Fournier the face of exasperation
The Orlando Magic have started the season shooting the basketball with woeful marksmanship. It’s the kind of misfiring one would never expect from an NBA team. Seven games into the young season, the 2-5 Magic already are mired in last place in field-goal shooting in the 30-team league.
They are shooting 41 percent (266 of 649) from the field, and as if that doesn’t seem bad enough, the Magic are even worse from behind the 3-point line, making only 30 percent heading into tonight’s home game against the Los Angeles Clippers. Amazingly two teams — Oklahoma City and Denver — are worse from long distance.
Orlando has taken a franchise record 43 3-pointers during each of the past two games and, of those 86 shots, have made only 21. The only thing that makes that number sound worse is the fact head coach Steve Clifford and his players feel like most of the shots they’ve been taking have been good looks at the basket.
Eventually, it seems this sort of inaccuracy would tend to wear on a person.
Point guard D.J. Augustin agreed.
“It can become mental when you know you’re supposed to make shots and you’ve hit those shots before and they’re just not going in. It can mess with you mentally,” Augustin said. “You just gotta keep working … and just know that those shots will fall eventually. … Nothing you can do about it but just do other things on the court to help the team win if your shots not falling and stay positive.”
Usually dependable shooter Evan Fournier has struggled since the first game of the preseason. The Magic swingman is a 45-percent field-goal shooter during his career and has hit 37 percent of his 3-pointers during his first six years in the NBA.
Fournier is obviously getting frustrated.
“I just gotta get my [expletive] together. I’m playing terrible for this team right now. I’m a bigminutes guy and I can’t play like that,” said Fournier, who is hitting just 37 percent of his floor shots and 28 percent from behind the arc. “We need everybody on this team, and I’m just not playing for my teammates. … I think it’s a big reason why we keep losing these games. I know if I play the way I can, we’d be winning right now.
“I wish I had the answers. … You guys know me. I’ve been here five years now. I’m just missing dumb stuff. It’s very frustrating.”
The rest of the team is also quite aware of the struggle Fournier is going through and they are looking to help boost his confidence.
“We just gotta keep being aggressive and we gotta keep looking to get him the ball and running plays for him,” said Magic forward Aaron Gordon, who has also struggled from the 3-point line, hitting just 30 percent beyond the arc. “We’re gonna need his scoring ability and we just gotta keep getting him open looks.”
For now, the Magic’s approach is to just keep firing away, especially Fournier, and Clifford is not worried about his top shooter.
“When guys like him — it’s not like he’s had one good year — and so I think at the end of the [year] his numbers will be where they were at last year or better,” Clifford said. “He’s playing well. His defense has been good. … He’s a good competitor. He’ll start making shots.”