Players tip their hands
To Clifford, shootarounds indicate whether team will be ready to play
INDIANAPOLIS — Orlando Magic coach Steve Clifford uses pregame shootaround sessions to gauge the level of his team's readiness on game day.
His assessment on Saturday? “They were good this morning,” he said.
Clifford said he has found that shootarounds are the perfect way to get players in the right frame of mind and then go over a game plan another time. The repetition a shootaround provides is helpful.
“I think you have an idea,” Clifford said when asked if he knows how his team will perform after a shootaround session. “To me, and our guys know this, I think we're like most teams. You're going to play the game you're prepared to play. That's just the way it is.
“But I mean, our best games, and I think they would all agree with it, our best games you can tell in the morning we're going to be ready. And that's been for me, my experiences, that's most teams.”
It's one reason why Clifford utilizes shootaround sessions.
“Everybody has different feelings on this, but again my experiences are is it gets them thinking about the game,” he said. “These [shootarounds] are not taxing. We do a little offense, there's no contact, but you're getting ready for both sides of the ball — how we're going to be defended and then how we're going to defend.”
Yet Clifford experienced a first on Saturday morning. A yoga session at Bankers Life Fieldhouse kept his team from getting in its shootaround session on the main arena floor.
“This would be the first time,” said with a grin.
Vucevic moves up
he
Magic center Nikola Vucevic became the fifth all-time leading scorer in franchise history during Saturday's game against the Indiana Pacers.
When Vucevic scored over Pacers center Myles Turner for a layup at the 6:57 mark of the first quarter, the basket gave him 8,021 career points in a Magic uniform and moved him past Shaquille O'Neal (8,019).
“It's a big accomplishment to be along [with] all of those big names on these all-time lists, great players who've played for the Magic,” Vucevic said after Friday's practice at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. “To just have my name alongside them is a huge honor.”
Vucevic also could become just the third player in team history to average at least 20 points and at least 12 rebounds a game during a season. O'Neal others.
Vucevic currently is averaging 20.7 points and 12.1 rebounds. He has led the Magic in scoring 34 times and in rebounding 62 times. He has reached double-figure scoring 73 times and scored at least 20 points 43 times and at least 30 points five times.
“He's having a terrific year,” Clifford said. “He's really delivered for our team here in this [recent] stretch [of winning]. And it's not just the scoring and the rebounding. It's his defense that's been very good, and that's been overlooked a little bit, too.”
Clifford said Vucevic's intelligence and technique help him thrive on the defensive end. While he may not be the shot-blocking presence some teams have, Vucevic understands the Magic's defensive coverages well and makes the right play.
“Smart. Smart. He's got good technique. I think [assistant coach] Mike Batiste deserves a lot of credit for that,” Clifford said. “Whatever the coverages are, he's very disciplined with it and he rebounds, which is a big part of defense. and Dwight Howard
Bamba steps up
are the
Magic rookie center Mohamed Bamba is progressing in his recovery from a stress fracture to his left tibia that has kept him out of the lineup since early February.
“A lot of lifting, a lot of low-bar upper body, [and] on the court I'm starting to get back out there a little bit, shooting a lot more. coming together,” he said.
Bamba got in some light shooting drills with assistants Batiste and Bruce Kreutzer during Friday's practice at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Bamba did not jump while he shot.
He said the leg feels “pretty good” and he is not experiencing soreness in the area of the injury.
“No, not really. Probably just the muscles around it [are sore] because I haven't activated it in a while, but I feel pretty good,” he said.
After his injury, Bamba began work in the weight room as part of a program to add overall strength to his 20-year-old frame. As his leg has improved, Bamba has added various lower-body lifting components such as lunges and Romanian dead lifts.
“I'm pretty much cleared to do most things lifting,” he said, “just to sort of regain muscle and add on muscle.”
While Bamba is making progress and says the leg is responding well, the Magic aren't rushing their rookie back.
“No timetable, really, just kind of letting it heal as it goes,” he said. “We don't want to rush anything.”
But Bamba said he is on schedule. “Oh yeah, definitely on track,” he said. “What's most important is just letting it heal.”
For now, Bamba will continue to work to strengthen his leg, watch from the sideline and soak up as much basketball knowledge as he can.
And cheer on his teammates. It's slowly