The Orlando Magic’s season opener came down to a possession that looked, on paper, like exactly the kind of defensive stand they want to make.
Jalen Johnson held the ball at the top of the key with Paolo Banchero in front of him. Franz Wagner was battling Nickeil Alexander-Walker as he tried to get up to the top of the key and into screening position. The Magic had the look they wanted: physical defense, no easy angles, and a chance to force a stop while trailing by two with a minute left.
But the play kept moving. Alexander-Walker slipped the screen, Wagner ended up on Johnson, and Banchero was to the other side.
Alexander-Walker popped back out near the top of the key, with Wagner still locked onto Johnson. Banchero was there too, and that was enough for the gap to open.
Johnson found a wide-open Alexander-Walker, who buried the three that pushed the Atlanta Hawks up five and sealed the game.
That sequence summed up the night for Orlando. The Magic did a lot of things right against Atlanta on Wednesday, but not nearly enough of them for long enough.
That’s the problem staring them in the face now, early in the season and early in a new defensive setup they still have to shape into something sharper.
"However many times it happens, we don't want to make the same mistake over and over again," Franz Wagner said after practice Thursday. "We also know these next 81 games we aren't going to be perfect either, so also playing through those mistakes. Practice was about understanding what the mistakes were and executing better."
The biggest surprise from the opener was how shaky the defense looked.
Part of that is understandable. Orlando is learning a new system and getting back into game rhythm.
The Hawks also presented a strong offensive challenge. Still, if the Magic are going to make the kind of noise they believe they can, the defense can’t be a question mark for long.
The numbers from the loss told the story. Orlando allowed 118.9 points per 100 possessions, surrendered 60 points in the paint, and gave up 36 free-throw attempts. Atlanta made 30 of those free throws, matching the Magic’s own total from 39 tries.
The second quarter was where things really slipped away. The Hawks dropped 44 points in the period and posted a 146.7 offensive rating while shooting 14-for-24 from the field and 12-for-14 at the line. Orlando still scored 29 points in the quarter, but the defense gave up 20 points in the paint alone and let the lead disappear.
That was the part that stood out most: the Magic weren’t getting beat because they didn’t know what they wanted to do. They were getting beat because they weren’t consistently doing it.
"I think we've got to be better defensively," Goga Bitadze said after practice Thursday. "Be better in our spots, in the gaps and help each other and cover for each other.
That's what we worked on today. Our offense looked great.
We've just got to be better on defense, cover for each other, talk, communicate and be in better spots defensively."
Orlando’s defensive drop last season was already a major storyline. The team fell from second in the league in defensive rating to 13th, a steep fall even with the offense still searching for traction. The front office brought in Sean Sweeney, in part, to help rebuild that edge after his role in building the San Antonio Spurs’ defense last year.
That’s why Wednesday felt so jarring. The Magic know they can defend at a high level. They also know that has to be the foundation.
Instead, the early tone of the opener suggested a team that was a little too aggressive, a little too loose in the details, and not quite disciplined enough in the basics that have defined this group’s best defensive stretches.
Thursday’s practice was about tightening all of that up. The mood was more serious, though not panicked. The loss was fresh, but the focus was on fixing it before it lingered.
"Definitely wnat to nip things in the bud as quickly as we can but there is always a learning process," coach Sean Sweeney said after practice Thursday. "It was the first game.
The speed is up, the minutes are up, the intensity is up. So, I think sometimes you can play to the fatigue or the scoreboard or the crowd and you really just need to play to the next play."
That’s the balance Orlando has to strike now. No overreaction, but no excuse either.
The Magic know the standard they’re chasing. They also know they’re still building the habits that make that standard real. Sweeney said the coaching staff has had a positive response from the group as they’ve gone through corrections, and the next test comes Friday, when they’ll find out whether the lessons from the opener show up right away.
"We know what we have to do, all of us here," Goga Bitadze said after Thursday's practice. "It's been very clear and detailed what we have to do.
We didn't do that in some parts, and that hurt us. Teams like Atlanta, they get going, and they score the ball really well.
They are going to hurt you. We've just got to get on top of everything.
"We've got to talk to each other, help each other, and that's how we're going to win games. We know we can guard.
We have done it. No matter what the system is, we know we can do it.
We've just go tto do it every day."
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What matters for Orlando is not just one big night, but the way it feeds into the larger debate around Bancheros game. He has long carried the burden of strong counting stats with skepticism still attached to his efficiency, and the opener did little to quiet that conversation in the abstract. For the Magic, the real question is whether this version of Banchero can keep forcing defenders to adjust and keep changing the story around his production as the season moves on. [Read more 🡒]