Orlando Magic Breakdown: Orlando Not Magical Despite Win Over Boston

A 36-11 third-quarter blitz spurred the Orlando Magic to a 96-89 victory over the Boston Celtics that had more to do with Boston’s inauspicious play than Orlando’s execution.

In fact, even as Orlando has won eight of their past 10 games, there’s hardly any feeling of magic transpiring in central Florida.

Here’s what’s working like a charm, and what’s just a fairy tale.

Offense

Orlando has had to make numerous tweaks to their offense to allow for Vince Carter’s poor decision-making on high- and wing-spread screen/rolls.

Whereas the Magic used to heavily rely on spread screen/rolls and still do generate a large portion of their offense that way, they run a bunch more 1-2-2 sets used to get Carter a hand-off from the left high post, into a screen from the opposite post.

This set is a far more conventional NBA set and doesn’t quite generate the immaculate spacing of the one-four spread. With fewer players outside the three-point line (the 1-4 spread usually has the ball handler and at least two other players beyond the three-point line as opposed to Orlando’s 1-2-2 which maxes out with two players beyond the arc), Orlando’s offense doesn’t quite have the perimeter firepower as last year’s version.

This is a direct result of the Magic not having Hedo Turkoglu as their primary decision-maker. Whereas Turkoglu’s unique combination of length, vision, shooting, handles, and decision-making allowed him to see events unfolding on the court, Carter and Jameer Nelson are shorter, more selfish with the ball, and have far less vision than the Turkish Delight.

Carter himself has been an unmitigated disaster.

His numbers against Boston look terrific—7-13 FG, 3-4 3FG, 3-4 FT, 3 REB, 3 AST, 2 TO, 20 PTS—but the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

His three baskets from the outlands came on two wide-open catch-and-shoots and a screen/roll with Rashard Lewis where Kevin Garnett expected Lewis to fade and left Carter, Paul Pierce had to stay with the rolling Lewis, and VC had a wide-open look.

Carter did execute an alert basket-cut early in the game, but was so scared of Garnett that instead of driving to the basket hard, he leapt from eight feet out and attempted some wild double-clutch flipper that hadn’t a prayer of going in.

In fact, most of Carter’s attempts were wild flings more than strong layups, and his main inclination was to avoid contact at all costs.

When Carter couldn’t turn the corner on screens, he’d often panic, pick up his dribble, and fire easily diagnosed cross-court passes that were deflected if not intercepted outright.

Carter’s always been talented enough to take mediocre teams to the playoffs, or to make awful teams mediocre, but there isn’t enough substance to his game to make an elite team a championship.

Dwight Howard continued to show glimpses of both the talent that can make him unstoppable, and the unrefined post moves that hold him back.

There were 14 attempts where Howard tried to initiate his own post offense against the Celtics, nine against Kendrick Perkins, two against Glen Davis, two against Rasheed Wallace, and one against Kevin Garnett.

Against Perkins, Howard:

• Missed a right hook from the left box.
• Was single-teamed and tried to throw a cross-court pass which was deflected out of bounds.
• Missed a left-to-right spinning banker from the right box.
• Connected on a sweeping right hook from the left box.
• Forced a reach-in foul on Perkins.
• Missed a right-to-left spinning hook from the left box.
• Hit an uncontested 16-footer.
• Faced up and drove strong with his left hand, drawing a foul on Perkins and knocking down both free throws.
• Missed another sweeping right hook from the left box.

Against Wallace, Howard:

• Was overaggressive in establishing post position, resulting in an offensive foul.
• Was fouled in the act of shooting and converted both free throws.

Against Davis, Howard:

• Tried to face and drive, and was stripped by Davis.
• Missed a right hook from the left box.

In his only possession against Garnett, Howard posted, was doubled, and found Rashard Lewis for an open three.

The stats: 2-7 FG, 4-4 FT, 1 AST, 2 TO, a bad pass that didn’t result in a turnover, and a non-shooting foul forced. Subtracting the non-shooting foul and non-turnover pass, that’s a total of 11 points on 12 possessions, definitely a sub-par number.

Howard was also a non-factor on the offensive glass with just two offensive rebounds. As always, his best attribute was his ability to present a huge target when cutting to the front of the rim without the ball.

Still, Howard isn’t close to where he needs to be in order to dominate the best defenses in the game.

Rashard Lewis is never involved enough in the game, but he always makes critical shots, including a pair of threes, and the game-sealing floater. His presence as a roller and not a fader in the second half caused the confusion that led to one of Vince Carter’s made triples.

Jameer Nelson overhandled, routinely split double-teams, and sank his early jumpers. While Nelson didn’t have a very good floor game—5-10 FG, 4 AST, 5 TO, 15 PTS—he kept the Magic close early until his teammates could find their groove.

Matt Barnes was active without the ball and plugged his threes: 3-4 on three-point field goals.

Mickael Pietrus was another accurate member of Orlando’s bomb squad—2-4 on three-point field goals.

J.J. Redick wasn’t afraid to drive to the basket, and he’s normally an accurate three-point marksman.

Jason Wiliams made perfect decisions with the ball in his hands, reading help on screens, crossing over Eddie House and getting to the basket, and always keeping the offense moving.

The Magic missed six first-half layups but zero in the second half, a factor of their increased second half focus.

Offensively, Stan Van Gundy showed that he’s willing to make necessary tweaks to get the most out of his team. And Orlando showed that even when their offense isn’t humming, they have enough firepower to shoot their way out of self-induced slumps—11-22 three-point field goals.

Defense

Orlando’s defense was extremely shaky to begin the game. Nearly everything Boston wanted, Orlando gave to them.

While Carter actually did a good job defending Paul Pierce one-on-one, he was horrendous in help situations, especially in losing track of Pierce twice on baseline screens. This fact was compounded by Dwight Howard arriving late on each occasion.

On a switch, Carter left Garnett, allowing KG an opening to dunk in an alley-oop.

Both Carter and Barnes were deplorable chasing Boston around various screens.

Nelson and Williams were torched by Rondo the entire game, and Williams went under a House screen at one point, allowing him to make an open three.

Redick was abused by Marquis Daniels in the post, so much so that when Daniels entered for his second-half rotation, Stan Van Gundy immediately yanked Redick from the game.

Pietrus played the first half in a daze, failing to contest a number of shots.

Rashard Lewis was late in his baseline rotations, as was Howard, as was Marcin Gortat.

In the second half though, Orlando tightened up their defense considerably. The Magic did a better job in defending high screens by having their big men show high and hard. Particularly effective was Lewis.

Lewis also pressured Garnett hard at the high post when KG was scanning for teammates opening up. As a result, KG usually had to kick the ball out to a guard to re-initiate the offense.

Orlando’s rotations were much more alert in the second half.

Orlando also did a better job anticipating weak-side skip passes and their close outs were effective.

Ray Allen was crowded during the second half and his baseline drives were met by heavy traffic.

Orlando pressured passers and passing lanes more often selling out at the expense of leaving Rondo open. If Rondo did sink a pair of triples, he was generally reluctant to fire his jumper.

Howard was a force on broken plays in the second half, and was much more cognizant in protecting the rim.

Overall, the Magic played about 18 minutes of good basketball and the Celtics played 30, but Orlando’s 18 good minutes were more explosive than Boston’s 30. That’s not a good recipe for pulling out victories.

So while the Magic showed that they’re a very good team in their win over Boston, the game mostly highlighted Boston’s own flaws.

Fortunately, the Magic still have a second half of basketball to fix themselves before the money season arrives.

One thing is for sure. If Orlando doesn’t play with more consistent focus, there won’t be any talk of a Disney ending in the Magic Kingdom.