BOSTON – If you were to guess what the hottest team in the Eastern Conference was heading into the New Year, surely some of the first answers that would come to mind would be the Cleveland Cavaliers, Toronto Raptors, or maybe even the Boston Celtics.
How about the Orlando Magic?
That’s right. A young and unsuspecting Orlando squad complied a conference-best 10-5 record during the month of December, and, as of New Year’s Eve, was comfortably slotted as the East’s fifth seed with a 19-13 overall mark.
Sounds hard to believe, doesn’t it?
That’s probably because Orlando has gone from one extreme to the other, having completely plummeted off the map ever since. The Magic have gone an NBA-worst 1-11 since the beginning of January and are riding a seven-game losing streak into Boston tonight.
So, what’s happened to Orlando?
Well, for one, its offense has imploded. The Magic are averaging only 93.0 points per game this month, and are shooting just 43.2 percent from the field. That’s a huge drop-off from December, when they averaged 100.1 PPG and posted an Eastern Conference-high 48.1 shooting percentage.
A number of its players have developed cold hands this month.
Forward Channing Frye, who shot an incredible 52.8 percent from 3-point range during the first two months, is shooting 22.7 percent from deep during January, and as a result has been moved to the bench.
On top of that, Orlando’s top-scorer, Nikola Vucevic, has seen his field goal percentage drop from 55.4 percent last month to 44.2 percent during January.
It’s safe to say that this is a much different team than the one that handed Boston a 110-91 loss on Nov. 27 in Orlando.That version of the Magic was full of energy and seemingly stocked with offensive options, but now they are in a rut, and only appear to be digging themselves deeper.
Scott Skiles, the reigning Eastern Conference Coach of the Month, says going through this type of slump is just a part of the game. And he’s right – many teams in the East have experienced ups and downs this season, which is why the standings remain so close.
“It’s kind of the nature of the East right now, which forces you to continue to play well,” said Skiles following Orlando’s shootaround this morning. “Things are moving constantly. It seems like a team will be slumping for a while and then all of a sudden they’ll have a couple of good weeks. We had a nice stretch before; we’re hoping it’s not our last one.”
One positive for the Magic is that they are only three games back from the eighth seed and five games back from home-court advantage. That’s not a bad prospect considering the horrible month they’ve had.
Orlando has shown signs of life during this losing streak, but they have been fleeting. It’s not unusual for this team to jump out to a quick lead. The problem is that it allows teams to climb back into games and has difficulty halting the opposition’s momentum.
“In the NBA you can’t have (that happen),” said Vucevic, who is posting team highs in points (16.7 per game) and rebounds (8.8 per game) this season. “You have to stay consistent for 48 minutes. I mean teams are going to make runs and that’s OK, but you have to be able sustain it, and I feel that we haven’t been able to do that much lately.”
Tonight they will face a Boston team that has been flying out of the gates lately, and unlike Orlando, the C’s have been able to hang onto those leads.
The Celtics are in search of their first five-game winning streak of the season, and have been riding a high-energy wave on both sides of the ball.
“They’re aggressive, athletic, they force turnovers, so we have to make sure we take care of the ball,” said Orlando’s starting point guard, Elfrid Payton.
That aggression is something that Skiles knows his team is capable of carrying out as well. He says he witnessed such energy earlier in the season and continues to see it regularly during practice.
“When we’re playing well, we play a similar way that Boston plays, and we get after each other in practice,” said the coach. “It’s just about having the poise during the game.”
Skiles and his team collectively agree that if they pull off a win tonight in a hostile road environment, it could spark the type of momentum that could pull the Magic out of this funk. They looked back to their November win as reassurance.
“We played them pretty well the first time, so we know that we can do it,” said Vucevic.
But the Magic team that blew out Boston two months ago seems to have stayed behind in 2015.
Meanwhile, the Celtics are one of the hottest teams in the league right now. It won’t be easy knocking them off tonight.
