The Orlando Magic again showed some grit and some small sign of progress. Again, coach Frank Vogel was left wishing the results would follow.
The Orlando Magic have been involved in games like this plenty of times.
A lead that seems impossible to lose — 98.2 percent safe according to the stats site Inpredictable in Wednesday’s case — followed by a series of gaffes and questionable plays that make the game tighter and tighter. The mistakes of a young team that does not quite know how to put the game away.
Usually, it is the Magic suffering these losses. They have suffered a few even this year. The repeated miscues and lost leads late that just seme inexcusable. At some point, the team has to turn the corner and become a winner.
Wednesday night, it was the Los Angeles Lakers that was making the mistakes. Shelvin Mack drained a couple 3-pointers to start closing in on the seven-point deficit. Jonathon Simmons attacked Lonzo Ball off the dribble and got to the foul line and the basket. This is what the Magic signed him for — this belligerent aggression and determination to the get to the basket.
They also signed him for his defense, tenacious and aggressive. That helped the Magic force tough shots and get back in the game. Orlando had the momentum and something else for a late-game situation: confidence.
Even after giving up an offensive rebound, the Magic buckled down and got the stop.
In a moment of brief triumph, Lonzo Ball pulled up for a deep 3-pointer and the rebound went long. Aaron Gordon tracked it down in one big bounce and took off. He drove through three defenders and got to the basket for a lay-in. Orlando was up one, completing that impossible comeback.
The Los Angeles Lakers did not learn the lessons of a disheartening loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. They had lost their lead again and could not close the game.
Neither could the Magic in the end.
The Lakers inbounded the ball directly to Brook Lopez in the post. Nikola Vucevic was pressing hard against him and took a swipe at the ball. Lopez turned past him and got a shot off. Nikola Vucevic, challenging late, hit Brook Lopez on the head (slightly) and the foul was called as the shot fell no good.
Lopez hit both free throws. The Magic had lost again.
Making matters worse, someone started the clock early on the Magic’s inbound play. Orlando never even got a chance to take a final shot. The officials, by rule because of the clock malfunction, called a jump ball. The game was over.
The frustration was painted on coach Frank Vogel’s face. It was not just about the confusing ruling at the end of the game. In a season that has seen the team copy many of the same mistakes and face the same disheartening fate as many of the past five years, he has looked for positives and ways to see his team growing.
That frustrates him even more. He seems to see these signs. But the team has been unable to get the results it perhaps deserves for playing the way he has asked them to play.
Following the game, he told the assembled media he felt for his team. Not even to have a chance to get the win was disappointing and frustrating. For the most part, he said, the team moved the ball and played exactly how he envisioned.
It has been that way for some time. Perhaps this repeated comment from Vogel is his attempt to keep painting things in a positive light. Or to shine a light on the direction he hopes the team is going. He is a naturally optimistic person.
But there is something to it too. The Magic have resembled the team that got off to a hot start more and more of late. Even defensively, the team is scrambling around more and putting itself in positions to win.
The team is giving itself a chance to win even when it is not sharp. Take the win over the Memphis Grizzlies, a sloppy and turnover-filled game. Orlando was trailing late in that game too and rallied to get the win, finishing with a 3-pointer from Evan Fournier and needing a defensive play from Jonathan Isaac.
The same thing happened Wednesday against the Lakers.
Orlando raced out to a 15-point lead, overcame the adversity of losing that lead and its own sloppy play. Then trailing by seven points — after giving up an 11-0 run from a tie game — the Magic scrambled and rallied. They found that inner pressure and urgency to erase the deficit. That was not a fight the team had earlier in the year.
This was not a team that had packed it in. This was a team that was still fighting and looking for a way to grow.
It still has a ways to go. The Magic are still pushing and fighting and scratching and clawing. In every imperfect way they can.
The journey will clearly remain a long one. There will be steps forward and steps back along the way. As there were Wednesday. The Magic have to wash away some of the old to create something new too.
But it is getting created. In fits and starts, a new identity is emerging. Far too late to save this season. But may not too late for future seasons.
Next: Grades: Los Angeles Lakers 108, Orlando Magic 107
There is still work to do for the Magic to get where they want to be. Now they just need the results to match this renewed effort. Or some change this summer to bring in players who can reach that mark.