Previewing the Toronto Raptors series with the Orlando Magic

Magic offense vs Raptors Defense

This side of the court will be much more heavily favored in Toronto’s favor. The Raptors finished the season with the fifth-ranked defensive unit. The Magic finished with a bottom third offense.

Perhaps the Raptors biggest strength defensively is their lack of a definitive weakness. A chain is only as strong as its strongest link, and 1-5, Toronto has almost nowhere to exploit. Their postseason bench rotation doesn’t provide any kinks in the armor either.

From a matchup perspective, it’s hard to find an area for the Magic to exploit. They’ll try to run through Vucevic and Fournier, although neither matchup is particularly juicy.

One of the Magic’s biggest problems on offense is their inability to score easy buckets. Orlando scores just 14-percent of their points at the free-throw line, 41-percent from the paint, and 10-percent in transition. They rank in the bottom five of the league in each of those five categories.

They score an extremely high amount from the mid-range. Every bucket they score feels earned. It’s extremely difficult to put up 100+ against elite defenses when you’re not able to score easy points.

Yet, during the regular season, the Magic were more effective against the Raptors than you would think.

In their four matchups earlier in the year, Orlando posted an offensive rating of 108.3. That’s not good. But it is better than the Magic’s season-long offensive rating and the Raptors season-long defensive rating. Is that anything to be concerned about?

Not really. There is nothing from a matchup perspective Orlando should be able to exploit. As with much of the Raptors regular season, many of the games came down to effort and intensity level. During the 82-game grind, Orlando held a clear advantage in that area.

There is one matchup where Orlando should be able to hold their own. One matchup they’ll look to attack, at least early on.