What to watch for in Raptors-Magic matchup

Amit Mann is joined by Luke Sylvia of The Sixth Man Show podcast to discuss the keys for Toronto and Orlando ahead of their Tuesday night tilt. Watch the full episode on our Yahoo Sports Canada YouTube channel or listen on the 'Raptors Over Everything' podcast feed.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: They were, you know, a few games. They were pursuing, you know, a lot of post-ups. Pascal Siakam doing his thing, mismatch hunting. And then this last game against the Pistons, like, the ball was humming again, and we're seeing cutting. We're seeing more of those, like, get actions using their bigs and then just having, like, off-ball cutters moving off of them. It's been pleasant, you know, good to see that, but it's always easier to do that against a really bad team. Orlando is going to be harder.

And I think the Raptors are slightly-- maybe slightly bigger with their starting lineup, but it's not by much at all. So yeah, I'm curious how this game goes. What are the keys to you for a Magic victory, all things considered?

LUKE SYLVIA: Yeah, so honestly I think back to our the last match-up, a player we haven't talked about yet, Jakob Poeltl.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

LUKE SYLVIA: In the last match-up against the Magic back in last February, I mean, he had five offensive rebounds. You've got to keep him off the glass. He had 30 and 9 in that game.

I feel OK with Goga out there just being a big body and presenting. The issue with Goga is that he does have a fouling problem when he is trying to defend. So I am-- that's the first thing as far as that goes. Jakob Poeltl, how do you contain him down low? How do you get him off the glass?

And then it goes back to the tale of two halves, as cliche as that is.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

LUKE SYLVIA: Can the Magic put it together? Now, thankfully against the Pacers-- listen, against Chicago, you hold them to 33 points in each of the first halves when you play them. You hold them to 33.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

LUKE SYLVIA: Now second half, both games come down to the final minute, final seconds. So it's like there wasn't enough of a lead, apparently. But against the Pacers, you have an insurmountable lead, really, and that's how-- you know, in the third quarter, you don't even win the third quarter.

Now the fourth quarters are hard to gauge because none of the actual players really played. It was really just third-unit guys along with Anthony Black thrown in there. But that's going to be another key as well. How do the Magic just not beat themselves in that second half--

AMIT MANN: Yeah

LUKE SYLVIA: --if they do have what feels like an inevitable first half? The Magic have led, I believe the stat is, in every game except for one at halftime. So you've got an opportunity to win basically every game that you've played in, and you just fall apart in the second half of a lot of these games. Hopefully the Magic can figure that out and not do that.

But also defensively, as we've already talked about with both teams being great defensively, I just wonder which one gets away from their identity first. Which one-- which one is going to control the pace? Something Jamahl Mosley said before that Pacer game was you've got the best offense against the best defense in the league right now. Who is going to set the pace? And the Magic did that right out of the gate, thankfully, having that lead be so large at halftime that it didn't matter what happened in the second half.

But yeah, those are kind of my three main things there that the Magic need to do in order to give themselves a chance to win this one.

AMIT MANN: Sure. I'm looking at the Raptors and their offensive toughness. Like, are they able to execute and continue to execute? Are they going to keep on pursuing good shots when the defense is what Orlando's is? Again, it's easier against the Pistons, and we've seen this team revert back to their bad habits, and also they've been a bit turnover prone. Guess what? You're facing a team that forces a lot of turnovers. So it's a bad mix, and I'm looking at some of those hand-offs, some of the pick-and-rolls between Dennis Schroder and Jakob Poeltl, who-- I mean, it's getting better and better, and Dennis has talked about, you know, he needs to make sure he's also aggressive getting to the rim. It's not just about making the pass or making the kick-out pass either. It's about he has to get to the rim too because sometimes that is the best thing for the offense. Is he going to keep on doing that? Is he going to make those right reads?

Scottie Barnes with the second unit-- the second unit has been a huge problem for the Raptors for I don't know how long-- a century, whatever, since they won a championship. After that, it's been a huge problem, and it continues to be a bit of a. problem. But Scottie Barnes with how he's playing, he's kind of taken the reins with that unit, and a few players are actually, you know, getting better and better as we go.

So are they going to be a net negative in those minutes? Usually it's like Scottie plus four bench players. They do that for a little while. How is that going to go?

The starting lineup is usually pretty good. OG Anunoby is back. He cut his finger somehow, some way at home, but he played last game, and he shot one of six from 3. He mentioned that it's on his shooting hand too, and he was like it was a bit sore when he was shooting. So that's something else to keep in mind that if he's not shooting the way that they need him to, things go really bad for the Raptors when they're not able to have those like quality spacers in both corners.

And I don't think Otto Porter, Jr. is playing either. He started a little bit, and he's just a great shooter.

So if the Raptors aren't able to, you know, continue getting that ball movement, find the spacing that they need, where are they going to go? Is it going to be Pascal Siakam post-ups? Is it going to be, you know, them making cross matches happen against some of those smaller guards on Orlando? I could see that happening as well. But again, they need to play a complete game-- I'll put it that way-- offensively and defensively. That's going to be important.

LUKE SYLVIA: It's funny you mentioned, obviously, you know, him cutting his finger at home or whatever. Markelle Fultz to start last season was out for the first, I don't even know, like 20, 25 games or so, and the Magic get off to a 5 and 20 start. But he gets injured. I believe it was like the day before media day or maybe before training camp. He broke his toe at home.

So these guys, I don't know what they're doing at home, man. I don't know if I believe their stories. There wasn't much of one. Markelle was like, yeah, I just broke my toe at home. I was like, all right. Well, you need to get, you know, those things they have for babies that cover the corners of everything. Don't stub your toe, Markelle. I don't need you shattering your big toe again.

AMIT MANN: I have those. I have those at home.

LUKE SYLVIA: There you go. There you go. You need to send him the link for those. But yeah, it's ridiculous to me sometimes how these players get injured going a million miles an hour on the court, and then once they're home in the confines, they get-- they get comfortable, and they get injured there. It's unbelievable.

AMIT MANN: Hey, man, focus is hard to maintain, and so probably they get home and they just let loose completely, and then boom, broken toe. That's all I've got.

LUKE SYLVIA: There you go.

AMIT MANN: All right, man, anything else? This was fun. Anything else you want to mention?

LUKE SYLVIA: I would-- I mean, I'd love to know as far as this game, even we-- I share the same sentiment as you as far as the in-season tournament. I don't really know that I'll care until we get to Vegas, if that even happens. It's looking unlikely, but we'll see. You went out--

AMIT MANN: You never know.

LUKE SYLVIA: You're not mathematically eliminated yet, but just for this game being whatever it is, right-- game 13 for the Magic, whatever is for the Raptors-- or 14 I would think. Yeah, 14. What do-- what are your thoughts as far as the game tomorrow in terms of how it turns out? I'm interested to hear.

AMIT MANN: Like how the game's going to go?

LUKE SYLVIA: Like as far as result, yeah.

AMIT MANN: Hmm. That's a great question. I think it's going to be a defensive battle. I don't see either team really popping off, necessarily, offensively. If the Raptors do, it's because they have a few players off the bench that continue to play well. They're building off last game.

Precious Achiuwa has had a few games in a row that he's performed very well. He actually had a catch-and-shoot 3 in transition. Scottie just [INAUDIBLE] a little handoff, and he hit it yesterday. I was like, oh. This is the player that I remember from a few seasons ago. So if he's able to continue doing stuff like that-- a lot of this is about the second unit, and are they going to be able to be a positive-- a positive space for the Raptors? And if they're not, then it puts more pressure on the starters.

And yeah, the variance is around their shooting. And Dennis Schroder, he's shown that he can make some mid-range shots in the pick and roll. I'm actually curious how they decide to approach the defense of the Magic. Where are they going to find their advantages? What's their pressure point? Because I'm actually not sure how they're going to do it. Sometimes, you know, teams just kind of feel it out as they go, but I don't see a weakness, necessarily, with this Magic team on defense, at least nothing, like, glaring.

So I'm actually-- I really don't know how this game goes. I could see the Raptors, you know, maybe they just kind of lose the gusto. Maybe there's a run in the second quarter by the Magic, and that could be the breaking point, and they're not able to-- you know, maybe the shots aren't going down.

But I also think that, you know, Scottie and Pascal, I think they're going to be able to have some success against the Magic too, so maybe that's where they go. I'm talking this out with you. I still don't know how it's going to go. I could-- I could see the Raptors winning. What's the-- what's the over/under right now, or what's the-- what's the line? Is it available yet?

LUKE SYLVIA: Spread-- the Magic are, I think, a 2 and 1/2 point favorite. Now, that's only--

AMIT MANN: Now it's 1.5. Now it's 1.5.

LUKE SYLVIA: Now it's 1.5? Yeah. So according to ESPN Bet, yeah, now it's down to 1.5. Yeah. So we'll see how this goes, man. I don't know how it goes, and I just don't know with this team. Logic tells me it'll be much of the same in terms of great first half, not great second half, but maybe they figured something out. Maybe something clicked in the Indiana game, and they'll be-- and they'll be all right from that side of the ball. It's going to be interesting.

You've got-- hopefully-- thankfully it's an in-season tournament game for them. Hopefully they care because I could see it being like a lookahead. You've got Denver on Tues-- or Wednesday on the back to back at home, and then you've got Boston for the in-season tournament game on Friday. So with a team that's won three straight, I feel like it could be easy to maybe get complacent, but hopefully everything going on with tomorrow night can keep them in check and they're focused, so we'll see.

But I honestly have no idea. I was curious what you thought. You know, these NBA games are so often a coin flip, but we'll see what it comes down to tomorrow night. It should be a lot of fun.

AMIT MANN: One more Spider-Man meme. We don't know how tomorrow's going to go because we don't know our teams well enough yet because they're so inconsistent. All right, man.

LUKE SYLVIA: Yep, absolutely.

AMIT MANN: Luke Sylvia, "The Sixth Man Show" podcast covering the Magic. You guys have won three in a row. Will it be four? Hmm. We'll find out. Thanks, man.

LUKE SYLVIA: All right, thank you.