Orlando Magic’s first step to consistency is back-to-back wins

The Orlando Magic had a minor milestone — extremely minor — in winning consecutive games for the first time since February. Now they must build on it.

The Orlando Magic are not going to pack it in these final nine games of the regular season. While several players said they do not believe in carrying momentum into the offseason and onto the next season — this was still a year without the Playoffs after all — there is some confidence in themselves to grow.

That is the biggest point left to this season. Find some confidence and rediscover some belief. Wins are not something to be derided as ruining Lottery chances. That would go against the message from the entire season.

A message spent mostly on deaf ears.

As this season comes to a close though, the Magic finally put it all together for a full 48 minutes. They had a good, complete effort. They built their lead on defensive pressure leading to fast breaks and rant heir motion offense smoothly. When Chicago made a run, they held each other accountable and took the lead back, burying their opponent.

The question they had entering Tuesday’s contest against the Brooklyn Nets was could they do it again? That is where consistency can be built and, yes, eventually wins are created.

“Consistency is one of the hardest things to do in the league,” Evan Fournier said Tuesday morning. “That’s what we talked about the other day. Being consistent for 48 minutes and 82 games is really hard. That’s definitely the challenge for us.”

It was not 82 games. But every journey begins with a single step. Going two straight games with a 48-minute effort of dominance goes some distance even in these meaningless end-of-season games.

The answer to the question of whether the Magic could find that consistency is they would match their effort and then some it would seem. The Magic could not run their offense more flawlessly than they have all year, going up against little resistance from a hapless Nets team. And again, they went for the kill again and again and again.

The Magic got their defense going in the first half, created turnovers and got out in transition. Players were hardly standing still, moving off screens and cutting as the ball flowed into the offense after transition. The Magic whipped the ball around quickly inside-out and around the perimeter finding open shot after open shot.

The Nets defense was broken loose and the Magic were getting whatever they wanted throughout the night in scoring a season-high 139 points and recording the fourth 40-assist game in franchise history (the first since 1995).

“We started a little bit slow, but you could see the guys kind of started to pick it up after four or five minutes into the game and then we just started finding each other and making shots, sometimes it’s that simple,” coach Scott Skiles said. “We stated knocking down a lot of perimeter shots and that opened up some driving angles, so we were able to get in there at the rim as well and threw some lobs at Dewayne [Dedmon], but it all really was around the fact that we’re just kncoking down some perimeter shots. Pretty good execution and ball movement, but then you’ve got to step up and make them. And we did.”

Sometimes the formula is that simple. Make shots and demoralize your opponent. Suffocate them with defense and get out in transition to catch the defense backpedaling to get the shot you really want.

The Magic had the Nets on a string.

This is not how all games will go. But the Magic earned back-to-back 20-point wins for the first time since November 2013. Those were the first two games of the season when the rebuild began. That says something. It is not easy to beat NBA teams by more than 20 points on consecutive nights.

The same question though dogs this team. How do they make two into three?

“Continue to do what we’re doing,” Aaron Gordon said. “We played hard, we played smart and we shared the ball and trusted each other. If we continue to do that, we will continue to get wins.”

Of course, this has been the quandary of the season so far. If the Magic knew how to get back-to-back wins consistently, they would probably still be in the Playoff race.

Searching for consistency has been the struggle throughout the second half of the season and certainly since the calendar flipped to January. The Magic have not won back-to-back games since defeating the Atlanta Hawks in February. The search and the struggle has been that real and that deep.

To make two wins into three will take doing a lot of the same things. It is  a hard and an easy answer. Jason Smith said the team has to keep up the ball movement that led to 40 assists. The team simply has to execute.

Aaron Gordon suggested the team has to stay present when thinking about what it can accomplish at the end of the season. It is not about ending the season with momentum but finishing the season playing the way they know they are capable of.

Evan Fournier noted the team’s defense has taken a step up the last two games and that has ignited the offense some.

Whatever lessons they can take from this mini spurt should be something to propel the team through the last few weeks of the season.

“We’ve got to come out and be ready to play,” coach Scott Skiles said. “It’s back to back games that we have played well, and now we have back to back games. And playing back to back games has not been a strength of ours. That’s exactly what we have to do though. We have to regroup tomorrow and hopefully have our third energetic game in a row.”

Winning this way is always nice. The Magic are not going to celebrate too much. It is just two wins after all. Hardly anything to coronate the team over.

But there are seeds of what made the team so optimistic in December and so compelling to watch — and perhaps what has made the last half of the season so frustrating and disappointing.

If this play can carry through, it will be better late than never.

Next: Orlando Magic nearly flawless in rout of Brooklyn Nets

“Just keep it going,” Andrew Nicholson said. “Just try to do the same thing we did this game the next game. Hopefully it translates over.”