Players ready to turn focus toward Heat; Magic Report,
After having Monday off, the Orlando Magic plan to turn their full attention today to preparing for their regular-season opener against the Miami Heat on Wednesday night.
The Magic faced the Heat once during the preseason and lost 107-77.
Because it was the preseason, the Magic didn’t spend much time gameplanning for the Heat that night, just as the Heat didn’t do much game-planning for the Magic.
Miami administered its 30-point beatdown even though Heat center Hassan Whiteside missed the game because of the death of his great-grandmother.
“He’s a terrific, terrific player,” Magic coach
Frank Vogel said. “He hurts you in the post. He hurts you in the roll game. He can shoot the midrange shot. And he’s obviously the best shot-blocker in the league. So he changes things on that end as well. They’ve got a great team. It’s not just a oneman show.”
Most prognosticators probably would disagree with Vogel’s overall assessment of the Heat, who lost
Dwyane Wade and Luol Deng in free agency and won’t have Chris Bosh because of Bosh’s blood clots.
But Vogel is correct that the Heat didn’t need Whiteside to inflict some pain on the Magic. Orlando had trouble slowing guards Goran Dragic, Dion Waiters, Tyler Johnson and Wayne Ellington.
“Dragic gave us a really hard time the other night,” Vogel said. “Their wings did [also]. I’ve got great respect for [that] team.”
Fournier’s focus
Magic swingman Evan Fournier spent much of his offseason attempting to improve his mid-range game, and he’s shown he has more confidence in that area.
Fournier attempted 2.5 mid-range shots per game in Magic exhibitions after he attempted 1.6 mid-range shots per game last regular season, according to the NBA’s statistics database.
“I don’t take that many [mid-range] shots usually, but I’m trying to take one or two because I really worked on it this summer,” Fournier said. “I thought it was pretty good, so I was really happy about that. So we’ll see during the season what the defense gives me. But I really think the midrange is going to be there. That’s a shot that usually defenses try to give up or at least let you take.”
Vogel is pleased with what he’s seen.
“It’s going well,” Vogel said. “A lot of the bigs in this league will drop back all the way to the paint in the pick-and-roll game. So that mid-range game is important, and he’s really good at it.”
Big day
Magic center Nikola Vucevic turned 26 years old on Monday. Josh Robbins