Orlando Magic earning confirmation of their belief at Amway Center

The Orlando Magic have taken their share of punches early this season.

From injuries to close losses to moments of deep frustration, Orlando is not where it wants to be even if the team intrinsically knew this would be another season of learning and growing.

From the outside, at least, it looked like the team was going through the same problems it has for much of the last decade. This was a talented team underperforming and getting used to losing.

For a fan base that has struggled to cement a future since losing its last superstar in Dwight Howard, the fear of the perpetual rebuild cycle never seems too far away.

That is how things felt in the early season. And external pressure seemed to be building as the team struggled to pull itself together and make the kind of progress that seemed promised in the offseason or carve out their identity.

Internally, though, the Magic seemed quietly confident. They understood the work they were putting in.

The Orlando Magic have had a rough start to their season. But the team is slowly starting to put things together, giving confirmation to their beliefs about what is in store for this group.

Players, especially leaders like Wendell Carter, saw the forest for the trees. They put the responsibility on themselves to see this thing through and make good on the immense talent they possessed.

"“I feel like the sky is the limit for us,” Carter said after Friday’s game. “I am just really proud of all the guys on this team and the fact they bought in. It’s easy to go into a team that having the year that we had last year and become very selfish and think about getting yours. I think a lot of guys have bought into the fact that we can be a very special group. We’re just buying into it.”"

In other words, the team needed some time to figure it out and get on the same page. Maybe a bad loss like Monday’s to the Houston Rockets sparked renewed focus and attention to detail. But they always knew they had it in them.

What the Orlando Magic put on display in Friday’s 114-97 win over the Phoenix Suns was one of the first times the team could see this confirmation of their belief. This was a complete win — a near wire-to-wire victory.

It was a game where everyone contributed in meaningful ways throughout the roster.

Carter led the team in scoring with 20 points. Franz Wagner was again a driving force, initiating offense and getting downhill toward the basket for 17 points. When the Suns trapped him or pressured him to get him off the ball, Jalen Suggs took over as the initiator, darting through the lane for his own runs to the basket for 16 points.

Bol Bol had his scoring burst in the first quarter to confuse the Suns defense. Chuma Okeke again provided stellar defense on Devin Booker and hit his outside shots to keep the Suns’ defense honest early. Terrence Ross finished the job in the fourth quarter with a scoring burst to get to his 14 points for the game.

Even Admiral Schofield and R.J. Hampton provided critical minutes and shots at the end of the second quarter to keep Orlando in front.

This is the ideal way the Magic want to play.

"“I just loved our ability to do it by committee,” coach Jamahl Mosley said after Friday’s game. “We’ve talked about that from the beginning of the year. Guys willing to step up and when their number is called, they are ready to go.“Talking in the locker room, guys talk about let’s go get the rim. I think we are going to continue to focus on winning quarters, winning possessions. As you add those things up, you get those results at the end that you are striving for. It is the little plays you want to end up dominating.”"

It all worked. The Magic want to be a team that works by committee with everyone capable of going on scoring binges as they did Friday. But it was more the poise and confidence the team played with that finished the job.

The Magic led by six to open the second half, the Suns got no closer than the entire rest of the way. They cut the lead to nine twice in the fourth quarter. This was complete domination, a team that was playing with such supreme confidence that the team’s previous issues closing out games were pushed clearly to the wayside.

The team’s struggles to start the season might have been enough to cause a young team to splinter and lose faith in what they are doing. Faith can be in short supply without results. Especially early in a season of learning.

But the team has clearly stuck with things. And when they click, they click. The team is starting to tie everything together and find the consistency the team was lacking.

That is a credit to the coaching staff for keeping the belief and pointing out the good things the team was building. It is a credit to the players too for sticking with it and having faith in what they were building.

That faith has never wavered. And while this is just a two-game sample — and there are surely more struggles to come especially as the team reintegrates injured players and heads back out on the road next week — there is clearly something the team can work and build on.

"“We’re definitely building off the last stretch of the season last year where we were starting to figure out how to string games together,” Terrence Ross said after Friday’s win. “We kind of built on that during the summer. Right now it’s paying off. I know sometimes the season gets long and you lose a couple here or there. But I think we have a good mentality of just staying focused, a day at a time and be ready. We’re building on that.”"

Just as the team knows it could not get too low with some of the early season frustrations, the team cannot get too high on these recent successes and how it has found itself a bit on the home floor. The team still has to continue to get better. There will be greater challenges ahead.

The team will have to lean on this feeling and these moments to remember to stay even and dominate the simple as Mosley puts it — winning each possession and moving forward. Ross said the Magic just have to remember to do what they need to do to win and stay on course, no matter the deficit they are facing or the situation in the game.

Finding that composure is likely to be the biggest battle of this season.

But through an early season of frustration, Orlando needed to see confirmation of the belief the team put in itself. It needed to see what the team looks like when everything is clicking on all cylinders.

"“Regardless of what the game looks like, we have a way to play and when we play that way it gives us the best chance to win,” Ross said after Friday’s win. “Just reiterating that and kind of reminding them once we start playing that right way, these wins will start to snowball. You can see a little bit of it right now. They are starting to believe it.”"

When the Magic inevitably hit another rough patch. This is the game that is proof the team is heading in the right direction and building something.

It is the confirmation the team has been waiting to build on.