Magic still searching for defensive consistency

As this year’s Orlando Magic squad tries to find its identity — and along with that, find consistency — coach Steve Clifford knows he must remain patient.

Trying to forge some sort of norm for any team can be trying for the head coach, but even more so with a young team.

The Magic are certainly young.

Only four players are age 28 or older — Timofey Mozgov (32), D.J. Augustin (30), Jonathon Simmons (29) and Nikola Vucevic (28). Many of the players the Magic are counting on have limited NBA experience.

So not only is Clifford testing out his new group to find out how they respond to him as their firstyear coach, he is also testing out his own patience.

The team has coped with consistency issues during the first six games, of which the Magic have won just two.

“I think, first of all, it takes, every year, even when you have the same team back, [time] for a group to find their … spirit, their togetherness,” Clifford said. “That’s definitely where we’re at. The big thing the other night is it’s frustrating because we’re making mistakes on things that we have done before.

“We’ve gotta be more consistent with those things because I’m gonna be very disappointed if we don’t end up being a very good defensive team.”

Consistency has been the key. The Magic lack it and it’s up to Clifford to help his players find a way to play with the same kind of purpose every night. It’s not easy, Clifford knows, but he also knows

it’s the NBA, these players are in the position they are in because of their talent level and expectations just come with the territory.

The emphasis has been placed on defense because that’s exactly what this team has to do to be able to compete. They’re not going to do it offensively and the sooner the players realize that, the better. Given the Magic’s offensive woes, the defensive end is where they will need to pick up the slack.

Often, and it’s not just the with Magic, offensive woes will correlate directly to poor defense, which Clifford saw during a 22-point loss at Milwaukee on Saturday night.

The Magic made just 10 of 43 3-point shots, which can make a player hang his head a bit when he’s transitioning back down the floor to play defense. Orlando is last in the 30-team NBA in points per game (100.8), 29th in field-goal percentage (41.2) and 27th in 3-point percentage (31.6). With offensive numbers like that, a team has to play well defensively or it doesn’t have a chance.

“It happens leaguewide, whether there’s frustration when you miss or whatever, so many nights in this league you’ll see games where the lack of shot-making or the lack of creating good offense impacts the other end of the floor,” Clifford said.

“To have the right defensive mentality, which isn’t easy, you’re going to defend every possession every night regardless of what the score is.”

Clifford remains confident in his bunch, knowing there are still 76 games remaining on the schedule. It will get old quick, however, if he can’t get the players to translate what is being told to them in practices and in film sessions to game situations.

The next test comes Tuesday at Amway Center, with the Sacramento Kings coming to town. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. and the game will air on Fox Sports Florida.

“They run after makes. … They’re playing really fast, they can score, they’re athletic, they have good versatility,” Clifford said of the Kings. “They have a number of guys that are capable of really big nights.”