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By John Denton
Dec. 11, 2015
ORLANDO – By fully embracing a defensive style where help is given on drivers and star scorers are shown “a crowd of bodies,” the Orlando Magic have made the biggest statistical jump in the NBA on defense and they entered Friday night ranked fourth in the league in field goal percentage allowed.
But LeBron James – Orlando’s opponent on Friday – has a way of causing a team to break all of its rules on the defensive end of the floor because of his rare passing gifts.
When the Cavs beat the Magic 117-103 on Nov. 23 James scored just 15 points, but he carved up the Magic for 13 assists. Eight of those assists led to 3-pointers and 34 points all told came as a result of James’ passes.
Because James is arguably the NBA’s best player at commanding the attention of the defense and then finding open shooters, the Magic went into Friday night having to abandon some of their principles as far as helping defensively and double-teaming the 6-foot-8, 250-pound star forward from the same spots.
“We have to try and show him a lot of different reads and be physical with him, but at the same time you really have to stick with your shooters because of LeBron,” Magic forward Tobias Harris said. “They have a lot of really good shooters and he’s looking for those guys with his passes.”
While James certainly gives all teams fits with his scoring and passing, he’s been a particular thorn in the side of the Magic. He came into Friday night having beaten the Magic 12 straight times – a streak that spans 3 1/2 years and dates back to his second season with the Miami Heat.
Forward Channing Frye was a bit defensive when asked about the Magic changing up their helping, inside-out style versus James, but he eventually relented saying the Magic must stay close to their opponents because of James’ passing skills.
“I don’t think we break our rules for anybody because we rely on Tobias and anybody else who is going to guard (James) to stay on them and do the best that they can,” Frye said. “We don’t change for too many people because that’s what coach’s attitude is. … If you look at the film (from the Nov. 23 game) we were being kind of lazy on the weak side and we can’t give him the same kind of looks. He’s an extremely smart player and people don’t give him credit for, his basketball knowledge. We have to mix it up on him and not let him get comfortable.”
ANOTHER SIGN OF GROWTH: Another way that this Magic team differs from the one that struggled much of the past three seasons is the way that it is holding itself to a much higher standard.
Orlando came out of its mammoth 10-day, five-game road trip with a solid 3-2 record, but many of the players on the team were steamed about the two losses and thought it should have been 5-0. The Magic squandered a 10-point lead in the final five minutes of a 103-101 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. And on Wednesday in Phoenix, the Magic had the game tied three different times in the fourth quarter before losing 107-104 to the Suns.
Of the Magic’s 10 losses going into Friday, six have come by five points or less and four have been by three points or fewer.
“Yes and no (that’s a sign of growth), but at the same time you could say, `Hey, we should be 22-0′ because we had a chance to win a lot of these games,” said Frye, who was inserted into the Magic’s starting lineup eight games ago. “The only game that, in my mind, we didn’t play that well was at Washington (a 108-99 loss on Nov. 14) because maybe we were a little tired or jet-lagged. But we have to take advantage of those situations (in close games) and understand why we lost. In the Clippers game we got away from what we were doing and the Suns game we just didn’t play defense. We’re going to get better and I have confidence in these guys.”
Said Harris: “It was a good trip for us. I see that (frustration over losing two games) as a sign of growth, but with that being said there has to be action to it and it has to be in the way we play going forward. We have to set our goals high, especially here at home where we have to protect our home court.”
BACK HOME: Whereas long road trips like the one the Magic just finished are difficult for teams because of the fatigue factors and distractions, often times teams struggle in their first game because home.
Sometimes, it’s because of jet lag, the change in time zones or they simply lose their edge and relax because they are back at home.
Orlando was on the road for 10 days, playing games in the Central, Mountain, Pacific and Mountain time zones. The team flew back to Orlando following Wednesday’s loss in Phoenix, landing at 4:55 a.m. ET. Many of the coaches and players didn’t get in bed until 7 a.m. and fortunately they had Thursday off to catch up on sleep.
“Like I said about the altitude the other night (in Denver), I’ve been around teams affected by (the first night home following a long trip) and others that we’re affected by it at all,” Magic coach Scott Skiles said. “Ten days is a long time to be away from home obviously. I live a long way away, but I got home at five after six (o’clock a.m.). Hopefully the guys didn’t lay in the bed all day (on Thursday) and got back to some normalcy and will be ready to go.”
Added Frye: “I’ve been through it all. After coming back from Brazil and doing all of these other kinds of trips, I’ve had worse,” Frye said. “I stayed up, tried to take a nap in the middle of the day and drank a couple of cups of coffee and then went to bed as usual. At the end of the day, nobody wants to hear excuses and they just want to see a (good) product on the floor. Tired or not, they pay us enough to get a good bed and shut the curtains and take a nap.”
