Below are comments from Orlando Magic guard Anthony Black following his team's loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday.
How offensive rebounds and turnovers hurt the group: "Hurt us a lot. Just turnovers lead to easy layups, easy threes, momentum plays, and the other team getting their rhythm. So that combined with offensive rebounds, those are two things that can cause you to lose the possession battle, and we got killed in both of those categories."
Why rebounds and turnovers have been a struggle lately: "I think probably just not boxing out. Yes, I mean, offensive rebounds is just effort and just being locked in, knowing to find certain guys who are going to get more offensive rebounds than other dudes. I think it's being locked in, boxing out, and just being tougher. You know, we gotta be tougher."
Frustration within the team lately: "I mean, it's tough. Obviously, you know, we haven't won back -to -back games since whenever. So it's frustrating for everybody, coaches, players, but we just gotta do a good job of figuring out a way to string together wins."
On what is making it hard to score in the fourth quarter: "We just not, I don't know.. Probably something we got to look at as a team, the coaching staff. It's hard to really look at. what happened right after the game. We just gotta be better, gotta be more organized, and we just gotta be more organized down the stretch. And sometimes I feel like we're playing not to lose, and you're not gonna win games playing that way, so we just gotta figure that out."
On what to do when his team is in a rut: "I don't know, be available, be ready to catch and shoot on the fourth quarter. And yeah, attacking in transition when I get it, but obviously, the ball's gonna be where the ball is down the stretch, so I just gotta do a good job getting ready to shoot."
On Paolo Banchero's playmaking ability: "Yeah, he's just such a good player, so talented that the defenses are forced to react to him. So this year, it was just challenging him to see that the next man helping and spray the ball out. And he's been doing a great job as he did the last few years. But this year, I think he's just doing a good job identifying the help; such a smart player."
"And he's doing a good job getting us open threes. I don't know how many driving kick out threes we get in general. So him, you said you got the best, the most or highest percentage, whatever, that's good. And we probably need more of it."
On Jase Richardson and Noah Penda's play lately: "Yeah, both of them did a good job staying ready. You know, we've been telling them all year that it's a long season and their number is going to get called sooner than later. Just like you said, Noah's been playing well the last couple of games. His defense, his switchability is special, just for a young player. And he's being really aggressive on offense, getting offensive rebounds, attacking closeouts, making his shots. So he's doing a really good job. Yeah, he's a positive player for us almost every time he steps on the court."
"And then with Jase, it's the same thing, just being aggressive, attacking closeouts, keeping the ball moving, just stepping into the moment, being ready to play. Just a big shout out to them for doing that as young players."