Orlando, FL – The Magic came into Indiana tonight with the loss to the Bucks fresh on their minds and wanting to get back into their winning ways after going on a skid for a few games. They were able to bully their way into a 117-110 win over the Pacers.
Orlando and Indiana began this game fighting back and forth, making it look like the game was going to be a battle for the whole 48 minutes. The two teams had seemingly distinct game plans, with the Magic looking to go downhill and draw contact or go up strong and the Pacers preferring to stay back and look for jump shots instead. Orlando’s plan was executed well by the players as they went straight for the rim the Pacers were forced to foul often, resulting in nine first-quarter fouls for Indiana, and the player who saw the most benefit from this was Paolo Banchero who was able to go 6-7 from the stripe, giving him half of his points in the period. The Magic pulled away from Indiana in the last couple of minutes in the quarter and gave themselves a comfortable nine-point lead heading into the second.
The Pacers didn’t shy away from their shooting despite the late run they allowed from Orlando in the previous quarter, and they ended up converting 7-13 from three-point range. The Magic also didn’t change their approach and continued to send bodies at the Indiana defense, which allowed them to go 10-12 from the free-throw line this quarter alone and draw another nine fouls from the home side. Orlando’s defense did a great job of neutralizing Indiana’s electric offense this half by cutting out all of Tyrese Haliburton’s usual options to pass to and forcing him to make a move on his own, resulting in a lot of moments where he was led directly into the help defense and getting off a bad shot. The score sat at 73-59 going into halftime and it looked like a certain Magic win up until this point in the game.
After Indiana had a chance to change things around, they came into the third quarter looking to dig into Orlando’s lead and they were able to do just that. Haliburton, Turner, and Hield did all the damage this quarter scoring-wise. Haliburton controlled the offense and got his shots, whereas Hield was a sharpshooter and Turner caused havoc on the block. This happened because Orlando played sloppy defensively and left the paint open one too many times. Turner abused his one one-on-one matchups, regardless of who it was, so the Magic adjusted by sending extra bodies down low and allowing Hield to get free on multiple occasions for a three-pointer. The rotations defensively weren’t the same ones seen in the first half because the Magic took a different approach to protect the paint better instead of running Indiana off the three-point line. They decided to opt out of a switch-everything defense that they commonly used and instead went for going under on screens to tag the paint, which the Pacers were able to exploit. Offensively, the Magic weren’t drawing fouls at the same rate as the first half either, and the players, namely Banchero, struggled to keep their offensive game up, leading to the game being within just one point at the quarter’s end.
In the final quarter of action, the Magic went back to their bread and butter. They were able to get the Pacers to bite on their actions down low like they’ve been doing the whole game and forced another seven fouls out of them, which led to 10 shots from the free throw line this quarter, seven of which went in. Orlando’s defense also tightened up big time as the Pacers couldn’t get many great looks from three and they struggled to generate good looks in the paint, often opting for mid-range shots instead. Orlando’s big men trio this quarter was Jonathan Isaac, Mo Wagner, and Goga Bitadze. They did their job of sealing off the paint and forcing the Pacers to change their direction, which gave the perimeter defenders time to get into their defensive structure, which is what caused the switch of night and day from the third quarter to the fourth. Coach Mosley made some great adjustments in between periods which translated to a win on the court.
The Magic will wrap up this triad of road games against the Wizards after a Christmas break to try to ignite a winning streak and beat Washington at home after beating them earlier this season in Orlando
