading scorer at 17.4 points per game. ``As I said at the bye, I think the team is at a good point right now. With these final games, I think the biggest thing is for us to string together some wins in a row to give us momentum and confidence. And who knows what can happen after that.’’
Added Oladipo: ``We’re trying to finish strong and make a run. We’re going to come out and play every game like it’s our last.’’
Magic center Nikola Vucevic, the team’s leader in scoring (19.6 ppg.) and rebounding (11.3 rpg.), said that the Magic have to be focused on improvements in a lot of different areas before they can think about winning streaks, impressive runs and playoff berths. Seeing the team hold the last four foes before the break to less than 100 points was a step in the right direction. Now, the Magic have to prove that it can be tougher defensively and more efficient offensively over a long period of time, Vucevic said.
``The way we finished the last couple of games before the break were good for us because we had a rough stretch where we lost a lot of games. We went 2-2 and we should have been 3-1, but we played better basketball,’’ Vucevic said. ``There’s still a lot of disappointment from the bad stretches that we’ve had. Now there are 26 games left to show better face out there. Guys are eager to do that and they want to play better than we did in the first half.
As for Borrego, he has already warned the team that ``winning doesn’t just happen,’’ just because it is eager to prove itself to be better than the frustrating record from the first half of the season. Borrego, who has hopes of becoming the Magic’s full-time coach following a summer search by the organization, has also instructed the team that he’s willing to make whatever changes necessary to make sure there is no repeat of the poor first half. One example is when Borrego hinted before the break about the Magic possibly starting Dewayne Dedmon at power forward in place of Channing Frye because of the defensive grit that that the reserve provides. Borrego said that players will be held accountable and expected to deliver in hopes that it will pay off for the squad in terms of some late-season success.
``Whoever we put on the floor is there to produce,’’ Borrego said pointedly. ``It could be a certain player that I haven’t used in five games, but if I call his number he’s going to be expected to produce. We might go with a lineup that none of us have seen before. If that’s what it takes to turn this thing and be competitive, that’s what we’re going to do. All 15 guys are live for that.’’
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