This game would be a battle of wills<\/a>.<\/p>\nAs much as anything, the Orlando Magic’s intensity, effort and will were on full display throughout this winning streak. That is what defined the team for much of the team’s playoff run. That was what seemed to be lost during the team’s frustrating December and January swoon.<\/p>\n
That was what was missing Monday night.<\/p>\n
“It was the little things within this game,” coach Jamahl Mosley said after Monday’s loss. “We were definitely a step slow tonight. Fifteen offensive rebounds for 19 points, turn it over 11 times for 17 [points]. Those are things you aren’t getting away from. We didn’t win the possession game. That’s what they thrive on, and that’s why they were able to get out and get ahead.”<\/p>\n
There were plenty of sloppy plays like Jalen Suggs turning it over twice on miscommunications with teammates to open the third quarter — missing Wendell Carter on a pass-ahead in transition and then miscommunicating with Desmond Bane on an inbounds that led to a Dyson Daniels steal and Nickeil Alexander-Walker bucket.<\/p>\n
Those miscommunications were abundant throughout the game on both sides of the floor.<\/p>\n
The Magic have been very much on the same page for much of the last month since the All-Star break. It was odd to see them so off-kilter.<\/p>\n
“They came with a little more energy than we did,” Tristan da Silva said in the locker room after Monday’s loss. We let their pressure dictate, and we didn’t do that. That’s usually what we like to do. Be physical, be controlling defensively. We didn’t really have that.”<\/p>\n
After going through all the difficulties earlier in this year, they have to hope this is not a return to some bad habits.<\/p>\n
Just one game?<\/p>\n
There are no moral victories. Especially in March in the middle of a tight playoff race. The Orlando Magic still lost the game and trailed by 20-plus for the majority of the game.<\/p>\n
But a late push to cut the deficit to 14 points midway through the fourth quarter showed that they understood what went wrong int eh first 3.5 quarters and how they need to play.<\/p>\n
In that run, the Magic buckled down to play defense and moved the ball to get easy baskets. It was exactly how the Magic have played the last few weeks. It is certainly still in them, even in a bad game.<\/p>\n
Of course, the Atlanta Hawks came out of the timeout and got an open three for Nickeil Alexander-Walker and then followed a miss from Jevon Carter with another three from Alexander-Walker. That made it a 20-point game and led Jamahl Mosley to clear his bench and prepare for Tuesday’s game back home.<\/p>\n
“We didn’t really play our game,” Tristan da Silva said in the locker room after Monday’s loss. “We have to make sure we get back to what we do and what’s been working for us and not let this one game discourage what we’re looking forward to.”<\/p>\n
Orlando never could get its footing throughout the game. The Hawks always seemed just out of reach.<\/p>\n
Orlando is certainly not going to let one poor game derail their season or their good vibes — even iwth the Oklahoma City Thunder waiting for them at the Kia Center on Tuesday. But the loss was a reminder of how careful this team still needs to be.<\/p>\n
“We can dwell on it, but it is not going to do us no good,” Wendell Carter said after Monday’s loss. “We can have our conversations about what we can do better, what we have to make sure what we don’t do tomorrow going into the rest of the season. We don’t want to dwell on it too much or let it compound. We know those guys are good and on a roll. We move. We have another one tomorrow.”<\/p>\n
Effort is not a given with this team in the same way it was in previous seasons. And even if fatigue was ultimately a factor in the Magic being such a step slow, the Magic have had far too many games like this that end in such bitter disappointment.<\/p>\n
The Magic’s loss was ultimately not the issue. It was that the team lost without energy that stings the most. It was a stark reminder that the Magic still have flaws to overcome and fight against.<\/p>\n
The best version and the worst version of this team are still fairly close to each other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA — You could take your pick of plays of how the Orlando Magic simply looked a step…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-194543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}