Unpredictable Magic! It was when we no longer expected, after a series of eight setbacks in eleven games, including a slap against Cleveland three weeks ago (-40) that the Floridians came out of the wood. On the Cavs prosecution yesterday, Orlando took two bursts, but hung on to return to the game and to snatch an improbable victory on the prosecution of the best balance sheet of the NBA.
As they were able to do since Jamahl Mosley took the lead of the team, it was thanks to a tenacious defense that the Magic managed to stay alive, in particular by conceding only 43 points in the second half, including only 20 in the last act.
“First of all, we must congratulate Orlando. Top 3 best defense in the league, and that's what they are doing. It's an excellent defensive team ”, recognized Kenny Atkinsonwho did not want to be more alarmist than that after this unexpected defeat of her team, hoping to see her bounce back during the “road trip” to come.
For his part, Jamahl Mosley wanted to salute the mental strength of his players for the feat achieved after a particularly difficult period for the team and following a last quarter completely missed against Minnesota in the previous match (40 points conceded). With the chain of injuries, the Magic had to review its ambitions down over the season, but the DNA of this workforce is more than ever.
“The harshness they displayed, and the resilience they showed so as not to let what happened in the last match to affect this match”,, he quoted To express what this victory said of his team. “We took the right things from the previous match and we learned from that by managing to apply them tonight. We understood what we were capable of every evening, and that's what I think I saw of this group. ”
Speech is defense
A group always handed over by the tandem Franz Wagner-Paolo Banchero, but which was able to rely on the qualities of many “Role Players”, like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, precious on the end, Wendell Carter Jr, Gary Harris or Anthony Black (17 points 3/3 from afar, 3 rebounds, 2 interceptions in 22 interceptions minutes), also decisive in defense as in attack, with a noticed second half.
“I tried to bring energy in defense, particularly in the third quarter. I just felt that it was the right shooting window to press them and try to get some interceptions. With Gary (Harris), we managed to press them well in this period. We tried to put our open shots, to make the right choices, and simply to be in good positions in defense ”he slipped.
For Paolo Banchero too, it was the defense that made the difference in addition to feeding the attack on the Magic by sequences.
Like his match finished at 6/22 in shooting, everything was not perfect, but he hung on, and it was he who ended up planting the shooting of victory, halfway. This is what Orlando has perfectly managed to do, round back in difficult times, and highlights exploited as best as possible.
“Our defense was great. We enter their shooters, we were flying from everywhere and we covered each other well. Then in attack, we simply managed enough actions, we continued to believe in us, the players called on the field knew how to raise their level to put big shots after big shots. It was a complete collective effort ”he said.
What revive a dynamic to seek 7th place and ensure the advantage of the Play-in terrain? At thirteen games at the end of the regular season, it's now or never.
| Shots | Rebound | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | Lf | Off | Def | Early | PD | COP | Int | Ct | Fte | Pts |
| Paolo Banchero | 35 | 34.1 | 44.4 | 32.5 | 71.3 | 1.1 | 6.1 | 7.2 | 4.7 | 2.8 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 2.1 | 25.1 |
| Franz Wagner | 50 | 33.1 | 46.3 | 29.9 | 85.8 | 1.0 | 4.5 | 5.5 | 4.6 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 2.5 | 23.8 |
| Jalen Sugs | 35 | 28.6 | 41.0 | 31.4 | 88.2 | 0.7 | 3.4 | 4.0 | 3.7 | 2.9 | 1.5 | 0.9 | 2.8 | 16.2 |
| Moe Wagner | 30 | 18.8 | 56.2 | 36.0 | 71.8 | 1.3 | 3.6 | 4.9 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 12.9 |
| Cole Anthony | 61 | 18.6 | 42.3 | 34.9 | 82.1 | 0.7 | 2.3 | 3.0 | 2.9 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 2.3 | 9.6 |
| Anthony Black | 65 | 23.7 | 41.5 | 31.6 | 74.6 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 2.7 | 3.0 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 2.1 | 9.0 |
| Wendell Carter, Jr. | 56 | 25.9 | 45.5 | 21.6 | 73.7 | 2.2 | 5.3 | 7.4 | 2.1 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 2.9 | 8.9 |
| Kentavious Caldwell-Pope | 65 | 30.2 | 42.8 | 31.9 | 86.9 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 2.1 | 1.8 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 8.7 |
| GOGA BITADZE | 58 | 21.3 | 62.4 | 13.0 | 63.7 | 2.4 | 4.5 | 6.9 | 2.0 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 1.5 | 2.2 | 7.5 |
| Tristan da Silva | 65 | 22.8 | 41.7 | 33.5 | 86.4 | 1.0 | 2.4 | 3.4 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 7.4 |
| Jonathan Isaac | 60 | 15.8 | 41.5 | 27.0 | 67.0 | 1.7 | 2.9 | 4.6 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 5.6 |
| Trevelin Queen | 28 | 13.8 | 35.2 | 24.2 | 88.2 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 4.3 |
| Jett Howard | 55 | 11.2 | 35.7 | 29.5 | 75.0 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 4.1 |
| Caleb Houstan | 45 | 11.6 | 36.7 | 35.5 | 92.9 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 3.2 |
| Gary Harris | 35 | 15.6 | 37.0 | 32.9 | 60.0 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 3.0 |
| Cory Joseph | 38 | 9.5 | 38.5 | 35.0 | 66.7 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 2.6 |
| Mac McClung | 1 | 4.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
