{"id":211966,"date":"2026-03-30T18:20:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T18:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/211966\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T18:20:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T18:20:06","slug":"thrashed-by-raptors-orlando-magic-lack-confidence-in-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/211966\/","title":{"rendered":"Thrashed by Raptors, Orlando Magic lack confidence in loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 The Magic<\/a> made history in more ways than one during Sunday\u2019s game against the Raptors<\/a> inside Scotiabank Arena<\/a>.<\/p>\n

First, Orlando<\/a> allowed Toronto<\/a> to score 31 consecutive points between the end of the first quarter and the start of the second, marking the largest run in league history since play-by-play tracking began during the 1996-97 season.<\/p>\n

Then, by the end of the night, the Raptors captured a 139-87 victory over the Magic \u2014 a 52-point difference that represents the largest loss in Orlando franchise history. The Magic\u2019s worst previous loss was by 47 points against the Bulls in April 2017, a 122-75 defeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cGotta find ways to stop runs like that. We didn\u2019t,\u201d Magic forward Paolo Banchero<\/a> said in the locker room. \u201cIf you want to be a good team, you can\u2019t give up runs like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good teams also don\u2019t lose seven of their past eight games against opponents both in front of them (Atlanta and Toronto) and way behind them (Indiana) in the standings over the final month of the regular season.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Orlando finds itself with less than two weeks remaining in a regular season that\u2019s been nothing but inconsistent for an organization that\u2019s searching to return to the NBA playoffs for the third consecutive year.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s game might as well have carried the implications of a playoff game, too, due to the impact it would have on the Eastern Conference standings. Although the Magic were still in eighth entering Monday\u2019s slate of games, the gap between them and the teams in front of them has only grown as of late.<\/p>\n

Last Monday, Orlando also sat in eighth, but only a half-game behind Philadelphia. After the Sunday night, the No. 7 Sixers (41-33) had a two-game lead on the Magic (39-35), who lead No. 9 Miami (39-36) and No. 10 Charlotte (39-36) by just a half-game.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmotions are kind of high,\u201d Magic center Wendell Carter Jr.<\/a> told the Orlando Sentinel after the loss. \u201cGuys are frustrated. \u2026 We\u2019ll have a real, together conversation about what to do moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t treat this one like a playoff game, which we knew it was going to be coming into it,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019ve just gotta find a way to figure this thing out.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what happened?<\/p>\n

According to Magic coach Jamahl Mosley<\/a>, blame the historic loss on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you exactly what it is,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve got to make sure I do a better job for this group to get them and put them in the position to know exactly what they\u2019re going to face on a night-to-night basis, especially with the last nine games, now eight games, coming down the stretch.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd us as a group we\u2019ll go look at it, we\u2019ll talk about it, we\u2019ll make sure we practice it and make sure we get the job done knowing you\u2019re going to see similar games coming down the stretch,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The players in the locker room felt differently about the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I wouldn\u2019t blame him,\u201d veteran guard Jevon Carter<\/a> told the Sentinel. \u201cThe players got to take on that responsibility as well. I can\u2019t just say it was his fault that that weren\u2019t prepared. I mean, we know Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know Toronto comes out and plays hard and they try to junk the game up,\u201d he added. \u201cSo, it was like, we knew, (but) it just didn\u2019t go well.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Carter\u2019s point, Sunday\u2019s game was the third time the teams played this season. After splitting the first pair of contests, Toronto clinched the regular-season series 2-1 over Orlando.<\/p>\n

Both sides were missing key players Sunday, too. The Magic were without Franz Wagner<\/a>, Anthony Black and Jonathan Isaac while the Raptors didn\u2019t have leading-scorer Brandon Ingram, starting guard Immanuel Quickley and reserves Collin Murray-Boyles and Jamison Battle.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Banchero summed up who\u2019s at fault for the loss best when he was asked about Mosley\u2019s post-game comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all a collective,\u201d the Magic forward said.<\/p>\n

Regardless, all of it has left Orlando without an identity, little confidence and a short amount of time to recapture both before the postseason.<\/p>\n

The Magic notched their fewest points of the season (87) and allowed their most (139) when they fell to 0-8 scoring less than 100 points and 1-7 when giving up 130-or-more points this year.<\/p>\n

In addition, the Magic turned the ball over 28 times (which led to 37 Toronto points), the most turnovers they\u2019ve committed since April 13, 2011 (28 against the Pacers).<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the big thing,\u201d Desmond Bane<\/a> said. \u201cYou\u2019ve gotta walk into games understanding the challenge, but always expecting to win. There\u2019s like a certain swagger that you have to have about yourself over the course of an 82-game season, have that belief that whether or not you\u2019re up 20, down 20, you wouldn\u2019t be able to tell by the swag and the joy that we play with.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had it in stretches but we definitely don\u2019t have it right now,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Despite that, Mosley believes his messaging still resonates with the group.<\/p>\n

He said he thinks his message is still getting through to the team. \u201cYou get hit in the mouth by (52) points, you understand exactly what you need to do,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re not as bad as you think you are in your losses, and you\u2019re not as great as you think you are in your wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we\u2019re somewhere in between,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to make sure we get on the right mentality coming down to these last eight games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two of the final eight come quickly. Orlando hosts Phoenix<\/a> on Tuesday night and Atlanta<\/a> on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

The Magic lost a double-overtime game to the Suns on Feb. 21 and have dropped the first three meetings of the regular season to the Hawks by an average of 10.3 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to show up ready to play,\u201d Banchero said.<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Up next \u2026<\/p>\n

Magic vs. Suns<\/p>\n

When:\u00a07 p.m., Tuesday, Kia Center<\/p>\n

TV:\u00a0FanDuel Sports Network Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 The Magic made history in more ways than one during Sunday\u2019s game against the Raptors inside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,2295,139,141,1239,140,109,76046,110],"class_list":["post-211966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nba","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211966","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=211966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}