TORONTO – Before beginning practice Monday morning, Orlando Magic head coach Steve Clifford walked into Scotiabank Arena accompanied by a confident group of players who were still basking in their surprise Game 1 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
Holding court with the assembled group of media as his team joyfully started putting up shots and cracked jokes with one another, Clifford was asked about any adjustments between Game 1 and Game 2.
His response: “People love to talk about adjustments and the biggest adjustment in most playoff series is some guy who goes 2-for-8 goes 5-for-8. And it is, it’s true. I’ve been in a ton of these and you want to try to do things better as far as both ends of the floor, but at the end of the day a lot of it gets vastly overplayed.”
As it turns out, Raptors coach Nick Nurse made that exact adjustment with star forward Kawhi Leonard.
Leonard turned a good 25-point, 10-for-18-from-the-field effort from Game 1 into an astronomical performance which saw him erupt for 37 points on 15-of-22 shooting in a lopsided 111-82 Raptors victory Tuesday night to even their first-round playoff series with Orlando.
With the series shifting to Orlando and the Magic with the all-important home-court advantage, it’s Clifford’s turn to find an adjustment and it starts with Nikola Vucevic.
After enjoying a career season that saw him average 20.8 points and 12.0 rebounds on 51.8 per cent shooting – including a 20.0-point, 15.5-rebound, 55-per-cent-shooting line in four games against Toronto – the Magic’s all-star and best player has been missing in action after two post-season contests in Toronto.
In the two games he’s played in this series, Vucevic is averaging only 8.5 points and 7.0 rebounds, while shooting a dreadful 6-for-21 from the field.
Those numbers paint a dismal picture, but most concerning for the Magic is the number of attempts Vucevic has had in this series. Twenty-one total shots from the field isn’t a lot for a star player – particularly one who averaged close to 17 field-goal attempts per game in the regular season. This is probably the biggest reason why he hasn’t been able to get going offensively, and it’s because of how the Raptors have been defending him thus far.
Vucevic was always going to be a major focus for Nurse and his staff coming into the series. They’ve appeared to have found the solution by sending double-teams his way and forcing the ball out of his hands, a strategy that’s worked to devastating success in Game 2 in particular.
If you’re the Magic, how do you get your best player going? Clifford believes a lot will depend on Vucevic finding the solution himself.
“My experience in series is like this: The best players – and I believe he’s been our best player all year, he’s a very, very good player – there’s just certain things they figure out as the series goes on and sometimes there’s things you can help them with and sometimes they have to figure it out,” Clifford said. “He’s a bright guy, he’s a very good player and I think he’ll figure this out.”
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Chief among the things Vucavic will need to figure out is how to score against Marc Gasol.
The Raptors centre has been Vucavic’s shadow in this series, suffocating the Magic big man to the tune of 3-for-13 shooting in 56 defensive possessions over the two games.
“A lot of that starts with Marc’s physicality and his IQ,” Nurse said of the job Gasol has done on Vucevic. “Just think he played him real physical, played him real smart, didn’t give him anything real easy. He did a great job on him.”
Added Gasol himself on what he’s been able to do against Vucevic: “It’s the playoff matchups. Studying their sets, studying his game, understanding how they’re trying to get him the ball. We do a really good job on pick-and-rolls, sometimes switching and helping me when he pops. It’s a good game plan.”
It’s a game plan Clifford and Vucevic will have to crack by Friday in the Magic Kingdom, lest all the good work and vibes from Game 1 goes to waste.
“A coach’s responsibility is to put guys in position where they can play best,” Clifford said. “But also, players have to figure some things out on their own.”
