The Orlando Magic’s defense has stepped up since the All-Star break, with much of that success being tied to them trying out different schemes more.
The Magic typically play drop defense with their bigs and will occasionally hedge depending on the ball handler, but since the break they’ve been incorporating two other schemes: Zone and switching.
“The league’s gotten so good in ways guys can score,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “You can’t give one package to specific guys. You’ve got to be able to play in the drop. You’ve got to be able to blitz the pick-and-roll. You’ve got to be able to mix in zone here and there. It’s so great our guys have the versatility to be able to do it.”
Orlando’s played zone slightly more since the break. The Magic have zoned 4.82 times per game since the break compared to 4.47 before the break, according to Synergy.
For the season ahead of Friday’s home game against the Toronto Raptors, the Magic allow 0.906 points per possession when in a zone vs. 0.984 points per possession when playing man-to-man defense.
“A lot of coaches say the more you work on it, the tougher to gets,” Mosley said of playing zone defense. “The zone has applied a lot of communication, which we continue to grow with. It’s helped a ton in games.”
Switching has been an even bigger part of the Magic’s defense.
When done correctly, switching helps teams keep offensive actions in front and minimize gaps for offenses to attack.
But when not done with enough discretion, offenses can weaponize a team’s switching by creating favorable mismatches, which is what the Washington Wizards did multiple times during the fourth quarter of their 127-110 Wednesday win over the Magic.
Kristaps Porziņģis (35 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists) drew three fouls — two shooting — in the fourth after a Magic guard switched onto the 7-foot-3 center, helping him go 5 of 6 on free throws in the final period and 10 of 13 overall.
“That was the key point from the beginning of the game — switch without fouling,” Mosley said. “[Porziņģis] did a great job of drawing those fouls, but those swipe downs were a lot of it.”
To Franz Wagner, switching effectively requires the team’s technique to be precise.
“If you’re just letting people run around freely it’s really hard to guard when you want to switch,” Wagner said. “And you’ve got to be able to guard one-on-one. That’s what we want to do when we switch — force people to score one-on-one on us. If they get into the paint and someone has to help, it’s hard to rotate against. If you do those two things, most of the time you have a good night.”
Orlando’s defense has produced during the past month, ranking fifth in defensive rating since Feb. 23, even as it toggles between coverages.
“It requires great communication,” Wagner said. “Not just from us, but us asking the coaches what we’re in. They’ve done a great job of that.”
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Khobi Price at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @khobi_price.
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