Orlando Magic need to energy to carve out their identity

The Orlando Magic’s win over the Charlotte Hornets was characterized by its energy and urgency.

The Hornets almost force you to play with energy because of their ability to get up and down the floor and push the pace. Failing to match their energy on either end and play with poise will get a team embarrassed. They leave the door open for you defensively and try to suck you into their vortex.

But energy is where everything starts. To beat them, requires energy. It requires a team willing to get after it and chase them a bit. It requires a team to be on its toes and ready to run.

This Magic team wants to be about those energy plays — the bell and hustle plays it takes to build winning habits. They want to play with speed and intensity, sacrifice and togetherness. Their bell-ringing plays from a willingness to dive on the floor and make things happen, not merely sit back and wait for them to come.

When a team is learning and still perhaps lacks talent, energy has to be their calling card. It is the great equalizer. The team that outworks the other is the one most likely to win. Or the one more likely to overcome any disadvantage.

Teams can talk about playing with energy and making that part of their identity. Doing it on difficult nights in the course of the long 82-game schedule are even trickier. Finding energy every night is something the Magic have to be about.

The Orlando Magic want to be a team built around their energy. But the young team is still learning how to create energy on a nightly basis.

From the start of the Orlando Magic’s 108-92 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, it was clear the Magic did not have the energy they would need.

They looked tired from the long travel and a step slow, fouling seemingly at will. They turned the ball over eight times for 12 points in the first quarter alone.

The Magic were down nine at the end of the period and trailed the entire game. There was no climbing back. Orlando did not seem to have anything in reserve.

"“It’s definitely something we have to learn,” Cole Anthony said after Saturday’s loss. “We have a bunch of young guys but we’ve been saying that all year. We’ve got to learn on these nights where we have back-to-backs, learn how to find some energy. [Tonight] the energy wasn’t too high. We had a few plays where we gave up a few offensive rebounds.”"

Every energy indicator went against the Magic in this one. And these are all things Orlando can control.

They ended the game with 17 turnovers for 21 points, a flaw that has put the Magic in deep holes plenty of times before and prevented them from coming back.

The Mavericks went to the free-throw line for 38 attempts, helping negate their 41.0-percent shooting overall.

Dallas is a team that is good at drawing fouls anyway. But that many free throw attempts suggest an opponent was late on rotations or simply grabbing opposing players rather than using their feet to defend.

The Mavericks added 12 offensive rebounds, although only 10 points on 3-for-11 shooting on second-chance opportunities.

Orlando found some moments of clarity but could never really build the moment the team needed to climb back into the game. The Magic were always climbing uphill and oftentimes unable to get out of their own way.

The Mavericks won all the hustle points the Magic have to win.

"“Just carelessness. Just being careless with the basketball,” Anthony said of the team’s turnovers. “We didn’t value the possession. To win in this league, you need to value the possession and get a shot every time. I’d rather get a bad shot than a bad turnover that leads to points for the other team.”"

Simply put, especially against a slower-pace team like the Mavericks, the Magic did not give themselves enough chances to score and keep up. Once they fell behind they had no chance to make up the ground. Not without finding a way to pick up their energy, especially defensively.

Dallas, for its part, left the door open with missed shots. But the Mavericks did not make the same mistakes. They had an understanding of who they are and found the will to play like that. The Magic did not have the same focus.

In the course of a regular season, there are going to be moments where a team has to dig deep into its reserves and find this energy. Some nights it is going to be harder to find it than others.

Playing a high-tempo team like the Hornets on the first night of a back-to-back and then traveling from Charlotte to Dallas was always going to be a difficult ask. This was an easy-to-point-to-schedule loss — every team will have them.

Nobody wants to use the schedule as an excuse. The Mavericks traveled from Memphis the night before and played a late tip-off — 10 p.m. Eastern Time. They had every reason to feel the fatigue too.

But Dallas clearly had more juice. Whether that was because of the home crowd behind them, their veteran experience or something else. The Magic were the ones left looking tired and beaten.

"“They played last night, we played last night,” Mosley said after Saturday’s game. “Us being able to muster up the energy and finding our opportunities when we can put our foot on the gas and go. There are other times where we have to understand the execution and playing with a sense of urgency but also the smarts behind it.”"

This is yet another lesson for this young Magic team. One that the team has needed half a season to learn and is still learning. The team has to become better at finding and matching its energy in each game this season. It is their only chance to win.

Orlando is only 1-8 on the second night of back-to-backs this season. And there are some pretty big eggs laid in some of those games.

It is one of the many areas Orlando has struggled this season with consistency.

And that is more of what is at the heart of all this. These difficult-schedule games are more about a team finding its identity and sticking to it. It is more about relying on what a team does best to get through those moments of fatigue.

Orlando is very clearly still figuring this out. The team is happy to be competing and giving itself the chance to win.

While that is an important step, the team needs to start inching toward some more results. Winning consistently is the goal. And carving out that identity — something the team can rely on during those tired moments and games.

Another hard lesson for a young team still seeking its way.

But the most basic thing Orlando can ask from this young team is to find and play with energy every night. It is more than half the battle for this team to give itself a chance.