Coach Clifford is in regular season form

 By Wyatt Nebergall

In a 1 minute 15 second interview with no questions, coach Clifford really left nothing to question. “The other night was one thing (referring to the Boston Celtics blow out), this was incredibly disappointing to me. Just how we played, I mean soft, no purpose for a majority of the game.” The magic gave up 37 free throws against the 76ers on Sunday night in their second consecutive home loss of 126-94. Clifford went on to say “we have enough offense if we’ll play together, so we can be a good offensive team, but you can’t play like we played tonight. That’s crazy, that’s crazy, and I just told them it’s not okay. I don’t care if its exhibition season or not preseason or not, you’re not building the right habits, we didn’t have the right mentality and they had their way with us.”

With 3 key guys in Vucevic, Fournier, and Ross on the bench for this matchup this was a great opportunity for someone to step up and show they can be “that guy”. MCW, AG, and J.I. combined 0-14 from behind the arc. While the 76ers knocked down 42% from long range. As coach made pretty clear there is no excuse for this type of play and the impressive 3-0 start to preseason has fallen to 3-2 with one final preseason game against in-state rivals Miami Heat. Magic haven’t played a bad team since starting the preseason. They’ve only had one day of rest in between games. It’s possible they’re tired. The season is long and has yet to start but it seems Coach Clifford is in regular-season form. His expectations of greatness from the guys in the locker room is obvious. The mood in the locker room was somber. I am very curious to see how our team responds Thursday night against the Heat.

 Although I support coach in “no moral victories” it just wouldn’t be fun to end on that note.

 Markelle Fultz seemed to have a different pep in his step against his former team. He drove the ball into the basket extremely well and his touch around the rim was pretty. His passing is where he is really going to help this team going forward, on 2 separate instances he drove to the basket and dropped the ball off to big man Khem Birch who didn’t see the passes coming and resulted into turnovers. As he and his teammates begin to learn each other I think these Penny Hardaway style passes will find the open guy for highlight reel type of plays. Before the game, a member of the Philadelphia media remarked to coach Clifford about how happy Markelle seems to be, and how his “spirits seemed high”. Coach Clifford talked about how that’s how he’s been ever since he had been in Orlando and said he is a really “fun guy” to be around, (insert Kawhi Leonard laugh).

Al-Farouq Aminu played very efficient shooting 4/5 and knocking down both of the 3’s he took. While we talk about the continuity of the Orlando Magic I really believe as both Aminu and Fultz get acclimated with more time playing “/Magic basketball” we will see that we haven’t scratched the surface on how these guys will be contributing by the end of the season.

If you’re a betting person, don’t bet on preseason basketball lol, but if you HAVE TO don’t bet against Orlando on Thursday against the visiting Miami Heat. The message was clear, and sharp. I fully anticipate that after a few days rest we’ll see a different Magic team that can hopefully give their home fans something to scream about!

 I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions! Be sure to find me on Twitter @The_Wyatt_Alan and if you aren’t yet, follow, @thecloseupmagic where we keep the dialogue going. Follow @picknrocknroll for the latest on my podcast. Stay Stoked Magic Kingdom!

By Wyatt Nebergall