Orlando Magic's block party sets the tone for defense's return

The Orlando Magic set the tone for their best defensive game in nearly a month. Nine first-quarter blocks were a franchise record and a necessary spark.

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The Orlando Magic have struggled to get their defense straightened out for much of December. The month has seen a parade of teams getting to the basket and kicking it out for 3-pointers, vexing and ripping apart the Magic’s supposedly strong defense.

That defensive team would show itself in brief moments, cutting into a Miami Heat lead to force double overtime or seeing Bismack Biyombo or Serge Ibaka fly from the weak side for a block. Those moments were frustratingly rare.

Orlando was not quite who it wanted to be.

After a disappointing effort in New York, where the defense again had its moments but was nowhere near as strong as it once was when Orlando was winning games in the low 90s on its defense in late November, Orlando set a tone from the very beginning against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Really on the very first play. Really from before the tip.

As the Magic huddled up after pregame introductions, Serge Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo told their guards to get up in their man and play physical. The two bigs the Magic acquired this summer to shore up their rim protection would handle everything at the rim.

From the first play, that proved to be true.

Ibaka came from the weak side and blocked a Timofey Mozgov shot at the apex of its arc. On the next possession, Ibaka stuffed Mozgov and on a drive to the basket, just before he could go up for a dunk.

Aaron Gordon got one next. Then Ibaka on another Mozgov attempt at a dunk. Then Biyombo on a D’Angelo Russell layup. And on and on and on.

The Magic set a franchise record with nine blocked shots in the first quarter. It set a deadly tone for the team’s defense as Orlando was flying around and rotating much like it did in that strong stretch through the end of November.

“It was very impressive,” coach Frank Vogel said. “Those guys at their best are both elite rim protectors. Both those guys out there have the potential to do that. Our guys really came out with a great energy to start the game. They really followed the plan of what we needed to do to guard these guys.”

For the first time since that streak ended in early December, the Magic held an opponent to less than 100 points in a 109-90 win over the Lakers at Amway Center.

Orlando’s defense appeared to be back.

The Magic held the Lakers to 5-for-24 shooting, blocking nine shots including five of the first seven. There was a point late in the first quarter where the Magic had nine blocks and the Lakers had just eight points. The play at the rim spooked the Lakers and set the tone for the rest of the game.

The Magic gave up just 90 points and posted an 87.8 defensive rating. There were moments of weakness for sure — the Lakers cut an 18-point deficit down to six in the fourth quarter. But when the Magic defense was set, it was increasingly hard to crack.

This was the Magic’s best overall defensive performance in several weeks. An energetic reminder of this team’s devastating defensive potential.

“It was big,” Elfrid Payton said. “That’s what we’re trying to hang our hats on. It kind of slipped away from us the last few weeks. It was big for us to have a performance like that.”

The blocks did eventually calm down for the Magic. They had only two more the rest of the game. The statement was made. Orlando never let go of the rope the rest of the way.

The Magic did a good job digging down on the post from the weak side to help the helper. Their bigs did a good job keeping their hands up to close passing lanes and corral ball handlers so the initial defender could recover.

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For the first time in several weeks, Orlando controlled an entire game on the strength of its defense. This was not a crazed offensive onslaught. Orlando had to use its defense to pick its offense up on several occasions. Droughts and turnovers allowed the Lakers to make two big pushes to begin the third and fourth quarters.

Both times Orlando stood tall with its defense leading the way.

“It’s not easy playing ahead in this league when teams are coming after you,” Vogel said. “But it’s probably easier than playing from behind, which we’ve been in that situation a lot where we’re climbing uphill. For those guys to come out and set the tone early like we did, it gave us confidence throughout.”

Confidence enough to reset the team’s identity for the future? Momentum is the next day’s pitcher.

There is no pattern or consistency quite yet. Biyombo joked the media can talk to him when the team blocks another nine shots about what this all means.

This was a game in isolation — an outlier after three weeks struggling on the defensive end. But it did have its encouraging moments.

More than just about any game for this team, the Magic played defense longer than they have in quite some time. The results speak for themselves.

“This kind of night, we see our team and say, ‘Man, we’re a good team. We can do something special,'” Ibaka said. “We just have to stay consistent and learn from tonight’s game. Not every day is going to be perfect. Last night was not good, and we learned from that. Tonight, we came back better.”

The Magic made the highlight plays early to set the tone for a big game for the team overall. the question is will they find that energy again Monday and in the next game?

That is all anyone has asked of this team for the entire season. Just a bit of consistency and carry over.

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