By John Denton Oct. 20, 2016
ORLANDO – The regular season doesn't begin until Wednesday for the Orlando Magic, but tonight's finale of the preseason should take on a regular-season feel for the home team.
Eager to build more cohesion and confidence before next week's opener against the rival Miami Heat, the Magic (1-5) expect to extend their starters and primary rotation players deep into the game tonight against the New Orleans Pelicans (1-4). Because of various injuries and the resting of veteran players, Orlando has had its full complement of players just one previous time this preseason. That could potentially be a big issue for a Magic team that is looking for chemistry after adding new coach Frank Vogel and seven new players to the roster in a busy offseason.
Vogel said throughout his head coaching career – he worked previously with the Indiana Pacers for 5 1/2 seasons – he's treated the final preseason game like the regular-season opener to give players an idea of the rotations that he will be using when the results matter.
Barring changes between now and Wednesday, Vogel expects for the Magic to roll out a starting lineup of Nikola Vucevic, Serge Ibaka, Aaron Gordon, Evan Fournier and Elfrid Payton. However, Vogel was irate following the Magic's 107-77 loss in Miami on Tuesday and he warned that the team is still being evaluated following a performance that he dubbed “not acceptable.''
“We have high expectations of this team and it's not going to be one of those years, hopefully, where we have many performances like we had (Tuesday) night,'' Vogel said. “We're not always going to play well, but we want to have a group that even when shots aren't falling that our defense can carry us. But our defense was bad (on Tuesday).
“We watched the film, we showed them the mistakes and we showed them what's not acceptable,'' the coach continued. “Everything is to be defined. Roles are to be defined. Minutes are still to be defined. Whatever the vision is for a team, it doesn't always play out that way. It's based on performance and guys have to step up.''
Tipoff is just after 7 p.m. at the Amway Center. And Pelicans star forward Anthony Davis, who hasn't played since spraining his ankle on Oct. 12, is expected to play tonight after being upgraded to probable on the injury list. Davis went through shootaround Thursday morning and is expected about getting back in rhythm before next week's opener against the Denver Nuggets.
“I've been working every day to get my ankle back right, so no not really (there is no surprise),'' Davis said. “I'm always trying to find a way to beat the system to come back early so that I can get back on the floor. So I knew in my head that I wanted to come back before the season-opener. So we did a great job of putting in the extra work to get me back so that I can play.''
The Magic traded for Ibaka on draft night signed shot-swatting center Bismack Biyombo in free agency, giving them three capable low-post players along with incumbent starter Nikola Vucevic. The three have all said that it will take time for them to learn to play together whether it's Vucevic and Ibaka, Ibaka and Biyombo or Vucevic and Biyombo. It can work offensively because of the outside shooting of Vucevic and Ibaka, but defensively the three-headed big man rotation is still a work in progress.
Tonight will be just the second time this preseason that all three have been available to play at the same time. Vucevic said they still have lots of work to do to feel fully comfortable knowing each other's games.
“Serge missed the first two games, I didn't play one game and Biz didn't play one game, so we didn't have much of a chance where we've had a full game to work on it,'' Vucevic said. “We've showed some things that we can do, but obviously we still need a lot of work. That's something that will come with time. The good thing is that we're all three unselfish players and we're willing to help the other guy. That will help us a lot throughout the year. And I really think that the three of us can play together – whether it's Serge and Biz or Serge or Biz and I – I think we complement each other. We've had good high/lows and good defensive plays. I think that's going to help our team a lot.''
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