Late in the second quarter, Jalen Suggs and the Orlando Magic had the juices flowing.
They were flowing and taking a stand against the Los Angeles Lakers. Orlando had its 3-pointers going, their attack was lively and their defense was bottling up the potency of LeBron James and keeping it from going elsewhere.
It all seemed to crash down though when Suggs went to the basket and took a hard flagrant foul.
Suggs drove to the basket and rose up for a layup. James put an arm out underneath it what otherwise surely would have been foul. But the hard hit came up top with Talen Horton-Tucker going for the ball and knocking Jalen Suggs off-balance in mid-air.
Suggs hit the floor hard, chest first, with his left hand trapped underneath to brace his fall. The oxygen suddenly left the charged Amway Center as there were fears of a serious injury to the rookie guard.
Nobody would fault the Magic for thinking the worst with their injury luck the past two seasons.
Jalen Suggs took a nasty fall in the second quarter that derailed a career night for the rookie guard. But he got back up just as the Orlando Magic have had to continue doing to grow.
Suggs eventually would get up. He would be flexing his left hand and wrist for much of the rest of the game. But he sank his two free throws and helped the Magic build an eight-point lead in the locker room.
He may not have been quite the same player the rest of the game. But he got up and kept fighting.
"“I’ve taken more hits in basketball than football, I promise,” Suggs said after the game Friday. “I’m OK. Part of the game. Part of bein aggressive. We talked about mindset, attacking the rim with intent, not going searching for a foul or anything like that. That’s just going to happen sometimes. That’s part of the process attacking the rim. Showing the league and showing everybody that’s what I’m about when I get down there. I survived it, I feel OK. We’re all good.”"
Suggs certainly looked impressive to that point and throughout the game.
He finished with a career-high 22 points to go with nine assists. Suggs got to the line for 10 free throws, making nine, showing off his aggression. He had 13 points and eight assists on 4-for-8 shooting in the first half alone.
That first half featured some stunning displays of control and patience as he attacked the basket. His game really has grown since he returned from injury. He is getting to the foul line a lot more — 3.7 free throw attempts per game this season and 4.2 attempts per game since returning from injury.
It also featured some smart passing, including this incredible touchdown pass to Wendell Carter that beat LeBron James in safety coverage.
Notably, that cross-court pass came after Suggs’ nasty fall.
Everyone has been impressed with Suggs’ ability to bounce back from everything this year — from bad falls to bad performances. He has shown a ton of physical toughness throughout the season.
Just bouncing back and hitting the ground running coming back from a six-week absence with a fractured thumb showed how focused he can be.
Even with the team losing and struggling to break through to win consistently, this individual growth has been encouraging to see.
"“The level of being decisive and his decision-making, either attacking the rim or trying to find [teammates],” coach Jamahl Mosley said after Friday’s loss. “They go to the switching package and us holding the basketball kind of got us stagnant a little bit. Our ability to attack the paint and get to the rim. What Jalen was doing getting downhill, obviously shooting 10 free throws, that’s something we’ve asked him to do. And then obviously making the pass when other guys are open and making sure he finds the easy pass.”"
That downhill attack is certainly something the Magic need. They need more guys who can create off the dribble and draw the defense into the paint.
Of course, things all changed in the second half for Suggs and for the team.
The Lakers did a better job crowding the lane and fanning back out to the 3-point line or switching to deny those drives to the basket. Orlando has struggled to break these kinds of defenses all year. They have had to grind their way through and hope the deficits do not become too big for them to overcome (they usually do).
There is still so much learning to do to get where the team wants to be competitively.
Orlando gave up the team’s eight-point halftime lead quickly on a 17-2 run in the third quarter. Suggs missed all six of his shots in the third quarter, including five 3-pointers. Suggs said part of the issue in the third quarter was him and the team settling for 3-pointers rather than staying on the attack.
Suggs certainly could still improve as a 3-point shooter — he is making only 25.0-percent of his threes and just 21.4-percent since returning from injury. Defenses are definitely taking notice and welcoming Suggs’ 3-point attempts at the moment.
The team is still trying to improve in a lot of areas. These flashes from Suggs are all positive signs for a team that is growing and building. He is trying to put together a complete game, just like his team overall is trying to do so.
Orlando has extolled its ability to fight throughout the course of the game, even when the result is decided. It was something Lakers coach Frank Vogel praised about this team before the game.
The Magic are undoubtedly still trying to put a 48-minute game together with fewer of these deep lulls that tend to bury the team in a deficit.
"“I think it’s just talking about being aggressive,” Suggs said after Friday’s loss. “I think we were able to get a lot of easy ones, a lot them in transition before the defense was set. That was big for us in the first half. The pace that we played with I thought was great. That was one of the best halves of basketball we have played all season. It’s continuing to build on that and sustaining that.”"
The Magic are trying to build on the positives still. They are there, even if they have not all added up to a win quite yet.
The team is still going through the struggle and growing where they can. Suggs proved that when he got off the court after that hard foul and kept fighting and kept going. He has proven that as he continues to improve and come back each game.
There is still a lot of promise within this team. They have to keep grinding and keep getting up to get their breakthrough.