Orlando Magic’s confidence is rising as process meets results

The Orlando Magic have had something click in winning their third straight game. Process is meeting results as the Magic are playing a winning style.

There are going to be ups and downs in a season, as there are surely ups and downs in games. There are going to be moments of extreme encouragement in addition to moments of extreme frustration.

There is something good in there with this Orlando Magic team. Sometimes it needs to be cajoled out. And when it comes out with the confidence and strength it has in the last three games, the Magic can accomplish some big things.

The Magic scored 30 points again in the third quarter, awakening after Scott Skiles became an angry coach in an early timeout. It sparked a 23-16 close to the quarter as the Magic went up by as much as 17 points and never allowed the lead to creep back into single digits after the 6:21 mark of the quarter.

Again, Orlando’s energy and defense changed the game, with the offense giving the right amount of support to dominate and control the game throughout as Orlando defeated the Boston Celtics 110-91 at Amway Center on Friday.

Isaiah Thomas (BOS) — 20 pts., 7 assts.; Avery Bradley (BOS) — 17 pts.

Victor Oladipo (ORL) — 19 pts.; Nikola Vucevic (ORL) — 18 pts., 10 rebs.

“We’re playing with a lot more energy,” Tobias Harris said. “We’re focusing on a lot of the little details, especially defensively. We are letting our defense dictate our offense, that has been the biggest difference for us from those other games.”

It was the Magic’s third straight win and marked the first time the team was above the .500 mark since Nov. 2013. This is the latest the team has been above .500 since Dwight Howard left the team.

This is clearly a very different team. There is no getting around it.

Even as the offense struggled through the first part of the game, the Magic found energy on the defensive end. The Celtics shot 40.9 percent for the game and just 5 for 27 from beyond the arc. Boston gave up 17 offensive rebounds and 26 second chance points. The Magic scored 52 points in the paint.

They were clearly the aggressors from the start. The only thing they needed to clean up was committing eight turnovers. Orlando committed just seven the rest of the game.

Orlando controlled the pace and the tempo of the game in another thorough win.

“Defensively, I think you see we’re starting to be on the same page,” Channing Frye said. “We’re moving on a string. I think we’re able to adjust on the fly and see what teams are giving us. I think we are doing a better job imposing our will on teams. We want to play for each other.”

Frye said the team is acknowledging their mistakes better and not hanging their heads or pointing fingers. The focus is on them making the right play next time and moving on to the next play.

In the third quarter, Fyre said the Magic often “try to take the first punch” and that sometimes puts them in a hole. He said he feels they are better when they establish who they are in the quarter. There were mistakes at the beginning of the third.

They got corrected pretty quickly.

Fyre was again pretty important. He failed to take a shot in the first half, but made 2 of 4 3-pointers to flip his script. The freedom from his shot helped Tobias Harris score 15 points and grab 11 rebounds. It helped Nikola Vucevic score 18 points and grab 10 rebounds. It helped free up Andrew Nicholson for 14 points and eight rebounds off the bench and Victor Oladipo for 19 points, six assists and eight rebounds.

The Magic again got contributions from everyone in the lineup. They dictated the play and were aggressive. The team’s confidence seemed to be boiling over. The confidence in what they are running and the aggression and execution show a team that is serious about and is winning.

It may not mean much in the long term, but having three straight games where the team won by nine or more points — the first such streak since December, 2012, one of the many notable factoids of this game that date back to the Dwight Howard era — is some sign of progress.

Albeit, a tenuous one. As good as the team is playing now, it can quickly falter and change at a moment’s notice. All the strong play from the last three games quickly erased on the road.

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“The league is such an up and down, unless you are one of the top three or four or five teams that knows what you’re doing and is stuck on automatic . . . if you’re in the group of the other teams, it can be a very up and down season. We are on a nice uptick right now, we’d like to keep it going. We hope the guys are feeling good about themselves and confident, but you are always one game away from going in the other direction as well.”

The Magic are playing as confidently and fluidly as they have in several years. All the little factoids and the 9-8 record bear that out.

But the Magic know they still have things to clean up. There were times the offense looked un-energetic and unbalanced Sunday. There were times the team got bogged down and got sloppy. There were tons of sloppy turnovers through the course of the game.

Boston never could take advantage. Some of it was the Celtics were unable to make shots and some of it was the Magic defense locking down and staying consistent throughout the game.

Orlando is not consistent yet. No one is willing to admit that, but something is getting built here. Slowly.

Next: Channing Frye is finding new life

“I think for our team we have to continue to just grow every game,” Harris said. “But at the same time, we’re above water right now and the goal is to stay above and keep it moving from there.”