Struggles with Spacing Means Little Comes Easy for Magic's Offense

ORLANDO, Fla. – Paolo Banchero took a dribble hand-off from Wendell Carter Jr. at the top of the key and sized up Toronto's A.J. Lawson.

The Orlando Magic forward then drove left, stopped below the free-throw line elbow and rose for a 12-foot pullup jumper. With about seven minutes left in the first half, it was Banchero's first made field goal and just his second clean shot attempt.

On the other end, Gradey Dick responded by getting two feet in the paint and knocking down a 12-footer of his own.

Next Magic offensive possession, they tried going to the well again. But Raptors guard Jamal Shead hounded Anthony Black up the floor and forced him to pick up his dribble before he could meet Banchero at the right wing. Banchero came up to collect the ball, but RJ Barrett's face-guarding denied a hand-off and forced Black to look elsewhere.

The trip down the floor ended without a Banchero touch or the ball dipping below the three-point line before Jett Howard's late-shot clock missed three. Taking the rebound in transition, Barrett and Toronto big Orlando Robinson worked a nice screen-and-roll to find an easy lay-in.

Banchero inbounded the make and got the ball right back. Barrett checked him at half-court, but Banchero worked his way to the paint and drew a foul with 14 seconds still on the shot clock.

These five consecutive possessions illustrate the difficulty the Magic offense had not only in a 104-102 loss Sunday, but that they've dealt with all year.

Orlando's attack, which is 28th in points per 100 possessions and operates at the NBA's second-slowest pace, often had to work late into the shot clock consistently as it searched for viable shot attempts.

To be clear, some of that is by design. The Magic identify by their defense, and it's often offers a lifeline when the offense is struggling to score. By working more methodically with the ball in their hands, it limits the amount of possessions they have to defend against – and the size of the lead Orlando may have to surmount in a comeback.

With that in mind, coach Jamahl Mosley still acknowledged the Raptors' on-ball pressure to be particularly disruptive in forcing them off their spots and delaying their actions when describing the loss.

Banchero had a simpler assessment.

"We didn't play very well on offense, honestly," the third-year pro said. "I wouldn't attribute it to their ball pressure. I would attribute it to us not executing well enough."

Toronto clogged the paint, cutting off driving lanes and denying pass avenues. The Magic score 46.2 points in the paint nightly, but they were outscored 58-38 in the lane by the now-19-win Raptors, who they'll see again Tuesday night.

Similar defensive approaches have been taken by many of the Magic's opponents this year, with the Raptors daring Orlando – a 30.5 percent three-point shooting team – to force them away from the bucket by making shots from distance. Overcoming that defensive look and finding consistency in pulling teams from the lane has been a struggle.

"I think you just have to put the ball in your best players' hands and live with it, honestly," said Banchero, who scored 23 points but took just nine shots from the field. "I think that's the best way."

Banchero's low shot total partly stems from his 15 free throw attempts. Combining his physical playstyle and the increasing number of bodies in the paint, he's one of the league's best at getting to the line – his 8.4 attempts per game is fourth-most among all players.

But when he and Franz Wagner, who scored 25 points in the loss, consistently face increased attention from a wall of two and sometimes three defenders, a select few of their looks aren't difficult.

"They're going to be tasked and asked to take difficult shots at times," Mosley said Sunday. "The thing that we continue to ask is that they make the right play, the right read."

However, defenses want to deny the ball ending up in their hands as much as possible. Banchero and Wagner each finished with usage rates below 25 percent when both boast rates north of 31 percent over the season.

That means more responsibility falls on their supporting cast to help ease the pressure the Magic's star duo contends with and stretch out the defense.

"I feel like it's kind of disrespectful, especially when I'm out there, KCP (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) is out there, Tristan da Silva is out there," Howard told reporters in the postgame locker room of opponents constantly residing in the paint. "But, we've got to prove them wrong at the end of the day."

Through 68 career games in two years, Howard is making 31.8 percent of looks from three after shooting 36.8 percent in his one season at Michigan. Caldwell-Pope is a career 36.5 percent three-point marksman, but had five straight seasons of at least 38.5 percent shooting before making only 30.8 percent this year. Da Silva, a 38.6 percent shooter in four years of college with back-to-back seasons over 39 percent heading into the draft, is at 33.2 percent in his rookie year.

Each has had their fair share of struggles, yes. But the Magic wouldn't be on track to be the worst three-point shooting team in a decade and a half if the low percentages weren't spread across the entire team.

"I love it, honestly, just keep packing the paint, keep creating those open looks," Howard said. "I think [if] we keep working and shooting at a high clip, it'll fall."

"We haven't had the best shooting season, but ... we've got to take the shots when they're open," said Carter Jr. in the locker room, another player who's three-point accuracy (21.0 percent) is well below his career average. "When we defer shots, it ends up turning into a contested [three] or a midrange shot, so I think we've got to just do a better job of sticking to what's working.

"When you get the ball to the second and third side, we can get to the basket even though they're packing the paint, and then when you're open from the three-point line, just shoot it."

Yet, Orlando attempted just 21 threes versus Toronto – its fewest in a single game this year – and made only seven of them.

Trailing by 16 points with 10:14 to play, the Magic mounted a fiery push that merely ran out of time. They outscored the Raptors 28-14 and had a chance to tie with 4.7 seconds left, but Wagner missed a tying layup – one of the few clean looks the Magic found all night – that would've likely sent the contest to overtime. Instead, Orlando had its third straight loss and the fourth in five games on the homestand.

"But," Banchero began, "you can't point to that play and say that's why we lost. I think it was the whole three quarters before that."

Those three quarters help define a season that hasn't gone to plan.

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