On weekend road trip, Orlando Magic find confidence to end season
The Orlando Magic ground out two road victories, simultaneously showing their potential and the frustration that has been this season.
The Orlando Magic looked lost in a 1-4 homestand. It felt like the team was playing out the string. The final seven games could not seem to end soon enough despite any talk of building positive momentum toward the offseason.
Even the chance of matching last season’s 23-win total seemed getting increasingly out of reach. If pundits said the Magic were playing as the worst team in the league at the moment, it was hard to say they were wrong or not.
Two games and a little confidence can do a lot to change the narrative. They have done so throughout the season. What is one more time?
And, really, isn’t building confidence toward the offseason just a little confidence boost and some good feeling to make everyone feel like things are going in the right direction? It is really just a nebulous, intangible thing.
In a season and a rebuild that has seen so much hardship, however, any positive the team can find feels like something to hold onto. And the little bit of hope that two road wins late in the season can give seems to be enough to paint the end of the Magic’s season just a little bit differently. Perception can defeat reality in some extreme cases.
So what did the Magic actually learn in these two games? What did they actually gain?
Nikola Vucevic dominated an undermanned Minnesota Timberwolves front line and the Magic opened up and held on to a double digit lead. Victor Oladipo struggled from the floor and Andrew Wiggins was able to parade to the line to keep the struggling Timberwolves in the game and give them a chance.
But Orlando persevered, making the plays down the stretch.
As Zach Palmer wrote, the Magic did not have their best game but they won. That can be an important skill to learn — scratching out wins even when the team is struggling.
Saturday night, the Magic had to scratch and claw in a different way. They had to go through another poor Oladipo shooting outing (he shot 10 for 38 on the road trip) to make some big shots at the end. He scored eight of the Magic’s final 11 points, helping lift the Magic to the win after being tied at 88-all.
He was not alone. Tobias Harris had his fair share of big shots and big scoring moments throughout the trip. Nikola Vucevic remained active on the glass and helped lock down Zaza Pachulia, a thorn in the Magic’s side from the last trip to Milwaukee. And the unlikely hero, Aaron Gordon stepped up for his first career double double and did a nice job making life miserable for Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The two performances were hardly perfect. Nowhere near it, in fact, but they gave the team the results it has wanted to see.
Doesn’t that feel good? The half-off Papa John’s sounds nice too.
It does. There is no denying it. Even as ugly as the win may have been, just defeating the Timberwolves seemed to open the dam and the rushing water of confidence came pouring through.
Even throughout the inconsistency of the last few weeks and months of the season, there have been little signs of this team’s capabilities and potential.
There was that burst of pace like in the wins over the Bulls and Rockets. There was the Victor Oladipo scoring outbursts against the Suns and Kings. It continues to come and go, belied by the shooting performances like these past two games. There was the Elfrid Payton triple doubles against the Mavericks and Trail Blazers.
The Magic just have not put everything together. Not on a consistent basis. Their record says exactly who they are.
For now, that seems to be marginally better than last year’s team. And momentum, as the seasonally appropriate saying goes, is the next day’s pitcher.
Whether the Magic have built some momentum from these two wins, attained anything they want to carry over into the next season or have just hit a soft spot in the schedule where they could take advantage, gets determined in this final five-game stretch. The Magic next play Wednesday against the Playoff-bound Bulls.
It is hard both to get excited and believe in this burst yet again as the team turning the corner. It is also hard not to believe this will be the same old Magic preparing to dip again.
Thus the contradiction of rebuilding and the simultaneous hope and despair that comes with it.
The Magic have talked a lot about turning the corner throughout the season, about consistency, about winning as an end goal. There has been only moments of them following through.
Even the most basic thing — effort and will to execute — has been inconsistent. To build any kind of momentum, the Magic need to be able to grind like they did in the two road wins this weekend. That would be the measure of success to end the season.
Some wins would be nice too. Now, it seems this young Magic crew has it. At least for two nights.
Maybe, the confidence is back. And that can be the most powerful momentum-builder of all to make the most of these final five games.