The Orlando Magic had yet another disappointing and disheartening loss at home Friday at home. Again, the team is searching for consistency.
The tape did not lie as the Orlando Magic gathered together again following Friday’s disappointing loss to the Phoenix Suns. It was a bad loss no matter how anyone wants to cut it. The Magic did not play with the kind of effort that is necessary.
It had the coach questioning his players competitiveness and will. After the game he said he wishes he could look into his players heads and hearts to figure out exactly what is going on and what is in his team in these moments that makes them not respond.
The Magic lacked competitiveness when the Suns punched them Friday.
“We’ve got a lot to learn in regard to that,” coach Scott Skiles said. “From a physical standpoint, they just pushed us all over the place. Bigs, smalls, everyone. They just didn’t react to it well at all. From a physical standpoint they just took it to us.”
Aaron Gordon said Saturday after practice the team was lamenting its lack of physicalness, lack of energy and general sluggishness in the game. There is no denying that is how the Magic played. They were were slow to move the ball and slow to react on defense.
Phoenix was getting into the Magic defensive and disrupting what they wanted to do. In this game Orlando just backed down.
How that is happening this late into the season is certainly part of the larger problems. The game Friday was just the low point in a descent that has been occurring for several months now.
Orlando wanted to spend much of this season determining an identity and establishing winning habits. Scott Skiles was brought in to help bring accountability to the roster and direct them in a winning direction.
As each game passes and each loss creates some form of disappointment, whether that has truly happened is up for debate. The Magic have left a lot to be desired.
“Maybe some games it happens like that,” Nikola Vucevic said. “I thought we play hard for the most part. We compete out there. Just last night was one of those games where we didn’t really have it, we didn’t bring it. That is not the showing we want in front of our fans. They deserve better. We want to be better, but last night we just weren’t. We have to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
The Magic have gotten better in getting to 27 wins, two more already than last year, and have taken a step forward. But they do not seem any steps closer to establishing that winning mindset and that winning attitude that is needed.
It is as Skiles alluded after the game Friday, something that has to come innate from the team itself. There is very little a coach can do to bring that out.
Skiles said Saturday one thing he has learned as both a player and a coach is that there is a limit to coaching. At a certain point consistency and building trust with a coach comes down to the players.
That is the part within this team that has been put under fire after several questionable effort and certainly after Friday.
“I don’t ever recall a time when a coach got me ready to play,” Skiles said. “That was my responsibility. That’s each player’s responsibility. Within that we have a gameplan and all that. That falls back on my seat. We don’t want guys that need an outside stimulus outside their own body to get them ready to play. It’s all mental.”
There has been some suggestion of fatigue settling in. Aaron Gordon said rest would help the tam recover and have the energy to play in these games. Orlando had a busy week in which it played Sunday, took a day off Monday, played a back-to-back Tuesday and Wednesday, practiced Thursday and then played again Friday. That is a busy week.
All before the Magic hop on a plane Sunday for a weeklong West Coast road trip.
That is a lot of basketball crammed in to a short amount of time — and the Magic had played six games in 10 days coming out of the All-Star Break. Maybe a stinker was in play based on the schedule alone.
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Of course, that is not an excuse either. There is still a way to compete even through fatigue and the team should put in a much better effort especially on defense. This team in trying to build a winning mentality is trying also to eliminate those excuses.
The Magic have been battling their own inconsistencies all season. It has been a recurring theme throughout the year. Even when they were winning there were consistency issues the cropped up in one form or another.
Friday just put them into sharper and clearer focus.
The fault Friday was also something more fundamental. Something that should not every be inconsistent — effort and physicality. That perhaps has raised frustraton and concern more than anything else.
The Magic came off a solid game Wednesday with a dud Friday. Seeing how they respond Monday against the Golden State Warriors will reveal something about this team. Then again, they have had those opportunities before.
And nobody ever seems to know which Magic team will show up.