Defense... Should we be worried?
Written by The Big Train   
Monday, 02 November 2009 13:21

The Magic are off to an impressive 3-0 start, especially considering they have yet to start their full lineup. In fact, yesterday's win in Toronto was without 3 of their starting 5. The team is having no problem scoring points so far, putting up 120, 85, and 125 in their three games. But what about their defense?

Aside from the die-hard Magic fan no one, especially ESPN, understood how good Orlando was on the defensive end of the court last year. I'm pretty sure Stan Van Gundy loses hours of sleep nightly worried about defending the pick and roll and matching up against Wade, LeBron, and Kobe. After all, a good defense leads to open looks at the other end of the floor. That said, how is this year's D doing compared to last year?

Last year Orlando gave up the 94.4 points a game, good enough for 6th in the NBA. Their opponents shot 43.27% from the floor, good enough for 3rd in the NBA. Next, opponents shot only 34% from 3 point land, which was 2nd best in the league. They were also great at locking down the opposing team, earning the league's best assist per game line. To show you how good Dwight was, the team was 6th in most blocks per game and lead the league in rebounds per game.

Now, there you have a snapshot of last year's numbers. Let's see how that stacks up to the first 3 games of 09-10. Now I understand that 3 games is an extremely small sample size, but it is what it is.

Stat 2008-2009 2009-2010
Opponents PPG 94.4 102.3 (15)
Opp FG% 43.27 47.21 (17)
Opp 3P% 34 44 (25)
Opp APG 18.1 17.5 (5)
Opp BPG 5.4 5.3 (14)
Rebounds 33.3 30.3 (17)

Again, it's early, but there might be a few things to be a bit concerned about, as I am sure SVG is.

However, you can't ignore how the first 3 games actually went. Check it out:

Orlando was up on Philadelphia 100-69 after 3 quarters. The 76ers scored 37 points in the 4th quarter... When the game was already over. Dwight didn't even play. That quarter represents 1/12 of the sample size. That's rather significant.

In summary, this is probably much to do about nothing, and the team will probably perform better on the defensive end of the court when they get settled and everyone is healthy and no longer suspended. However, if you want to gage how good this team really is, aside from the record, you have to look on this end of the floor.

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We are Terry and The Pump Fakes, Jareth Cutestory, Vile Feminista, Maxwell Effort, I 3 Freely, Paul Ego, Supply and Demand, El Fantasma de Carlos, The Big Train, The Nickel Steak, Ayo!, and Tyson J. Perfect. Together, we are Magic fans. We remember Nick’s steal against Jordan, Billy Donovan, Scott Skiles, Jerryl Sasser and Reece Gaines, The Mac Attacks, the NBA on NBC, and Grant Hill’s ankle. We also watch TV and read the internet, thus noticing the endless flow of unoriginal Orlando Magic related puns. We have combined to discuss the Magic, the NBA, and from time to time supply side economics and the life of Leonardo da Vinci. Together we are The Puns Are Starting to Bore Me.

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