Buckle up, the Orlando Magic are in the fight now

The Orlando Magic found their fight again this weekend. The team still is figuring out its identity. The only thing we know? They are in the fight now.

As the 2019 season has played out for the Orlando Magic, there has been left a lot of uncertainty. The team has done little to quiet that uncertainty, only adding to it with its inconsistent play.

This weekend proved to be a symbol for the Magic’s maddening inconsistency and its promising hopes.

After going 1-5 on a road trip that saw the team lose double-digit leads in three of the five losses, it felt like Orlando’s season was at a turning point. Was this the long-awaited fall for the Magic that would send them back to the Lottery as everyone expected. It felt like the season was slipping away a bit.

Then this weekend.

A gutsy win over the Boston Celtics that saw the Orlando Magic erase as much as a 12-point deficit and go on a 19-4 run early in the fourth quarter to take final control of the game, hanging on to the end.

That was nice. But the team could not do it again with the Houston Rockets coming to town.

In a similar fashion, they did. Struggling through the first half and trailing by as much as 12 points. But the Rockets never put the Magic away. Orlando scored 98 points in the final three quarters (no fewer than 30 in any quarter after putting up 19 in the first) and went on a 16-4 run to clinch the victory, pulling the same kind of reversal teams pulled on them during the road trip.

The Magic’s 116-109 win Sunday at the Amway Center was just as confusing as the other results from the preceding 42 games.

This tough homestand was seen as another checkpoint on the Magic’s long road this year. It was a chance to evaluate whether the team could make that push and plan accordingly.

But if there is one thing to know about the team at this stage — they are in the fight.

Meaningful games are back in Orlando. Every game has importance. No stretch can get overlooked. And the pressure is about to ramp up on this young group in a way few players have experienced before.

The Magic have kicked the can down the road in previous checkpoints. They left enough hope to hang on tight while still providing plenty of room for concern. Now the pressure ramps up to find some consistency as the trade deadline draws closer.

The team got through its first big road trip — and the Mexico City trip that followed — with its head above water. The Magic were 14-15 after that difficult stretch and it felt like the Magic could take a deep breath. A homestand was coming to bank up some wins.

But the team was still figuring out its identity then. The defense was trending up, but Orlando had some uncharacteristically hot shooting propelling them to wins. The Magic still had to win ugly a lot of nights.

That fighting characteristic was a big part of the team’s success. There was a clear sense of the hunger the team had to win and break the spell that has fallen on this franchise, and seemingly every player on it.

That made the next stretch so frustrating.

Orlando lost 12 of 17 games since getting back to .500 at 12-12. That included the road trip that saw the Magic lose double-digit leads routinely. Orlando would look like world beaters one moment and then like the worst team in the league the next, often in the same game.

So what happens now? What do we make of this Magic team?

We know when the Magic are playing at their best, they can beat any team in the league. They can move the ball effectively and play with grit and determination. They can be resilient in these moments just like they were this past weekend, biding their time before taking the big step forward.

As small as these signs are, the Magic are 13th in the league in defensive rating. And they have been climbing, even as the team has struggled.

But they are also a team with an offense that has struggled to move the ball consistently or his shots. Teams are sinking into the paint and daring them to shoot. Creating offense is always the trouble for a team 26th in the league in offensive rating.

And whether the team plays at the level defensively it needs to remains a wait-and-see thing game to game. The fact that the team has not fully committed to its identity at this point of the season is a bit concerning. And its margin for error remains perilously small.

The biggest thing to know about this team right now is that it is still learning and still figuring out what it takes to win consistently in this league. Momentum is the next day’s pitcher and whether the team can build consistency and a win streak is dependent on how it plays in its next game. Always its next game.

The beauty — or curse — of the Eastern Conference is that the race never left the team. The Magic had the ability to go through these trials and struggle a bit and still keep their goals within reach.

On Friday, Magic fans were despondent and preparing for a meaningless run through the second half of the season — even just 2.5 games out of the final Playoff spot. Sunday night, it feels like the team is surging. And just one-half game out of the final Playoff spot, the team feels ready to get into the fight.

This struggle is the fight. It is the exact thing the team wanted to see its players respond to for the first time in many of their careers.

Figuring out a way to limit inconsistencies and losing streaks and scratching out and gutting out wins is the muck of trying to make the Playoffs. The great teams make this struggle look easy. For teams like the Magic trying to learn to win, it is the very heart of the struggle.

The Orlando Magic as a team still are figuring out the best way for them to play. Or, better, how to play that way every single night.

But the realities also put them squarely in the middle of a race to make the Playoffs. They will experience meaningful games for a little while longer — putting pressure on the front office to make decisions for the short- and long-term of the team.

The fight for this team is really just beginning.

There will be struggles ahead. The Magic are playing well but that can turn south as quickly as it seems the team can recover. There is still a lot at stake and no one knows how this group will handle the pressure of winning and staying in this Playoff race.

The important thing, for now, is to keep going through those struggles and to keep finding a way. Orlando found its fight again this weekend.

But the fight is just beginning.