The news came as a sudden shock.
Monday afternoon, the team announced coach Jamahl Mosley along with assistant coach Nate Tibbetts had entered the team’s health and safety protocols. As if injuries had not done enough to ravage the team, the coaching staff would now be down two men.
Not that the Orlando Magic’s coaching staff is not capable of filling in those seats or have the experience to do so. Not that there should be any disruption with Jesse Mermuys in the lead chair. The team should still be about everything Mosley and the coaching staff have preached all season.
The team was still capable of executing.
In many ways, the team was about these things Monday night against the Portland Trail Blazers. The Magic got down and defended and gave themselves every chance to climb back into the game. Portland was in control for most of the game and built a lead but found it just as difficult to score.
The elephant in the room for the Magic remains though. The team can be about defense all it wants. But the point of the game is to score.
The Orlando Magic’s defense has made some important strides of late. But the team’s offense continues to make it hard for the defense to show these gains.
Defense remains a good base to build and grow positive habits. But it needs to be pointed toward generating points. And, in the end, a team has to execute and make shots to win.
It is certainly a problem that some of Orlando’s offensive struggles were somewhat predictable. And each game filled with offensive struggle only highlights any mistakes that are made.
The Portland Trail Blazers took it to the Orlando Magic throughout their 98-88 win at the Amway Center on Monday.
They raced to an early lead only to see the Magic close the gap in the second quarter. Portland then took firm and final control with a 16-2 run to close the second quarter. They did this with eight offensive rebounds and 11 second-chance points in the quarter to give themselves from distance.
Orlando assistant coach Bret Brielmaier told the Bally Sports Florida broadcast at halftime that the team got some good looks and they just needed to trust they would go down. Sticking with it would help them get back into the game just as it had in the second quarter.
But those shots would not fall. And the Blazers eventually grew the margin past 20 points. From there, the game was simply elementary.
"“I think it came down to a matter of making the easy ones,” Mo Bamba said after Monday’s game. “I had a few at the rim I should have probably just dunked. Shots that we normally make didn’t just fall. We can’t fall back on that. We have to let our defense be our identity.”"
Orlando shot 37.8-percent for the game. The team made 8 of 32 3-pointers (25-percent) including missing the team’s first seven attempts from deep. Franz Wagner missed all five of his 3-pointers. Cole Anthony made only one of seven. The usually reliable Gary Harris made only one of his five attempts.
Mermuys said the Blazers did a good job mixing up their defenses and frustrating the Magic. He gave credit to Portland for defending at a high level.
It was just hard for the team to find any momentum or build much of anything to try to cut into the deficit. And the Blazers kept making plays to stifle the Magic’s comeback attempts. Their defense was just not leading to offense.
The Magic might have put up good defensive numbers but there were several of these critical mistakes throughout the game.
"“You hold any team in the NBA to 98 points, obviously you feel pretty good about it,” Mermuys said after Monday’s game. “I thought we definitely did what we had to do defensively. But we just couldn’t offensively never got a rhythm. We struggled to make shots tonight. We never could get anything going offensively.”"
For the second straight game, it felt like the Magic were a step slow. They got beat on the offensive glass and to loose balls in general. They committed turnovers — 16 for 22 Blazers points — that slowed their momentum and gave the Blazers easy scoring opportunities. Portland finished with 12 fast-break points in the game.
Orlando’s statistically solid defense was not enough to do the trick.
Portland had a 96.1 offensive rating for the game. The Blazers were at 103.8 points per 100 possessions through three quarters.
All of these got highlighted more because of the offense struggled so much. But these miscues also put the offense in a bind, unable to get easy ones.
"“There are nights where you have to take it solely on your shoulders and take responsibility,” Jalen Suggs said after Monday’s loss. “For myself and the team, we were lacking some energy tonight. It was apparent. Tonight was not what we are about. We’ve got to be better than that. All of us. This is one we take and we learn from, we watch and move onto the next.”"
A lot of these errors were corrected to give the Magic an outside chance. It was good to see the team put in another solid defensive performance.
They just needed a shot to go down. That is not something this team can rely on.
It is no secret how much the Magic have struggled offensively this year.
They have spent the majority of the season at the bottom of every offensive category. They are currently 28th in offensive rating (102.7 points per 100 possessions), 28th in effective field goal percentage (49.2-percent) and 28th in 3-point field goal percentage (32.1-percent).
In January, when the team has largely played better, they are last in offensive rating at 101.0 points per 100 possessions and last in effective field goal percentage at 48.2-percent.
Several players have struggled offensively too.
Anthony has been ice cold since returning from injury, shooting just 32.4-percent in his seven games played in January. Wagner is down to just 18.2-percent shooting from deep this month. Chuma Okeke is starting and shooting worse than 30-percent from the floor.
And Gary Harris and Terrence Ross are still shooting strong percentages but are down from their astronomically hot field goal percentages from a few weeks ago.
Everyone has gone cold and the team has often tried to shoot its way out of the problem. The Magic just do not have a consistent offensive option to turn to or a consistent way to score.
It is showing at this point.
The Magic are putting themselves in a position to win games exactly how they want to — with their defense (eighth in the league in January at 106.9 points allowed per 100 possessions).
It is clearly not enough.
The Magic were always playing with an imperfect roster. They were always playing with a group that would need some refining and development. The Magic hope that some stability will help as players return from injury.
But the truth is that these offensive shortcomings are the team’s fatal flaw. The Magic do not have enough shooting and scoring, it seems, even to take advantage of a strong defensive game.
This is not simply one bad night.
The plain truth is the Magic need to put some focus on building up their offense as they move forward. They should be able to trust there is some nascent defensive foundation being built. The team needs some players who can score and space the floor.
Until then, it will be hard to see much progress in anything.