What kind of player is Serge Ibaka these days?
Is he the player whose feet seemed Krazy-Glued to the court on defense during the Orlando Magic's first and second regular-season games?
Or is he the player who left his feet to contest shots and rolled and cut to the hoop aggressively during Saturday night's loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers?
Those answers will impact _ maybe even determine _ the Magic's season. The team needs the 6-foot-10 big man to be a dynamic defender, able to switch onto smaller opponents and willing to challenge shots at the rim and on the perimeter. Offensively, the team has encouraged him to diversify his offensive game; coach Frank Vogel likes Ibaka to stretch the floor, but Vogel also wants Ibaka to roll to the hoop and be physical instead of always settling for jumpers.
"We want him to mix it up, him and Vooch," Vogel said, referring also to center Nikola Vucevic. "Not just be pick-and-pop guys but roll to the basket, too."
Ibaka showed positive signs early in Orlando's 105-99 defeat in Cleveland. On the Magic's first possession, he screened for Elfrid Payton and caught a pass from Payton at the left elbow. Ibaka pump-faked, as if he would settle for a jumper. Instead, he drove past Kevin Love down the center of the lane and scooped in a right-handed layup.
Almost two minutes later, Ibaka called for the ball near the top of the key, then cut down the middle of the lane. He received a bounce pass from Evan Fournier and finished with an emphatic right-handed dunk that the Cavs' Tristan Thompson didn't bother to contest. The play heartened the Magic so much that teammates Damjan Rudez, C.J. Wilcox and Jodie Meeks leaped off their seats at the end of the bench and applauded.
"Super encouraging," Payton said after the game ended. "With teams trying to go small now, he's going to be able to punish teams inside. So he's got to make a conscious effort to go in there. He shoots the ball from mid range well, and he can knock down a 3. So it's tough to tell him to stay inside. But when he has smaller guys on him, he can really punish them."
Ibaka finished the Cleveland game with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting, but the team needs more from him than that. When the Magic traded Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and the rights to first-round pick Domantas Sabonis to acquire Ibaka in June, team officials billed Ibaka as an elite defender and forbidding rim protector who would upgrade the Magic's athleticism and toughness.
Ibaka, 27, appeared to lack those characteristics in the season-opening loss to the Miami Heat. He looked as if his sneakers had been weighed down by lead soles. And he didn't fare much better in a convincing defeat Friday night against the Detroit Pistons.
Vogel said the coaches challenged Ibaka and the rest of the team to do better against Cleveland.
Ibaka seemed to accept the message.
You could see a difference in him on the Cavaliers' first possession. The Cavs ran a play to set up an open jumper for Love, and Thompson and J.R. Smith each screened Ibaka and he tried to sprint toward Love. Ibaka fought through those screens, even sending Smith to the floor, and skied into the air, his right arm extended to the ceiling, to contest Love's shot. Love sank the jumper, but Ibaka had made a big effort.
Teammates and coaches noticed.
"It was good," point guard D.J. Augustin said. "Serge played hard tonight. He made some good moves, some nice post moves and scored some good baskets for us, much-needed baskets. We need that from him every night. Not only his defense but also we need his scoring."
