LAS VEGAS — Orlando Magic players and coaches had to struggle to find any bright spot in their disappointing performance Saturday in the NBA Cup semifinals, a 132-120 loss to the New York Knicks.
Their 3-point shooting, which has improved this season, underperformed when they needed it most. The Knicks sliced through their vaunted defense. And Jalen Suggs, their tenacious on-ball defender, suffered a new injury.
This defeat felt a bit like many of their tough losses in the spotlight over the last two years, like their first-round ouster in 2024 in seven games to the Cleveland Cavaliers and like the first-round exit last season in a physical series against the Boston Celtics.
“I definitely think it’s motivating,” forward Paolo Banchero said. “I’m sure everybody wishes we played better on a stage like this against a good team that we could see later on in the season. (This) just shows us what we need to work on and how we can be better later on for the springtime.”
Other teams have done exactly what Banchero suggested the Magic can now do: learn from a defeat during the semifinals or finals of the in-season tournament and apply those lessons to the biggest stage of all, the NBA playoffs.
In 2023, the Indiana Pacers lost in the NBA Cup final. Eighteen months later, they won the Eastern Conference title to advance to the NBA Finals.
In 2024, the Oklahoma City Thunder lost in the NBA Cup final. Six months later, they won the NBA championship.
Those are the prime precedents. Precedent Magic players and their coach already knew well.
They spent 48 hours here in Las Vegas, received increased national attention and played on one of the league’s biggest in-season stages.
When the semifinal game arrived, their physicality left them — eroded, they and their coach said, after their players were whistled early in the first quarter for what they considered touch fouls. With that diminished physicality, their trademark defensive effectiveness evaporated, too. Unable to force Knicks misses and unable to cause turnovers, the Magic’s rejuvenated offense had to spend much of the game playing in the half court, where it’s less effective.
“We need these moments,” swingman Desmond Bane said. “We need these games where we’re playing in meaningful games and have to go through some adversity. I think it will help prepare us for our next challenges.”
Anthony Black, one of the Magic’s key perimeter defenders, picked up his second foul of the game with 4:44 remaining in the first quarter.
New York made 61 percent of its shots from the field and held Orlando to 46 percent shooting.
“I think this was a great experience for our team to recognize exactly what we need to do in these moments,” coach Jamahl Mosley said. “Defensively being able to stick to our game plan and defend the right way, allowing that to dictate our offense. Obviously early on, defending without fouling.
“But I think it’s a great opportunity for our guys to look back at this and learn and understand how we need to play consistently. We’ve been playing some good basketball. It’s just tonight you’ve got to give New York a ton of credit for how they came out and played.”
Suggs entered the game nursing a tweaked groin that he suffered last weekend against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. He still started Saturday’s game playing his best offense of the season, scoring 25 first-half points, matching Jalen Brunson basket-for-basket. Late in the second quarter, Suggs sped upcourt off a Knicks’ made basket, drew a foul on Karl-Anthony Towns and scored on a layup to cut the Magic’s deficit to 69-63. But Suggs landed awkwardly on his left hip and wasn’t the same for the rest of the night.
Midway through the third quarter, he collided hip-first into Towns, apparently aggravating the injury.
Although he wound up playing a total 11 minutes in the second half, he was so hobbled that he ultimately asked to be subbed out of the game in the fourth quarter, finishing with a team-high 26 points.
With Suggs a shell of his normal self on defense and with Franz Wagner out because of a high-ankle sprain he suffered last weekend, the Magic essentially lost two of their best defenders, and it showed.
Suggs, perhaps the toughest competitor on a team of tough competitors, took his inability to build on his strong first half and being unable to finish the game hard.
“It’s just the weakest part of the game,” he said afterward. “It’s the part that sucks the most. I truly tried. There’s nowhere else I would have rather been than on the court and battling with my guys, especially in a close game.”
Even with Suggs perhaps at half-strength and with Wagner out altogether, Magic players took lessons from their night.
“It’s one thing to get here,” big man Jonathan Isaac said. “We didn’t play to our standard. We’re a much better team than that. And so that’s really all we’re taking from it. I don’t think this is cause for foreshadowing to the end. We’ve got to find a way to be more consistently us. And tonight was, in my opinion, a step back defensively. And so we’ve got to lock in. We’ve got a great team, a lot of talented guys.”
Perhaps that’s the most important lesson of all. Something that they can take for the rest of the season — and, they expect, a potential long postseason run.
“It’s definitely a motivation,” center Wendell Carter Jr. said. “… It was a great experience. After playing in the playoffs the last two years now, it was kind of a similar feel. But at the same time, it was something that we can learn from and just be better if we see these guys later on in the year.”