After a brutal loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night, Orlando Magic guard Anthony Black knows what his team has to do in order to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Coming off a 124-97 blowout loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday, the Orlando Magic will host the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday with hopes of getting back in the win column.
The Magic will enter the night with Jalen Suggs expected to play after missing the team’s last eight games due to a Grade 1 right MCL contusion. Meanwhile, forward Franz Wagner will miss his second-straight game with soreness in his left ankle, the same one he suffered a high sprain in during a game against the New York Knicks in early December that caused him to miss 16-straight contests.
While the unavailability of two of its top players certainly played a part in Thursday’s lopsided loss to the Hornets, Orlando’s undoing largely resulted from a lack of intensity and effort. Heading into Saturday’s game against the Cavaliers, Magic guard Anthony Black knows the team must address those problems.
“Just starting the game more ready, being intentional about, you know, what we're running to start the game,” he said after shoot around. “Our offense, and then just being locked in on defense. They got All-Star caliber players; so, it's going to be a tough assignment, but we got a good game plan, and we're ready to go.”
Black spoke honestly about his team’s inability to get on the same page after Thursday’s loss, and he knows that proper communication is needed to execute a unified effort.
“Just communicating the things that we see out there. Just as players, you know, because we're the ones who are actually out there. It's kind of on us to come up with a plan, react to how teams are guarding us, and just continue to communicate on both ends of the floor.”
Black also realizes that when stops are not coming on defense, the offense suffers.
“Yeah, it definitely gets stagnant,” he said. “But, you know, we just try and move the ball, try and find more actions, more simple things we can do to keep body movement, ball movement. And I think we did a good job today being intentional on that. So, tonight will be the first little test on that.”
In viewing the film, Black and his teammates have not noticed anything mechanically wrong with their defense. With that being the case, exposure on their lack of intangibles becomes more apparent.
“I think our defense as a whole is just not very aggressive. I think that's probably just the most simple way of saying that we're not very aggressive. We just kind of letting dudes feel comfortable and do whatever they want. So that's not the same as the start of the year, for sure.”
The good news for the Magic is that, with the return of Suggs, some of the issues should be alleviated simply by his presence on the floor.
“A lot,” Black said about how much it will help to have Suggs back. “First team All-Defensive player; so, obviously his defense is missed when he's out. Today should be good for us. We're getting him back, so we're going to see how he does; how he feels.
And we're just happy to have him back. We know it's going to help us out tremendously.”
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