Magic Searching for Rhythm from Deep as Shooting Woes Continue
The Orlando Magic aren’t exactly hiding from their latest shooting struggles - in fact, they’re facing them head-on. After a 14-point home loss to the Cavaliers, head coach Jamahl Mosley and guard Desmond Bane both pointed to the same issue: the looks were there, the shots just didn’t fall.
“They were open, correct?” Mosley said postgame.
“We’ve got to step into them and knock them down. That’s what it boils down to.”
Bane echoed the sentiment: “We got some open shots throughout the meat of the game, and shots just didn’t fall.”
And the numbers back them up.
According to league tracking data, Orlando went 10-for-32 on “wide-open” threes - defined as attempts with the nearest defender at least six feet away. That’s just 31.3%, well below the league average for such high-quality looks. They also went just 1-for-7 on “open” threes, with the closest defender between four and six feet away.
Put it all together, and the Magic shot 11-for-40 from beyond the arc - a rough night from deep, especially considering that 39 of those 40 attempts were either open or wide open. That’s not a shot profile you’re unhappy with.
It’s the kind of spacing and ball movement teams work to generate. But it doesn’t mean much if the shots don’t go in.
Wendell Carter Jr. offered a grounded take at Monday’s shootaround ahead of the rematch with Cleveland in Rocket Arena.
“Honestly, even going back to the Charlotte game, I feel like we’ve gotten some really good looks,” Carter said. “I think we could get Desmond a couple more cleaner looks, in terms of shooting the 3-point shot. Other than that, we’ve just got to make shots.”
It’s a familiar refrain in today’s NBA: make or miss. And Carter didn’t shy away from that reality.
“A lot of people say it’s a make-or-miss league,” he said. “At the end, we can play the best defense, but if we’re not making shots, it’s going to be tough to win a game.”
Zooming out, the Magic’s season-long numbers suggest this isn’t just a one-off cold spell. Through 44 games, Orlando has connected on 35.7% of its wide-open threes - ranking 25th in the league. They’re generating about 20 of those looks per game, which is middle of the pack (13th), but the efficiency simply hasn’t been there.
When it comes to “open” threes - defender 4-6 feet away - the Magic are hitting just 32.6%, ranking 18th. And they’re not getting many of those either, averaging just 11.3 attempts per game - fifth fewest in the league.
Desmond Bane, in particular, has seen a noticeable dip in both volume and efficiency. In his 44 games with Orlando, Bane is averaging 2.5 open three-point attempts per game, converting 32.1% of them. That’s a drop from last season in Memphis, where he hit 37.5% of his 2.8 open attempts per night.
That’s a 5.4% slide - not massive on paper, but over the course of a season, those missed shots add up. And when your best shooter is struggling to find rhythm in clean catch-and-shoot opportunities, it can ripple through the rest of the offense.
The cumulative effect of these misses? It can wear on a team’s confidence. Carter acknowledged that mental hurdle, too.
“It’s hard to do,” he said when asked about not letting missed shots affect the team’s mindset. “We’re all competitors.
We understand the work that we put in over the summer and throughout the season. So, it gets a little frustrating.”
But Carter also pointed to where that frustration needs to be channeled - and it’s not into forcing the next shot.
“What we have to do a better job of is just honing in that frustration onto the defensive end,” he said. “Understanding like, ‘OK, my shot isn’t falling, I’m going to come down here and get a stop.’
That’s something that, it’s human nature to get frustrated, including myself. Just getting out of that funk and putting the team in front of yourself, that’s the biggest thing.”
The Magic now turn their focus to Miami, still in search of answers from long range. The looks are there. The execution - and maybe a little rhythm - is what they’ll need to find next.