Official Game Thread: Magic at Hawks

[lethalweapon3]

“It’s a Flat World, After All!”

 

“See you there!!” Confirming a report with a tweet, Jonathan Isaac planned to lead his team toward what he hopes, one day, will be the ultimate victory. The path, on that particular day, wasn’t terribly long.

It was a Sunday evening, two weekends ago, and Isaac’s Christian ministry convened at the popular bandshell on the shore of downtown Orlando’s signature Lake Eola. They intend to do “peaceful prayer walks” annually during the first weekends in November, carrying string lights at dusk while heading to a larger gathering space outside the town’s new performing arts center about a mile to the south.

This one, in 2021, would be the second annual “Hold Up the Lights” event. “There’s racial tension, there’s the presidency, there are so many things that are negative in society right now,” Isaac said at the same event last year, as reported by OrlandoMagic.com. “This march was providing an answer -- a Christian answer -- for the problems.”

This was a noble and inspirational effort led by the young star forward for the NBA’s Magic, then as now battling to overcome an ACL injury that began on New Year’s Day 2020 and resumed with another unfortunate tear during the NBA’s summertime Bubble. With or without the aid of crutches, Isaac likes to stand out amongst the crowd, easy enough at his 6-foot-11 stature, and have people look up at him as he advises people to look up to “Him.”

Teammates and adversaries in solidarity in the Bubble had to do essentially that, while all bowed a knee beneath small-h him during anthem proceedings in protest. That stand-alone action earned the then-healed Isaac a tsunami wave of Oakley Twitter followers on the World Narrow Web, and an extended prayer-walk gathering, in November 2020, to include new “fans” that previously didn’t care to know Jonathan, the athlete or the person, from a can of paint.

More garish poster-makers and flag-wavers eagerly joined in 2021’s prayer walk two Sundays ago, most interested in matters of open and abiding faith, some interested in pontificating on more modern, worldly matters revolving around horse paste, bleach and suction-cup “detoxes.” “He is a welcome voice in this new movement,” said the chair of the Edmund Burke Foundation, who was pleased Isaac accepted their invitation to speak at a national conservatism conference convened in O-Town, the week before the prayer walk.

Standing athwart his league’s and union’s collective policies regarding employee vaccinations during a pandemic, embracing a “You Do You” philosophy, Jonathan Isaac has emerged as a star who works in the NBA, when healthy, not as much an NBA star. Wittingly, he is the headliner face of a whole new “team,” even though the “franchise” has been around for quite a while.

That was made stark, on this particular Sunday evening. As the prayer walk featuring Isaac turned into a rally on the lawn outside the arts center, about three traffic lights to the west, his Orlando Magic teammates were in pregame shootaround, sitting at 2-8 on the season, preparing to take on the Utah Jazz. Earlier, as he prepared his remarks for the “NatCon” address in Orlando, his basketball teammates were returning home from Minnesota, preparing for the Celtics.

Now at 3-10 on the young season, the Magic enter State Farm Arena tonight, to face the Atlanta Hawks (7:30 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, BS Florida). They’re fifteen months into rehab of the re-tear in Isaac’s knee. And updates from Magic Inc. regarding the recovery progress of Isaac, as well as Markelle Fultz (ACL tear in January 2021), Michael Carter-Williams (ankle surgery in August 2021), and E’Twaun Moore (sprained knee, yet to appear this season) have been as vague as the fine print on an Amway product.

There’s no, “estimated 8 weeks out for Atlanta’s De’Andre Hunter to repair his wrist,” form of Magic-speak, nor “as early as mid-January” targets for players like the Hawks’ Onyeka Okongwu. “No timetable to return,” is about all the abracadabra juice you’re going to squeeze out of Jeff Weltman’s front office. The spirit of Speedy Claxton and Tiago Splitter lives on in Central Florida.

Isaac’s cloudy status as a rehabbing player, and his clearer status as a happily unvaxxed one, would naturally be squabbled about on a higher plane, were he in a larger sports market. But he also has the benefit of being paid by a franchise situated in a laissez-faire American state, as it pertains to top-down employer vaccination policy. Further, Jonathan has the back of the DeVos family that owns the club, proud donors to his ministry’s affairs. Unless you happen to be, say, a season-ticket holder, what’s the rush?

From a PR standpoint, haste to get the player with immense defensive tools back up to basketball speed only amplifies the kinds of shouts, supportive or otherwise, currently directed at a certain All-NBA talent in blue-state Brooklyn. Keep the Gasdsen flags flying down the street, thank you, not in and around the arena. That approach makes corporate sense. But it sure puts Jamahl Mosley in a daily pickle.

“They’re still working their way back in,” the first-year Magic head coach succinctly responded to The Athletic’s Josh Robbins, of Isaac’s and Fultz’s statuses, to the extent there are any. “They’re on their rehab protocol.” Previously an assistant during the Kyrie era in Cleveland and a defensive coordinator under Rick Carlisle in Dallas, Mosley is deftly handling a full-court press, doing the best he can to avoid delving into the growing star-spangled elephant in the media room.

That’s easier to do, provided company policy is to be as murky as possible on injury-recovery timelines and processes for seemingly everybody, and that protocol was going on long before Mosley arrived in town. It also helps when your team is living up to the old saw, “If you’re not out here winning, at least be entertaining.”

There will be games where the Magic catch decent opponents like the Knicks, and those Jazz, slipping. Second-year pro Cole Anthony (team-highs of 19.5 PPG and 5.2 APG, also 6.0 RPG) lives for the spotlight. Behind Anthony in scoring (13.0 PPG) and the team leader with 1.5 SPG, German rookie Franz Wagner is the front-runner for the Sneaky Athletic award. The 6-foot-9 forward curls into the paint off-dribble from the peak of the three-point line before dunking on unsuspecting fools like a vintage Grant Hill. “Pass auf deinen Kopf auf!”, right, Renee?

At long last becoming more than a lyric, Mo Bamba has been a shot-blocking, three-point splashing revelation (37.5 percent on 4.3 3FGAs/game, despite going 2-for-9 on Saturday vs. WAS; 2.2 BPG, 3^rd in NBA). Cam Reddish’s high school co-star, Bamba (9.5 RPG) is forming quite the bump-and-thump tandem in the paint with Wendell Carter (9.9 RPG; 22 points, 14 D-Rebs, 6 dimes in the win over UTA). Carter’s fellow Atlanta native, a now-healthy Chuma Okeke springs off the bench to approximate Isaac’s on-ball defensive prowess.

With all that going on, no one needs to pay attention to the scoreboard. No one bothers to wonder whether Gary Harris will bring any more utility to the team than his $20 million expiring deal. Nobody has to ask if Robin Lopez (DNP’d in 8 of last 9 games), a veteran free agent signing, is only around for comic relief. No one has time to fret that several Magicians, from Wagner’s fellow lotto-rookie Jalen Suggs (questionable, sprained ankle) to Franz’s brother Mo, Harris, Okeke and veteran Terrence Ross (combined 35.1 FG%), embody the wrong end of the saying, “When you’re hot, you’re hot…”

The bigger picture for the Magic: with so much fun-run on the floor, no one is being pressed to confirm whether the team is proceeding to treat its December 2020 commitments to two of its most significant acquisitions over the years, Isaac ($17.4 million guaranteed annually through 2024-25) and Fultz ($16.5 million per year, guaranteed through at least 2022-23), as sunk costs.

That’s all well and good for Weltman and GM John Hammond, the exec who gained his current job basically for prying last night’s star guest at State Farm Arena away from the Hawks as a pending draftee. Orlando’s trade-deadline fire sale, last March, was their acknowledgement that the hocus-pocus of obscuring key-player injury timelines behind guys named Vucevic, Gordon and Fournier had been wearing thin. Presto! Change-o!

Play around all you want with the Magic (minus-9.4 Net Rating, ahead only of DET’s minus-9.5), who stay in games only when their foes are shooting the rock as drastically poor as they (33.7 team FG% vs. WAS in a 104-92 on Saturday) tend to do. But if you fool with Anthony and Mosley’s charges in the final frame (plus-9.9 4^th-quarter Net, 5^th in NBA), that’s when you’re susceptible to getting got.

All three of the teams Orlando has vanquished thus far -- the Knicks at MSG, the T’Wolves at Target, the Jazz at Amway – shot below 40 percent from the field versus the Magic. The fourth-quarter scoring splits, in favor of the underdogs, were 36-24 (@ NYK, with Ross and his 22 in-quarter points taking center stage), 43-19 (@ MIN, with Cole and Franz bringing the slaw to the slaughter), and 32-15 (vs. UTA, with reserve R.J. Hampton going inn on the Jazz). Each opponent had a modest third-quarter lead. Each was left seeking out the number of the truck that hit them.

“It doesn’t look like Jalen Suggs turned his ankle too bad,” tweeted Nabil Diab of TheLando.com on Saturday night, “but I expect him to be out for at least a year.” Every long-suffering Magic fan sensed the tongue firmly implanted in Diab’s cheek.

It’s been Struggs for Jalen (35.4 eFG%, lowest among NBA’ers w/ 20+ MPG and 10+ games played; 17.0 TO ratio, 3^rd-highest), and not just because of the Gonzaga standout’s clanky shooting while being shoved into a front-and-center starting role. Any extended absence for 2021’s fifth-overall pick will make the under-explained absence of Fultz (and also MCW, and Moore) look curiouser and curiouser.

The rangy Hampton (42.4 3FG%) is likely to start if Suggs is a no-go this evening. For defensive purposes, perhaps Okeke gets his first starting nod of the season, or Harris at worst, certainly if Mosley has any hopes of impeding Atlanta’s Trae Young (last 4 games: 31.8 PPG in 32.9 minutes/game, 54.1% on threes, 88.2% on FTs), who has been nearly on a point-per-minute scoring clip.

In a departure from losses over the past several weeks, Young (42 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds vs. MIL) and John Collins had considerable help in trouncing the Bucks 120-100 last night. Although, it must be noted, the Traemates still ought to shoot better from outside (combined 7-for-22 on threes, to Young’s 8-for-13), if they intend to send Orlando’s young club home hungry. Stout team rebounding by the Hawks (season-best 63.0 Total Rebounding% vs. MIL, 4-1 when rebounding above 55.5%) will again be at a premium tonight, especially when the iron proves unkind to both teams.

Patient passing, rim-finishing, production from a somnambulant Reddish, and seal-tight defense in transition ought to be enough for Atlanta (5-9) to persevere and preserve, as per Hawks GameNotes and Elias Sports, its twelfth consecutive victory over Eastern Conference opponents at home.

Stretching over from last season, it's the longest such active streak in the NBA, the second-longest string for the Hawks since Atlanta "moved" into the Eastern Conference in the year 1970, or as they say in Orlando, 1 B.D. (Before Disneyworld). Stretching it beyond a Baker's Dozen over the next few days sounds sweet, but it won't matter if the Hawks aren't principled and focused enough to take care of business over the course of 48 minutes.

It's great to live and thrive in a nation where religious freedoms, and freedoms from religions, reign supreme. Yet as Shareef Abdur-Rahim ably demonstrated for the Hawks on an annual basis during his Ramadan fasts, it’s not unfathomable for NBA players to practice one’s faith, even in a public sphere, and simultaneously do what it takes to be available for practice with one’s team. Or, to go out and rail against the perceived ills of collectivist cultures at the same time, collecting 20-and-10 at opponent’s expenses when it’s game time.

It’s not some impossible balance. Yet the longer things drag on, the more it appears as if Isaac is just dandy leading a wholly different “team,” collecting a paycheck from the Magic while giving his all to the superseding “Patriots.” The longer things drag out, the more it appears the Magic are just fine semi-explaining away a baffling ACL injury, in lieu of fielding questions about piles of “NWT” (Not With Team) designations.

When is he coming back to help save everyone from utter despair? The Big J will be back soon, they’ll say. But only on his terms, not yours or theirs. Jonathan, that is. The small-h him, naturally. Can I get an Amen in here?

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[hawkman]

Make it 2 in a row Hawks. 

[Sothron]

LJ jersey and Converse Aero Jams will be on tonight. 

 

[REHawksFan]

Between early work schedules and being out of town this past weekend, I haven't seen any of the last few games.  Doesn't seem like I missed much except for last night.  Here's hoping I get to see a solid performance on the 2nd of a b2b.

  

[hawkman]

Cole Anthony may be a tough cover for Trae or whoever is on him tonight. He is what I thought Dennis Smith Jr was going to be when he was drafted out of NC State. 

[Spud2nique]

No Suggs sprained ankle! NOW, for the read..

[Spud2nique]

4 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

There’s no, “estimated 8 weeks out for Atlanta’s De’Andre Hunter to repair his wrist,” form of Magic-speak, nor “as early as mid-January” targets for players like the Hawks’ Onyeka Okongwu. “No timetable to return,” is about all the abracadabra juice you’re going to squeeze out of Jeff Weltman’s front office. The spirit of Speedy Claxton and Tiago Splitter lives on in Central Florida.

 

4 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

but it won't matter if the Hawks aren't principled and focused enough to take care of business over the course of 48 minutes.

Yes sir, great write up as always lw3! 
 

Go Hawks! 2 straight and we can go streaking! That was a fun gif last season! 

[Spud2nique]

Hawks -10.5 

o/u 215

[Spud2nique]

I’m gonna say the Huerter injection into the starting lineup will light a spark ️ into us and we are gonna go nutty from downtown and shooting overall.

Sad Hunter is hurt but this could be a blessing in disguise in the long run for us as a team. 
 

 

[hawkman]

Terrible turnover by Bogi right there. That's basketball 101.

[JeffS17]

Love what I'm seeing 2 minutes in, don't stop spamming these PnRs

[TheNorthCydeRises]

1 minute ago, hawkman said:

Terrible turnover by Bogi right there. That's basketball 101.

 

He's going to be on Shaqtin' a Fool on Thursday.   I don't know what he was thinking about.

[Peoriabird]

This 1st unit plays no defense

[JeffS17]

Can yall imagine if Capela had just half the finesse kevin showed on that oop-layup

[Peoriabird]

This game looks like a pre season game

[terrell]

2 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

This 1st unit plays no defense

Yeah they need to tighten up...smh

[JeffS17]

2 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

This 1st unit plays no defense

They definitely don't have the same energy they did last night.  B2b is painful but that excuse shouldn't be relevant until the 4th quarter -- hope they pick it up

[Sothron]

We play back to back tonight and play again Wednesday against the Celtics. That's another 3 games in 4 days. Who did we piss off to get such a terrible schedule?

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Cole Anthony is 3x the pro player, than he was in college.

[terrell]

No excuses tonight...Get it done..