How Magic's Staunch Defense vs. Pelicans Showed What's Possible in Transition

Big nights offensively from Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner helped the Orlando Magic past the New Orleans Pelicans Thursday night. Yet, the ease of their scoring came in transition, aided by their defense. In that, Orlando has a formula worth replicating.

New Orleans Pelicans forward Bruce Brown (00) dribbles against Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero (5) during the first half at Smoothie King Center. | Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

With 8:09 to play in the third quarter of Thursday's rout of the New Orleans Pelicans, Franz Wagner picked off Bruce Brown's baseline pass and kept his balance.

When the fourth-year Orlando Magic forward looked up, he saw Paolo Banchero streaking ahead with nothing but clear court in front of him.

Wagner whipped a right-handed hook pass to his fellow frontcourt force, who received the ball, took one dribble and flushed home a fastbreak dunk.

That sequence gave Banchero 30 points for the evening and the Magic a 33-point lead over the host Pelicans. Later in the fourth, he and Wagner would hound Trey Murphy III into the same fate: steal, outlet pass, Banchero uncontested transition slam.

In an already decided contest, those two plays best typify the "ultra-aggressive" defense-first approach from Orlando's star duo that sparked a combined 61-point showing and led the Magic to a stress-free road victory.

"I think everybody was locked in on the defensive side," said Banchero postgame, who tallied four of he and Wagner's five steals. "We knew they had Zion (Williamson), Trey Murphy (III), (CJ) McCollum – guys that can go off if you let them, so we were trying to be locked in on that end and it led to us getting runouts, getting in transition, jumpshots falling."

Orlando forced 13 New Orleans turnovers for 21 points, holding the Pelicans to 44.3 percent shooting from the field. The Magic recorded 14 stocks (steals plus blocks) and posted a 102.2 defensive rating – their second-best mark since returning from the All-Star break.

"I thought the energy, the spirit, the togetherness was exactly what we've talked about over these past two days," Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said of his group's defensive effort. "Their ability to lock in defensively to the game plan, doing a great job tightening up the paint, getting out to shooters on time. Then just their ability to play faster, move the ball, attack the basket and then find the open looks."

As the Magic have searched to find their footing down the season's homestretch, Orlando has unsurprisingly relied its identifying defense to carry water for a usually struggling offense.

Wagner said Thursday he felt Orlando's defense had been "pretty good" over the three games on the road trip so far, where wins at Milwaukee and New Orleans have sandwiched a loss in a low-scoring struggle Monday at Houston.

But even in game 67, a victory over the 18-win Pelicans in such fashion still provides a glimpse at what's possible offensively when all cylinders are firing and the Magic are out on the run.

"It shows that when we're locked in as a unit and on the same page, that we can get out and run and create easy baskets," Banchero said. "I think that's something that we want to do more of, we haven't been doing a lot of this season. We've been kind of playing slow. So I think trying to change that and get out and run every opportunity we can, throw the ball ahead every opportunity we can. Even on makes, get the ball out quick and just go."

Banchero's assessment is correct. Orlando plays at the NBA's second-slowest pace and scores the sixth-fewest total fastbreak points a game. With less than a quarter of the year to play, the Magic are only scoring 13.2 percent of their league-low 104.4 points per contest in transition.

Despite that, on any given night, both Banchero and Wagner combine for a special output that simply becomes too much for an opponent to deal with. That was the case when Orlando's two stars were the two best players on the Smoothie King Center floor by a wide margin.

"Those are things that we're going to ask and expect of them," Mosley said Thursday.

At the same time, anything that can be done to help assist them in their takeovers should be prioritized. For the Magic, that’s playing faster.

Like Wagner said, "it's easier when we can get out in transition and get some easy points like that."

Talk about a formula worth replicating.

Up Next

The Magic's five-game road trip continues Friday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves at 8 p.m. ET.

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