Van Gundy seeks improvement

[CameronCrazy06]

ORLANDO - The Orlando Magic started the season with a dazzling 16-4 record, stoking expectations this team might have the kind of special mix of talent and chemistry that would help it contend for a championship.

However, a disappointing and uneven 8-13 stretch followed, tempering many of those hopes and leaving many to wonder which direction the Magic are truly headed.

So with 41 games down and 41 games to go, this is the burning question surrounding the Magic: Are they closer to the cohesive group that won so often and impressively early in the season, or will they revert back to being the one that has played so passively much of the past five weeks?

Heck, even they are wondering that very same thing.

"I really think if someone had said we could be 24-17 at the halfway point with the schedule that we've had to play, we'd have said, 'No way,' " Magic general manager Otis Smith said Friday. "But really, I'm disappointed now that we're not better than that, because we're capable of playing so much better than we have. We can be a lot better than we have been. It's up to us now to prove that we can be better."

Leaders of the Southeast Division and owners of an NBA-best 16 road victories, the Magic open the second half of the NBA's marathon season tonight at home against the surging Portland Trail Blazers.

Orlando closed the first half Wednesday night on a sour note, blowing a 19-point lead in Charlotte and losing to the Bobcats.

Recouping their supremacy at home, where they will play 25 times the rest of the way, will be key. Having gotten both of their West Coast trips out of the way already, the Magic will spend most of March and April playing at Amway Arena. But while they have been road warriors so far, winning in Golden State, Los Angeles (twice), New Orleans, Houston, Cleveland and Toronto, the Magic are just 8-8 at home.

Spotty defense has been the Magic's major problem of late. When their offense was clicking on all cylinders early in the season, it covered up Orlando's weaknesses inside and inability to stop foes off the dribble. After the first 20 games of the season, Orlando ranked second in the league in defensive field-goal percentage (42.7 percent) and 12th in points allowed (97.6). They have slipped dramatically in those two areas over the past 21 games, dropping to 10th in field-goal percentage allowed (44.7) and 20th in points per game (100.7).

"I think we're a contender. We have a great group, but we just need to play hard every night," Magic franchise center Dwight Howard said. "We have to be more physical and bring the intensity for 48 minutes. And defense, that's the biggest thing, because we can score.

"I'm always going to say we are trying to win a championship. I'm not going to stop saying it."

The grueling early schedule has taken a toll on more than just the Magic's record of late. Howard and Hedo Turkoglu, clearly Orlando's best two players this season, have looked like tired players of late, and their impacts have fallen off dramatically.

Through 14 games of the season, Howard's scoring average was at 23.9 points per game -- the highest its ever been at any point of his four-year NBA career. But teams soon adjusted their defense on the 6-foot-11, 268-pound man-child, sending more double teams his way when he got the ball in the post and fouling him when he breaks free for would-be dunks.

Turkoglu was a big surprise early for the Magic, becoming their best player in the clutch. Turkoglu's all-around game and fourth-quarter scoring seemingly had him in line for an all-star berth. But he could have played himself out of that opportunity of late by hitting just 16-of-54 shots (29.6 percent) in the past four games. And in his past five, he's made just three of 20 shots from 3-point range, and has shown a reluctance to drive the basketball.

Howard and Turkoglu's falloff have helped Rashard Lewis, Orlando's $118 million free-agent catch, come out of his shell somewhat of late. Too often early in the season, Lewis was willing to defer to Howard and Turkoglu, and was used predominantly to spread the floor. He still leads the NBA in 3-pointers made (111) and attempted (284), but he's started finding other ways to make an impact. Magic coach Stan Van Gundy is calling more post-up and isolation plays for Lewis. He responded recently with five straight 20-point scoring nights.

Lewis is bluntly honest when it comes to the Magic's decline over the past 21 games. Like Howard, he thinks the Magic have what it takes to contend for the Eastern Conference crown. But changes need to be made in the way Orlando approaches games and its defensive effort, Lewis said.

"We're not there right now, not playing the way we were playing," said Lewis, who is averaging 18.7 points per game. "We're a mediocre team. But there are things that can be corrected. Early in the season, we were one of the best teams in the league. If we can get some (defensive) things corrected, we can get back to where we were. We can get right back with those top teams."

The Magic are two games better than they were at this point last season. Like this season's 16-4 start, Orlando started strong last season, but faded to a disappointing 40-42 finish. The Magic were summarily swept out of the playoffs by the Detroit Pistons.

Van Gundy reminded them almost daily of last season's poor finish, saying "good start, fall apart," when things started going south this season. The Magic players claim to have learned from the past, and have set a goal of working to get home-court advantage in the playoffs.

"I don't think anybody around here is riding on a high horse thinking we're a great team yet," said Magic guard Keyon Dooling, Orlando's best reserve this season. "We've got to find a balance between the way we played when we were 16-4 and how we've struggled of late. We didn't know we'd have that much success early on, but we all know now is the time to make a push. Getting the right seed in the playoffs could make all the difference. We learned that last year."

The hard-driving Van Gundy said the fast start not only showed this team's potential, but also made the group hungry for more. The struggles of late can be solved, he said, with better defense and better effort. He feels as the schedule turns back to the Magic's favor, they will more closely resemble the team that started the season 16-4.

"The last 21 games it's been a real struggle," he said. "We need to get back to playing better basketball. We're probably legitimately somewhere in between those two swings (fast start, poor last 21 games). To win 80 percent like we were early, you're talking 65 wins, and that wasn't realistic. But hopefully we're better than the 8-13 team, and I really think that we are."