Orlando Magic still searching for their playoff mentality as disappointments mount

The Orlando Magic faced a disappointing defeat where they did not play to their playoff standard. As the frustrations mount, the Magic are struggling.

No one would blame Orlando Magic guard Evan Fournier for being hoarse after watching his team fall to the lowly Atlanta Hawks 101-93 at home on Monday.

The team had an 18-point lead and seemed to let off the gas pedal. From there, it was a game where the Magic’s offense was seemingly stuck in neutral, unable to move in one direction or another. Shots were missed and even fast-break opportunities were flubbed.

Evan Fournier spent at least part of several possessions trying to yell at teammates to get in the right spots, whether it was new-starter Wesley Iwundu or even second-year player Mohamed Bamba. The Magic were trying to get organized offensively as much as find a spark.

But after the game, he was a bit quiet. The seriousness of the team’s effort sank in as they looked at the scoreboard and returned to the locker room in defeat.

Whatever energy they spent was for nothing in the end. The team had dropped one they needed to have.

They did not care that the Hawks were without their star and catalyst in Trae Young. They had enough to win the game and they let a player like Brandon Goodwin score his career-high.

If this team is a playoff team, if they are what they want to be, this is the kind of game that is simply unacceptable.

The Magic are not playing the right way and the frustrations are mounting.

"“It’s a terrible loss, terrible loss,” Fournier said after the game. “There’s not much else to say. It was from the get-go. It was obvious that we didn’t play ball like we know how offensively. Not sharing it, not having ball movement.”"

Fournier said it is more of a mentality to play the right way. If you play with the right mentality, you are going to play offense well and play the way the team knows it must.

Right now that mentality is missing. Constantly, the Magic’s defeats can get chalked up to simple shooting percentages and 3-point differences — Monday night too, 10 missed free throws loomed large in an eight-point defeat.

These are all mistakes, in other words, the Magic can correct.

Indeed, it was clear early in the game the Magic were struggling to move anything offensively. The only brief spark they got was in the second quarter when they built their 18-point lead with crisp ball movement, transition opportunities and good play inside-out. They got their shooters open from beyond the arc and drove through the lane to finish at the rim.

Jonathan Isaac was good at attacking the offensive glass and cleaning up misses as the Hawks’ defense ripped apart trying to corral everyone moving side to side and around the horn.

That stopped suddenly in the third quarter. The ball stayed to one side and the Magic initiated their offense too late to get the defense really moving. The Hawks could load up on pet plays and anything toward the basket, knowing the ball was not moving to the other side well enough.

Coach Steve Clifford said throughout the past two years that the team has a way it has to play to win these games. And it is not delivering on that so far this season.

It has left the team with several speechless performances.

"“There’s not much to say,” Jonathan Isaac said after the game. “There’s not much that can be added to what transpired tonight. It’s a terrible effort on our part to allow this to happen especially on our homecourt. There’s not much to say.”"

Isaac would add the team loses sight of its identity. The defensive lapses and poor ball movement is how this manifests. Defense and ball movement are the two big keys to this team’s success.

This is a serious charge. A sign the team knows something about the way the team is playing falls short of the standard they set themselves.

To a man, especially the key players from last year’s playoff run, know this is not how the team needs to play. They have that playoff experience to tell them what it takes to get there. And while the team says it is not relying on that knowledge to flip a switch at some point, the team knows there is a standard to reach.

The Orlando Magic reached that standard in their win last Friday against the Philadelphia 76ers, the best win of the season. After two straight losses with some of these struggles on offense, it feels like that was a lifetime ago. Orlando is still chasing some level of consistency.

"“A big part of this league is to be consistent individually as a player and as a team,” Nikola Vucevic said after Monday’s game. “It’s hard to do it over 82 games and play every night. That’s what good players and good teams do. We have to find a way to do it. It’s cost us. We’re four or five games under .500. There’s a lot of basketball to be played, but we have to figure it out soon.”"

Injuries continue to hurt the team. Aaron Gordon’s absence with a sore ankle threw the entire rotation out of whack and forced Steve Clifford to play his starters more than ever. It still felt like he did not play them enough. The team’s inexperience and lack of offensive punch, especially off the bench, continues to be a major hindrance for this group.

That is perhaps part of a larger problem. This team still cannot score consistently — 93 points and a 94.9 offensive rating against one of the worst defensive teams in the league on Monday.

The defense, despite climbing to 11th in the league after the loss, still does not feel like it is playing to its fullest potential. The Magic continue to give up big quarters and runs and give up offensive rebounds at big moments.

It is not at the level or standard the Magic need it at to make their playoff push.

Right now, the Magic are trying to find their way and find themselves to push through.

"“There are struggles when it comes to the league,” Isaac said after Monday’s game. “There are ups and downs with every team. I don’t think we’re going to at any point in time get negative and should have could have would have from last year. We’re going to look forward.”"

Despite all this, the Magic still control their playoff destiny.

They are 14-19 like they were at this point last year. But unlike this point last year when they were two games out of the final playoff spot, the Orlando Magic are 1.5 games ahead of the Chicago Bulls for the final playoff spot.

That might be a small comfort. Getting in is the baseline goal. But they want to get in and make noise.

The kind of team that does that is still eluding them. The kind of team that truly feels like a playoff team and truly feels like it has progressed from last year’s team is eluding them.

Until it finds that standard, disappointments like Monday night will continue to happen. And that is what they have to find a way to avoid.

What this team thought it would be because of last year is put away now. The team has to forge ahead and find its new identity and consistency.

"“I wouldn’t call it anything,” Isaac said after Monday’s game. “I don’t think we need last year to turn it around this year because we didn’t need the year before to turn it around last year. Just continue to work. We have obviously had flashes of what we can expect form ourselves. As we continue to work together and learn, we’re going to make it a consistent thing.”"

What they were supposed to be at the start of the season does not matter anymore. The team is struggling to put the pieces together and find their standard once again.

The one thing that seems certain is the Magic are still fighting for it. Whether they have the attention to detail and poise to find it again will be the question for the rest of the season.