Winning begets winning. Victor Oladipo learned the secret and displayed it again late as the Orlando Magic collapsed again.
The Indiana Pacers trailed by 17 points at halftime. They had cut the lead down to eight by the end of the third quarter. The odds of a comeback at either point were long — less than 30 percent according to Inpredictable.
There was no panic though. No sense things were too far gone or too far away. Confidence remained. The Pacers were chipping away at that deficit slowly but surely. The familiar sense of dread creeping in for the Orlando Magic.
As if to add insult to injury, it was former Magic guard and current NBA All-Star Victor Oladipo who was going to bury the Magic. It was Oladipo with the ball in his hands burning the Magic’s defense, again and again, delivering the win.
Oladipo scored 24 points on 10-for-20 shooting, dishing out six assists to boot, in a 114-112 win over the Magic at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Saturday. He did much of his deadliest damage in that fourth quarter on a diet of pick and rolls the Magic seemed unable to stop.
The difference in confidence between the Pacers and Magic in the dying moments of the game were abundantly clear. Orlando clinging to a lead seemingly bracing for the inevitable fall. Indiana confident the team would make a run and eventually win the game. That confidence embodied in Oladipo.
This is the power winning has. A supreme confidence to the very end of the game. And a lack of panic late in games.
Oladipo had plenty of moments in Orlando where he finished games. Or at least kept the Magic in games. Oladipo had his clutch moments in a Magic uniform. No one ever questioned his bona fides. But even his big moments in Orlando did not have this swagger about them. Too often, Oladipo’s biggest games and most clutch moments still came in losses.
Now he has the confidence and drive to win. Having been to that mountaintop, as low and basic as it may be, he knows how to get him and his team there again.
The Oladipo in a Magic uniform was never . . . this. Nor did what Oladipo has done this season in a Magic uniform seem completely possible. The Magic had their share of collapses still with Oladipo in uniform.
The difference is Oladipo grew out of them to become an All-Star, averaging a career-high 24.1 points per game and shooting 48.4 percent from the floor. And he is now winning these games, using that driving ability and newfound 3-point shooting to drive his team to win after win.
Orlando is still stuck in the same place. The Magic are looking for a way to finish games, even with a 21-point lead.
This is not the first time the Magic have lost a big lead this year. They blew a double-digit lead against the Miami Heat a few weeks ago at home. It follows a pattern of the last five years where the Magic seemingly gives away games they should have won easily. At the very least, this team should have grown past those losses.
At some point, a team learns to win through experience, right? Everyone is still waiting for the Magic to show that growth and development.
Orlando has nearly lost big leads on several other occasions too this year. It does not seem any lessons seem to set in. The only thing that seems to get reinforced as teams make their pushes in the fourth quarter is the same bad habits.
The Magic were rushing possessions and taking bad shots. Evan Fournier would come around screens off one pass and come out firing. Aaron Gordon got his turn to take a shot at the very end and came up short, seeming in a rush to make something happen.
Orlando scrambled and fought. The team picked up an offensive rebound off Aaron Gordon’s miss that led to Gordon heading to the line with a chance to tie. But he came up short there too. An offensive rebound again gave Orlando life, but Jonathon Simmons‘ 3-pointer was no good.
There was no shame in the execution there. The Magic had three golden opportunities to tie late in the game. But the fight came too late. It came after that familiar panic set in for much of the fourth quarter.
The panic that causes the team to get tight.
The Magic were likely waiting for that other shoe to drop. That is simply what happens to the Magic. It is what they do and what everyone seems to expect of them. Eventually, some success will breed confidence.
That is what has happened for the Pacers and for Oladipo.
Since leaving Orlando, Oladipo has experienced success. He went to the Playoffs with Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder. He played in those meaningful games. It inspired him to redouble his already hard work and transform his game again. Those minutes became transformative. That and the indignity of getting traded twice in two seasons.
Oladipo has always been a confident player. With a team of his own winning, that confidence has only continued to soar. He saw what it took to win and now is applying those lessons himself.
He applied that lesson over and over to the Magic. Getting to the basket one play. Then dishing it off to Domantas Sabonis the next as the defense tried desperately to adjust.
In an entire fourth quarter, the game belonged to Oladipo. He had figured out the secret the Magic have been chasing for five years — including those three years with Oladipo.
Next: Grades: Indiana Pacers 114, Orlando Magic 112
Orlando was still trying to pay heed.