It has been two months since the Orlando Magic last won consecutive games. With some confidence and time to prepare, they hope they can build momentum.
Back in December, the Orlando Magic seemingly had survived another hiccup in their season. They were building some momentum and holding themselves steady in the Playoff conversation. The team was 15-18 after defeating the Memphis Grizzlies and had exchanged wins and losses for the better part of two weeks.
These two wins particularly — home victories against the Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies — felt especially encouraging.
On Dec. 23, the Magic blocked a team-record nine shots in the first quarter with Serge Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo promising teammates they would be there for them to protect the basket and the rim. Orlando ran away for a 109-90 win.
On Dec. 26, the Grizzlies came to town. With revenge on the Magic’s mind after an early season collapse, the team put the screws on the usually stingy Grizzlies. Orlando had as much as a 29-point lead in a wire-to-wire victory.
Following that Christmas weekend, there was still hope things would be OK for this Magic team. The growing pains were subsiding and the team was figuring things out. In both games, Orlando looked dominant defensively again and it spearheaded their strong offense.
That, of course, was the last time the Magic have won consecutive games. What has followed in the two months since the team last picked up back-to-back victories was a ton of inconsistency, lineup changes, restarts and frustration.
“We’ve addressed it and talked about it,” coach Frank Vogel said. “But the bottom line is every game we’ve played all year, we’ve done everything possible to win that game. It’s not a try harder mindset. We haven’t been able to do it. It hasn’t been for lack of effort. We’ll give it another go tomorrow.”
There have been a few bright spots in the mean time, for sure. But before the Magic go anywhere, they need to win consecutive games. Here comes another opportunity Wednesday against the New York Knicks.
Among Orlando’s wins since then was a gutsy performance at Portland (followed by another strong performance at Utah that ended in a fourth-quarter collapse, squandering a late lead on the road) and a one-point win over the Toronto Raptors that preceded an overtime loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road.
More often, though, the Magic followed up good performances with shaky ones. Blowout losses to the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs followed wins in that stretch but so too did a puzzling, lackadaisical effort in Atlanta.
The Magic just have not been able to build consistent momentum.
That game against Memphis in December signaled the last consistently good moment for the Magic for a while. Orlando gave up 100 or more points in 12 straight games starting with that Grizzlies game and would lose 20 of the next 27 games following that win.
It has been a long time since the Magic have built and sustained momentum. Thus, the team has fallen out of the Playoff race.
“It has been a while since we had a second straight win,” Bismack Biyombo said. “I’m sure it will be a good feeling to have a second straight win. We have to look forward to the competition. We really look forward to the game. I think it is going to be fun. New York has faced some ups and downs like we have. We have to find a way to establish ourselves at the beginning of the game and see if we can sustain that throughout the game.”
This time does sort of, kind of, maybe feel different.
The Magic have their first win since the trade deadline when they acquired Terrence Ross. Orlando is playing a distinctively new style, picking up the pace and playing more in transition.
The team looked more energetic in both games last week coming out of the break and easily could have won both. As Vogel noted after the game Saturday, when the Magic gave up a nine-point lead to the Atlanta Hawks and fell down by nine points, that has been a moment where the team gave in before.
The Magic obviously came back and won running away.
Orlando Magic
The team’s more energetic play has renewed some confidence — or at least intrigue — in the Magic moving forward.
And Orlando also has the advantage of having three days off at home between games, the first time they have had three days between games since the end of December before heading to Indiana and New York (a series of games the team split, defeating the Knicks at Madison Square Garden).
“I thought it was great to have three days where we could focus on practice,” Evan Fournier said. “It hasn’t happened in a long time. We worked on a lot of things, especially defensively. I think we’re going to have a really strong performance tomorrow. I felt the focus was great today.”
All those advantages will not matter without putting it to work. Orlando has looked good before and seemed to be ready to turn a corner and then dropped the ball.
The Magic were never able to build the momentum they needed to string wins together. That is what was necessary for them to stay in the Playoff hunt.
It is going to happen or it will not. And whether it does is dependent on the Magic keeping their focus on winning that one game and executing their game plan.
“I don’t think we should focus on getting two in a row, three in a row or four in a row, we should focus on tomorrow’s game and try to play as best as we can,” Fournier said.
Next: Orlando Magic Power Rankings Roundup: Back to the start
Whether the Magic are able to turn the corner finally will get determined in the 48 minutes played Wednesday against the New York Knicks.