There were a lot of dark days in November and December. There have been plenty of difficult games recently. And everyone has been eager to see and wondering when those painful moments might turn into results.
Everyone acknowledged entering this season would be a difficult year and one not judged on wins and losses. Coach Jamahl Mosley has talked about constantly how the team would need to learn the process of winning and aim to get better every day.
For a young team, every game is a lesson. Every loss gives them something new to work on. It gives them a new experience to draw on.
It would make sense if the goal was to get better every game that the team would be getting better. That this would be the part of the season where the Magic do play their best. Where, at the very least, they apply some of those lessons from previous games.
It is not even yet. The Magic still have the pain and frustration of their two worst games of the season in the last week fresh in their heads. It is still painfully clear how much work the team has to do.
All Orlando can do is put in the work and show what they have learned.
The Orlando Magic continue to show what they have learned and how they have grown, turning back the tide and eking out an ugly win over the Golden State Warriors.
Franz Wagner said after the Orlando Magic’s 94-90 win over the Golden State Warriors that pressure is a privilege. To have the ball in your hands late in the game and being trusted to make a play is a responsibility.
"“Pressure is always a privilege,” Franz Wagner said after Tuesday’s win. “That’s what I’m going to do. Even when you miss a couple of shots, just appreciating those couple of opportunities.”"
It is not a responsibility the Magic have always handled well. There have been plenty of late-game flubs and struggles.
Cole Anthony said after Tuesday’s game that the biggest difference was the team did not turn the ball over late. They executed their plays and even when they took bad shots, they were still bad shots that had a chance to go in.
The response the Magic had throughout the fourth quarter remains the most impressive thing from this young team. And the clearest sign of growth to earn an opportunity late in the game.
Orlando has had plenty of moments where the team did not handle a deficit or a run put on them and folded in the second half.
The first half of the season was characterized by one bad quarter upending three quarters where the team broke even. The Magic spent some time celebrating turning 20-point deficits to 10 because they could not celebrate anything else.
Anyone looking for a sign of some progress only needs to look at how the Magic handled these moments in Tuesday’s game.
Down 14 points in the second half, the Magic fought back.
Markelle Fultz shed aside a difficult first half to pick up his scoring and passing to start the rumblings of a run. Wendell Carter finally gave the Magic the lead late in the fourth quarter with a banked-in mid-range shot to complete a 21-6 run.
Anthony went diving on the floor to save a loose ball and force a jump ball. Even after Andrew Wiggins hit a 3-pointer to give Golden State a two-point, Cole Anthony drove in the lane to kick out to Mo Bamba as the defensive pressure got to him. Bamba drained the go-ahead 3-pointer.
From there Franz Wagner sealed the game. He got fouled on a 3-pointer to extend the lead to four. And then beat Klay Thompson on a backdoor cut for a game-clinching and cathartic slam.
This was a team doing everything it took to win.
"“We haven’t let adversity kind of like in that third quarter when they went on that run, we didn’t let that affect us,” Anthony said after Tuesday’s game. “We still stayed positive and stayed engaged into the game. We realized there are four quarters in a game. We aren’t going to lose the game in one moment like that. We stayed consistent and we stayed together. That’s ultimately what helped us win the game.”"
That is not such an easy thing for a young tam. And consistency will be the biggest challenge for the Magic moving forward.
The Magic’s effort though left the Warriors questioning their own toughness and will to win as they prepare for the playoffs — they are still the third seed in the Western Conference.
Pressure is indeed a privilege. It takes a lot to get the trust to close a game and even more trust to execute down the stretch and come through. It takes a lot more to learn and grow in these moments and build to this.
This was clearly a game the Magic would have lost earlier in the season. The 3-point barrage the Warriors put on them — seven 3-pointers for 36 points in the third quarter — would have been enough to lead to a loss earlier in the season. The team would have let go of the rope and would not regain control until the deficit was too large for this team to overcome.
Even a game where the Magic scored only 94 points and shot 43-percent (not to mention 10 for 36 from beyond the arc overall) would have made it impossible to win. That would have required a level of poise and grit that this team has sometimes lacked.
Yes, the Magic might have been able to find it, but it would often be too late, leading to some moral victory.
The team should be past the point of moral victories, as much as the Magic try to keep to that party line of avoiding talking about wins and losses. This is a group that has had at least some measure of consistency for three months.
The Orlando Magic’s defensive performances in their last two games — two of their best of the season, granted against undermanned Oklahoma City Thunder and Golden State Warriors teams — has been something quite normal. The Magic have had one of the top-10 defenses in the league since Jan. 1.
This is supposed to be normal. It is becoming more normal — even if there are still levels of inconsistency.
The Magic have been putting these lessons to practice slowly. Very slowly. But they are starting to show that growth. They are continuing to show that growth.
So many of the things the Magic did right in Tuesday’s win were the exact things the Magic have preached all year.
They had 25 assists on 34 field goals (including 15 on 18 field goals in the first half), moving the ball effectively to the open man and making incisive cuts to the basket and kick-outs to the perimeter.
They defended at a high level with their second straight game giving up 90 points or fewer. They dove on the floor and hustled for every inch in the game.
The team has been tied together for a long time. The Magic have been grinding and working together. They are starting to put all those pieces together and starting to look like a team.
It can go away quickly. The Magic know that. Their work is always continuing. They are always on the grind.
The pressure situations are indeed a privilege. And coming through them in the end is certainly a privilege well earned. One the Magic are continuing to build upon.