Orlando Magic disappointing as they regressed this weekend

Nobody expected the Orlando Magic to have a winning record or win consistently.

The team would even admit that this year is not about its wins or losses as they focused on the team’s development and improving individually each day and each moment. Even after winning four of their previous six games entering the weekend, the Magic were trying to stay focused on the process.

Again, nobody would expect the Magic to win consistently. Especially against strong playoff opponents like the Memphis Grizzlies or one of the best teams of the last month in the Boston Celtics.

It is not that Orlando lost both games this weekend then. It is the way the team lost them, seemingly continuing a week-long regression defensively and giving into the team’s worst offensive instincts and frustrations.

The Orlando Magic continued a concerning regression as the Boston Celtics completed an embarrassing weekend for the young team.

All the Magic’s deficiencies on both ends were laid bare and then ripped apart thoroughly by teams playing at the top of their game.

Both of these games seemed to play more like the way this team played in November and December rather than the encouraging run the team had through January into the last few weeks.

Orlando was at least game defensively for a quarter Sunday against the Celtics as the team tried to figure out how to crack a defense it has struggled with all year. Then the onslaught came. More offensive rebounds, more offensive struggles, turnovers leading to runouts.

Cole Anthony said after Saturday’s loss to the Grizzlies that the team was embarrassed with its effort and were straight-up punked. The Celtics may have the maturity not to completely clown another team, but they certainly kicked them while they were down.

Jaylen Brown put the exclamation point with a third-quarter dunk over Mo Bamba in a 116-83 Boston victory at the Amway Center that was essentially academic through the entire second half.

Orlando was back to losing games before it even really got going.

But, for the first time perhaps since some of those early-season games when the team was still figuring out everything that was new, the Magic looked like they became dispirited and lost their fight, allowing moments of poor play to become an avalanche that put them down by margins far too big to even pretend to erase.

Losses like the two the Magic suffered this weekend usually say a whole lot more about the losing team than the winning team. The lack of resistance to the problems presented to them and their inability to control the bleeding or find their center were concerning for the fact that these are problems this young team seemed like it had already solved and graduated past.

"“You can make the right drive, the right pass, to the one extra and then you miss a wide-open shot,” Jalen Suggs said after Sunday’s game. “We’ve just got to be OK with that. I think we are. We’ve done a good job sticking together, talking about it, learning from it and moving on. Whether it’s good or bad, it doesn’t matter. Between us, we’re just talking, trying to stick together, understanding what’s going and keep builing.”"

Orlando kept making the same mistakes over and over again. And they were all so much in their control.

In Sunday’s game, the poor field goal percentage certainly did not help. The Magic had their fourth-worst field goal percentage of the season at 35.8-percent. They made just 5 of 26 3-pointers. So at least they were not jacking up 3-pointer indiscriminately to try to catch up.

Instead, the issues compounded with turnovers. Orlando had 19 turnovers for 16 points. The missed shots and the turnovers led to 15 fast-break points.

The Magic got run around and just made some silly errors.

As well as Suggs played to get a team-high 17 points and get to the foul line repeatedly, he turned it over six times and was extremely loose with the ball. Especially in moments that did not call for it.

The rookie has struggled with turnovers all season. But usually, they are aggressive turnovers where he is getting downhill and perhaps a bit stuck trying to pass back out.

These were lazy passes though. Him trying to throw a behind-the-back pass off a drive or just a pass that floated too much and was easily intercepted or hard to catch. Everything about the Magic’s offense was just out of sync.

Wendell Carter was the only player on the team to shoot better than 50-percent in the game. And he was not so involved in the offense, taking only eight shots. Franz Wagner went 4 for 13 for the game and Cole Anthony went 3 for 10 from the floor.

For the second straight game too, the Magic gave up 16 offensive rebounds and 21 second-chance points. Orlando was getting stops and then giving away the possession again, giving Boston a second chance to score.

With all the struggles the Magic had offensively, these things kept the team from breaking out for easy baskets or made the mountain that much more difficult to climb.

Boston was the better team and dominated the game in several ways. But the Magic’s simple, controllable mistakes only made the task harder and helped the deficit grow.

"“Before the game, Coach [Dale Osborne] told us, when you’re winning you’re not as good as you think you are and when you’re losing, you’re not as bad as you think you are,” Suggs said after Sunday’s game. “We just have to continue to carry that mindset knowing what we’re building toward. Each game, no matter the outcome, we’re trying to become a better team every night. It hurts when you get a couple of tough ones. It gets really easy to get separated. We do a great job sticking together, not letting that happen and continuing to build what we have going on in that locker room.”"

The Magic are playing with a talent deficit. They are not expected to win or compete in many of these games.

The team saw clearly the last two nights — as it has in several other games this year — the team lacks star power and just does not have players to push the team ahead or attract defensive attention.

Orlando’s rebuild needs its star to really move forward and break out of the rebuilding phase. As good as some of the Magic’s individual players have been this year, they are still missing that central piece to help the team map out its future.

And so the Magic have put their focus on development and progress as a goal rather than winning and losing. That focus is fine.

Throughout this season, Orlando has been down big before. And the team has always been able to center itself and find a way to get something positive out of the game.

The Magic did not do that the last two nights.

That is what Orlando is trying to avoid. Losing will happen with this group. It has become accepted so that the team can find positives beyond the final score.

"“You’re never as good as you are when you win, you are never as bad as you think you are when you lose,” coach Jamahl Mosley said after Sunday’s game. “Our guys understand that and will bounce back. Obviously getting on the road a little bit, take a look at the film and see where we can get better. Our guys are staying the course and staying positive. This is a tied-together group so they are going to continue to push and fight for one another.”"

But the team has tasted some success now and started to carve an identity. There cannot be a return to this phase of questioning and figuring out what it takes to win. The team cannot go backward or regress.

They have stuck together through worse. But each moment like this is a test of whether they are not only invested in the project but how much they can execute it.

There is only forward. And the Magic took a step back this weekend. One the team can begin to erase Tuesday on the road.