Brian Schmitz:
Fatigue plaguing Magic’s playoff push.
The Magic ambled onto the Madison Square Garden court on Friday night in New York, perhaps the most electric city in the world. They looked as if they could have used a nap.
The Magic didn’t need X’s and O’s as much as they needed some Zzzzzzzzs.
They had played the night before against Golden State in Orlando, chasing Steph Curry and the Warriors around Amway Center.
But against the hometown Knicks 241⁄ hours later, the
2 Magic resembled zombies, the walking dead. They lost the game and ground in their unlikely playoff push.
Finding energy during an 82-game marathon is tough for NBA players, who are notorious night owls. It’s still a strange sight watching young pro players at the peak of their physical powers having less get-up-andgo than senior citizens on bingo night.
The average age of the Magic’s starting lineup is just 23.6
years. That’s five guys who are closer to the age of grad students. Nik Vucevic is the old man at 25. Aaron Gordon is the baby at 20.
“If there are any teams in the league that do not have an excuse for being flat on a second game of a back-to-back, it is young teams,” coach Scott Skiles said. “We should be out there playing wild, playing free and have a ton of energy. It’s very disappointing.”
After saying his team “looked completely fatigued,” Skiles was asked about the club’s routine in handling the rigors of the NBA schedule and travel.
“We spend a lot of time and effort with our guys in getting sleep and all kinds of things. I would say we’re in the forefront in the league in helping guys recover,” Skiles said.
He then added, “I’m not sure, on a night like tonight, why it’s not working.”
This has been the kind of season where a coach starts questioning everything.
Even cutting-edge science.
Looking to gain a competitive edge somewhere, the Magic essentially employ a “Sleep Doctor” — Timothy Royer, Psy.D., founder of Neurocore, a behavioral health company. In a nutshell, it tries to help players train their brains to operate more efficiently.
Kyle Cousins, a program director for Neurocore, is sort of a son of “Sleep Doctor” or his hoops attaché.
Cousins travels with the Magic. He sat in a corner of the dressing room after the loss to the Knicks. Kyle’s role is top secret, as is most everything under the watch of GM Rob Hennigan, surely a CIA operative in another life.
I approached Kyle and he seemed like a nice enough young man. He confirmed he works with players on their sleep and breathing, but other than that, no details, no media interviews.
If Kyle’s last name sounds familiar, it should. His little brother is Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins, 27, nearly two years younger than Kyle.
Kirk Cousins swears by Neurocore, feeling it has played a part in his rise as one of the feel-good stories in the NFL.
If Kyle can’t talk about what new-age advancements Magic players are undertaking, maybe his brother can shed some light.
In a promotional video on the company’s website, Kirk Cousins calls “monitoring sleep and [stress] hormone levels” in athletes “the next frontier.” He talks about his hyper nature, which can work against a quarterback.
He says he has learned to take control of his mind, enabling him to “pull the reins back” when his brain goes into “overdrive.” The way to help monitor all that is through breathing techniques, and Kirk is shown on a field wearing a “breathing belt” that records his heart rate and provides feedback.
Hey, I don’t know if this Neurocore stuff has been a big benefit to the Magic like it apparently has for the Redskins star.
Like Skiles, I’m oldschool. All I know is if a breathing belt would help Elfrid Payton’s jump shot, it ought to be around his waist 24-7.
There’s also a part of me — and Skiles has mentioned this, too — that believes some players are mentally exhausted by all the losing during this rebuild.
The bottom line with the Magic: More talent would make everyone sleep better and breathe easier. Nobody gets tired of winning.