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By John Denton
Dec. 24, 2015
ORLANDO – ‘Twas the day before Christmas, when all throughout the Amway Center the Magic were inside, bouncing balls, squeaking sneakers and preparing because they aren’t yet satisfied. The victories have been hung, 17 so far in all, In hopes that St. Nik (Vucevic) and his teammates will continue to ball.
Just hours removed from arguably their best and most impressive victory of the season, the surging Magic were back on the practice court on Thursday morning even though it was Christmas Eve. There was work still to be done, corrections to be made from Wednesday night’s stirring 104-101 toppling of the Houston Rockets. That signature win gave Orlando an impressive 17-12 mark and a fourth victory in the past five games.
But in yet another sign of growth in a season full of them so far, the theme coming out of the Magic headquarters is that there will be no letdown because the team hasn’t accomplished anything yet. Beating Charlotte, Portland, New York and Houston of late is nice, but there are more important battles ahead – namely Saturday night’s post-Christmas showdown against the rival Miami Heat (16-11) at the Amway Center.
Vucevic, one of Orlando’s unquestioned leaders on the floor and in the locker room, summed up the Magic’s thoughts when he said there will be no mid-season celebrations or letting off the proverbial gas pedal 29 games in because the team knows it still has plenty of work to be done. Sure, the Magic are light years ahead of where they were during a torturous past three years of rebuilding, but that distance pales in comparison to how much further they feel they can climb this season.
“We don’t want to say it; we want to do it,” Vucevic said with conviction. “We can do all of the talking (about the improvement), but it’s on us to stay on the court working and keep doing what we’re doing. We’ve shown so far that we’ve become a better team, but also teams are now going to treat us differently because we’ve shown that we can win games. So we have to be prepared for that and stay humble. We’ve done some things so far, but we’ve got a long way to go if we want to achieve our goals.”
Those words have to be music to the ears of hard-driving head coach Scott Skiles, who prepped his team on Thursday before giving the squad Christmas Day off before Saturday’s showdown against the hated Heat. Skiles, who was hired in late May as head coach, has made the Magic markedly better defensively and he’s demanded that the group share the ball much better on the offensive end of the floor – traits that show up nightly in how Orlando attacks foes.
But the overriding things that Skiles has instilled are a mental and physical toughness and an expectation to be great on a nightly basis. Whereas the Magic often created ways to lose close games late last season, they now hold firm in the tense moments – even when teams like Houston wipe out a 14-point lead and take the lead in the final minute. All Orlando did on Wednesday night was believe in its system and get huge baskets at the rim by Elfrid Payton and Evan Fournier in the final minute and a couple of clutch free throws by Tobias Harris.
“We’ve been doing that for the most part,” Skiles said of the Magic’s newfound ability to hang tough down the stretch. “We’ve had games where we’ve lost close ones, but it wasn’t because we came unhinged, really. But we played really tough defense on the last possession (on Wednesday against Houston). And our guys have shown that they’ll battle for it at the end.” The Magic have shown they will battle, they have shown that they will fight, They played so well on Wednesday they kept James Harden off the free throw line and they took down Dwight. Skiles has been genius, his lineup changes a turning point for sure, The Magic are getting contributions from all over the roster because the ball movement is so pure. They are still a work in progress and somewhat of a project, But there’s no disputing that they are enjoying the benefits of “The Skiles Effect.” On Mar-i-o and O-la-di-po! On T.B. (Tobias Harris), A.G. (Aaron Gordon), E.P. (Elfrid Payton) and Frenchie (Evan Fournier) too! On Channing (Frye), who is doing the trick, drilling threes and keeping defenders from double-teaming Nik!
The Magic have shown they will battle, they have shown that they will fight, They played so well on Wednesday they kept James Harden off the free throw line and they took down Dwight. Skiles has been genius, his lineup changes a turning point for sure, The Magic are getting contributions from all over the roster because the ball movement is so pure. They are still a work in progress and somewhat of a project, But there’s no disputing that they are enjoying the benefits of “The Skiles Effect.” On Mar-i-o and O-la-di-po! On T.B. (Tobias Harris), A.G. (Aaron Gordon), E.P. (Elfrid Payton) and Frenchie (Evan Fournier) too! On Channing (Frye), who is doing the trick, drilling threes and keeping defenders from double-teaming Nik!
Fournier, who has become Orlando’s closer late in games with his ability to make plays both for himself and others, was as upset about the Magic being shaky when they had a double-digit lead as he was the team rallying twice when down a point. Again, the mindset has changed around a Magic team that tended to have an unshakeable shakiness down the stretch. Now, they not only expect to win, but they expect to play nearly flawlessly while doing so.
“Actually, I think we’ve had better wins,” said Fournier, who has incredibly made 61.9 percent (and a jaw-dropping six-of-eight on 3-pointers) of his shots in the last three minutes of games where the score is within five points in either direction. “It’s good that we won the game (on Wednesday), but the way we did it I think we could done a little better.”
Fournier’s summation speaks to the hunger and determination that the Magic have now to take their success to the next stratosphere.
Vucevic, one of the longest tenured Magic players along with revived power forward Andrew Nicholson, has endured the pain of winning just 20, 23 and 25 games the past three seasons and he certainly doesn’t take for granted the roll that the team is on now. In the past three seasons, the 17th victory didn’t come until Feb. 11 (2015), Feb. 21 (2014) and March 4 (2013) and by then the Magic had already wracked up 39, 40 and 44 losses.
So, these days, just as he beautifully mixes his improving post game with his ability to make shots from the perimeter, Vucevic blends the satisfaction of winning with the desire for more, more and more. It is a hunger that he said drives this Magic team no matter whether it’s Christmas Eve or the team is in a stretch of four wins in the past five games.
“I take a lot of satisfaction in what we’re doing now because it was only me and Andrew (Nicholson) who were here from the beginning and Tobias came in a little later,” Vucevic said, referring to the start of Orlando’s rebuild in August of 2012. “It took a lot of work to get to here. It was part of the process and we understood that and it wasn’t always easy with all the losing. But we always had faith and knew that we were close. We weren’t getting blown out by teams. It was just part of the learning process and we just had to work hard to improve because we all knew nothing would be given to us.
“We put in the work and it all shows now that we’ve become a pretty good team,” Vucevic continued. “But we’ve got to keep pushing. It’s not over now and we’ve got to stay hungry.”
St. Nik (Vucevic) has spoken, about the Magic staying hungry and continuing to fight, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
