Magic Morphing Into Comeback Kids
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March 7, 2009
ORLANDO -- As NBA teams gear up for their potential playoff runs, each coach is attempting to answer certain questions about their team.
The topics usually range from “how effective is our transition defense?” to “can our team come from behind?”
When it comes to the latter, Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy has been made well aware of the answer; absolutely.
For the third straight contest the Magic faced a fourth-quarter deficit and for the third consecutive time they did their best John Elway impersonation and engineered a late comeback drive.
After Courtney Lee provided the spark against the Sixers and Rashard Lewis generated a surge against the Suns, Hedo Turkoglu stepped up on Friday and provided a push to cut down the Nets, 105-102, at Amway Arena.
Turkoglu erupted for eight straight of Orlando’s points in the final frame, after being limited to just five over the first three quarters.
“Turk came out in the fourth quarter, he and Rashard, we just kept playing, playing strong,” said All-Star center Dwight Howard, who notched 26 points and 15 rebounds. “We need that from everybody every night. When you’re down like that, you’ve got to finish strong.”
Over the first two quarters, Orlando seemingly had no answer for New Jersey point guard Devin Harris as he lit it up for 20 first-half points.
But once again, the Magic picked up their defensive prowess in the second half and held the Nets’ All-Star guard to a dismal 1-of-6 shooting and five points over the final two frames.
The Magic have been beyond dominant in the fourth quarter of late as they’ve outscored their opponents a combined 91-54 over the last three games.
“We defended,” said Magic guard Rafer Alston, who was responsible for guarding Harris during stretches of the night. “We allowed them to get whatever they wanted throughout the game but when it counted, we were able to get into a defensive mindset to win the game.”
This string of come-from-behind charges has also built Orlando’s confidence and made it aware that it’s never out of a ballgame. That knowledge may be an aid for the Magic once the playoffs arrive.
“It’s going to most definitely help,” said Lewis, who poured in 21 points against the Nets. “Regardless if we are losing, regardless of how much time is left on the clock, we’re going to keep fighting. We did that tonight; got back into the game, took the lead and won the game.”
Yet even though he’s extremely pleased with his team’s fourth-quarter effort over the past three matchups, Van Gundy would rather see his team play with that type of intensity throughout an entire contest.
“It’s great to know you can do that, the problem is I don’t think we play with enough sense of urgency,” Van Gundy pointed out at his press conference. “We were for a long time a team that got off to very good starts and we haven’t done that in a long, long time.”
With big battles against Boston and Detroit looming, his veteran point guard agrees.
“We haven’t really done that in a while,” Anthony Johnson said. “It’s been a couple of months since we’ve put together a full 48 minute game where we’ve had the defensive focus of a championship team. We have to take it one possession at a time and try to get back that focus.”
One thing is for certain. If the Magic can find a way to stretch their fourth-quarter effort over an entire game, they’ll certainly be a threat to make a championship run this postseason.
