The two Orlando Magic’s, and one soon has to win out

Jan 14, 2016; London, United Kingdom;Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan (10) handles the ball against the Orlando Magic during the NBA Global basketball games between the Toronto Raptors and the Orlando Magic at The O2 Arena. Mandatory Credit: Leo Mason-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 14, 2016; London, United Kingdom;Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan (10) handles the ball against the Orlando Magic during the NBA Global basketball games between the Toronto Raptors and the Orlando Magic at The O2 Arena. Mandatory Credit: Leo Mason-USA TODAY Sports

The Orlando Magic displayed their inconsistent nature in London against the Toronto Raptors. To make the Playoffs, their true identity needs to emerge.

The story for many of the Orlando Magic’s losses and stretches of the season has really been the same since the beginning of the year.

The team was playing well and looking like world beaters for two or three quarters, but that one remaining quarter was enough to erase all that good work, put the Magic down or make the good feelings of the brilliant play feel a bit uneasy.

Regardless of result, the Magic have had inconsistencies in their process throughout the season. There would be long stretches of games, even wins, where the team was not completely sharp and tight defensively. There would be the hints that this young group still needed a ton more work and a ton more learning to win consistently in the NBA.

As close as this team was, it was still very far away. And in the past month and a half, despite warnings and talk about sharpening things up, the Magic have come to pay for these bad habits.

January has only been the cratering of all the good feelings and progress — and there is still a ton of progress over last year, just regression when it comes to the current Playoff race. The Magic have lost six of seven games this month. They are precariously one game over the Mendoza line of a .500 record.

As every player seemed to say before heading off to London, the season was at something of a turning point. The goal in exiting this game was to have a sense that things were moving in the right direction again.

After the Magic’s 106-103 overtime loss to the Raptors on Thursday, it is hard to figure out which direction the team will go. It is hard to figure out which team this Magic team is.

This is not to say they will not be competitive the rest of the year — Thursday proved that. Orlando will have plenty of opportunities to win. But to make the Playoffs? It will probably take a little bit more.

Again Thursday’s game was a perfect example of this continuing inconsistency. The kind of story that has been repeated here and on seemingly every Orlando Magic site the entire season.

In the first quarter, the Orlando Magic were sloppy and listless, allowing dribble penetration without any resistance. The help did not step up and cut it off. When it did, it sent Toronto to the foul line — again and again. The offense stayed stagnant, allowing it to stick and failing to move the ball for long periods of time.

Predictably, the Magic fell behind, giving up a 16-0 run and losing all control of the game. They fell behind by as much as 14 points.

Then the offense picked up. The ball got moving again in earnest. Jason Smith was left open for mid-range jumpers. Oladipo began finding his rhythm. Tobias Harris started cutting and moving.

The defense came next in the second half. Orlando buckled down and gave up just 80.3 points per 100 possessions. The Raptors shot 30.6 percent from the floor.

Their defense was as together and rotating quickly to cover for each other as it was at the beginning of the season when it was a top-10 defense in the league. Everything seemed to awaken and click together at the right time.

A half of defensive basketball like that was clearly not enough to win the game against the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference right now. The Magic offense still had its problems with poor shooting and an inability to get to the foul line.

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For the Magic, defense was always going to be the formula for winning with this team. That is part of the Scott Skiles ethos anyway, but the team had the makeup of good versatile defenders. These are not offensive savants for Orlando.

That has been the part of the team that has slipped so considerably as the team has treaded water and stumbled the last few weeks.

There is a choice coming up for the Magic now as the season continues on. They need to pick which of these two teams they want to be.

And when it comes to defense, it very much is a choice because defense takes a lot of hard work.

For a half a game, Orlando was the team it needed to be. To make the Playoffs and meet all those goals the Magic undoubtedly set for themselves after this strong first half to the season, they need that to be consistent for 48 minutes with few lapses like they had at the beginning of Thursday’s game.

Next: Orlando Magic can't get over the hump in London

That should be enough to chew on during a long flight home over the Atlantic.