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By John Denton
Jan. 6, 2016
ORLANDO – An Orlando Magic team that closed 2015 with a bang – 10 wins in December and seven victories in the final nine games of the month – is still looking for its first victory of 2016.
A new resolution for the Magic: Get back to playing with the energy, focus and fight of the past and snap their three-game losing streak.
Adding a degree of difficulty to the challenge: The Magic might be without both pieces of their starting backcourt with Elfrid Payton (bone bruise in ankle) out and Evan Fournier (toe injury) questionable to play.
The Magic (19-16) hosts Paul George and the Indiana Pacers (19-15) tonight at 7 p.m. in a game where they will be looking to get back on track following a forgettable road trip that spanned the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016.
“We’ve got to play harder and with more energy and get our defense back to a respectable level. The first two will help the third,” Magic coach Scott Skiles said Wednesday morning. “It’s important that we respond tonight, respond and have a positive, energetic game. Indiana is a good team, but it’s not even about winning or losing the game. We’ve got to have a really high energy performance today.”
It wasn’t just that the Magic went winless on their most recent trip; it was the manner in which they dropped games to Washington (103-91), Cleveland (104-79) and Detroit (115-89). For whatever reason – fatigue, lack of focus or fading execution – Orlando didn’t show the same sort of resolve that it did earlier in the season when it evolved into one of the surprise teams in the NBA this season.
“We have to being scrappy and playing harder and playing together,” Magic forward Tobias Harris said. “We’ve got to come out tonight and outwork this (Indiana) team. It’s really about just bringing our A-game.”
The biggest spot where the Magic can make the most improvement is defensively, an area that has fallen off dramatically following a strong start to the season. Once in the NBA’s top five in several key statistical categories, Orlando has yielded 110 points per 100 possessions over the past nine games. Over that period of time, Orlando ranks 28th in the NBA in defensive rating – a number that is totally unacceptable to Skiles.
“You hope it’s just a little stretch, but our biggest concern is what our defensive rating is over the past 10 games,” Skiles said. “It’s very low and at the bottom of the league. We won some of those games, in large part, because (Nikola Vucevic) carried us and was playing so well. We won some, but we could see that the slippage (defensively) was coming rapidly. We’ve lost three in a row, so it only seems like (the defensive slippage) has just been over a little bit of time, but it’s actually been longer.”
It will be the second meeting of the season against Indiana, which comes into Orlando having lost in overtime in Miami on Monday night. The Pacers smothered Orlando defensively in early November, beating the Magic 97-84 in the Hoosier state. George was almost unstoppable in that game, scoring 19 points in the first half and 27 points on the night.
George has been one of the NBA’s best stories this season, remarkably recovering from a gruesome leg injury suffered in August of 2014 while playing an exhibition game for USA Basketball. George played just six games last season while still recovering from the injury, but he has returned this season better than he was before the injury. He is arguably one of the NBA’s most complete players, averaging 24.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.74 steals a game. His shooting accuracy has plummeted in recent weeks, but he showed his superstar skills on Monday in Miami with 32 points, seven rebounds, five 3-pointers, two assists and two steals.
Skiles said that while the Magic have a formidable opponent tonight, this game will be more about correcting their own woes than any problems that the Pacers present. Skiles has told the team that it’s up to them to play with the energy and intensity to turn this losing skid around and capture the first victory of 2016.
“We just talked to the guys about the need to respond,” Skiles said. “We’ve had a tough stretch and we haven’t played well enough to win, so we need an energy acknowledgement. We need a high-energy game out there tonight, hopefully get a win and at least get back on track from being a team in the last three-or-four games that hasn’t played very hard.”
