Being noncompetitve is not an option for the Orlando Magic

The Orlando Magic were down 11 points just a little more than four minutes into the game. The team had three turnovers in that early stretch and the Toronto Raptors made 10 of their first 12 shots and went more than seven minutes with just two possessions without scoring a point (two turnovers at that).

Toronto was determined to dominate the game after a blowout loss Friday in Brooklyn, setting the tone from an opening possession steal. Orlando was still left trying to catch its breath and figure out what it wants to do.

The Magic were clearly staggered and unable to match the Raptors in any way in what turned into a virtual rout.

"“We know it’s a game of runs,” coach Jamahl Mosley said after Saturday’s loss. “Obviously, we’ve seen that. We’ve come back from runs. We’ve watched the other teams come back from runs. We’ve had teams come back on us from runs. Just understand to stay in the moment, chip away at it one possession at a time and not look for the home run play.”"

The deficit at Scotiabank Arena kept growing though. The Magic, as has been the case throughout what is now an eight-game losing streak, could not seem to get a grip on the deficit or find their way to play.

The Magic right now are non-competitive. They have lost by double digits in five of those eight games. Only one of those outings could be considered” clutch” by the NBA’s definition.

The Orlando Magic entered the season with the goal of being more competitive and giving themselves more chances to win. Right now, the team is far away from that goal and that is unacceptable, regardless of results.

Orlando knew this would be a season of development and error. It knew that the team would go through its growing pains.

But through it all, the team asked players to level up. That meant putting itself in more positions to win and learning from its mistakes to give itself a chance to win more games.

That is plainly not happening. It is not happening in a severe way right now that has the Magic drifting through games and giving up valuable time to improve.

Yes, Orlando can learn things through failure too. But failure cannot be allowed to fester like this.

The best growth for a young team and the best learning should come from playing competitive games. And after last year working at the bottom of the standings and playing largely non-competitive games, the team hoped to graduate past that.

At this nadir — a 121-108 loss to the Raptors on the road on Saturday —  the Magic are trying to find that competitive edge again. They are seeing the same mistakes repeated and a roster that and lineup grouping that just does not seem to work right together.

Yes, injuries are part of the equation. But that is not an excuse for consistently getting beat up this way. It is not an excuse for a team to get run off the court by the end of the first quarter.

It started with that defense and its inability to keep players in front or fan back out to the 3-point line.

The Magic trailed by as much as 33 points and gave up 70 points in the paint, the second time in the last week the team has given up 70 or more points in the paint. A sure sign of the team’s poor defensive intensity and focus. The Raptors did not even need to hit 3-pointers (9-for-29 shooting), in the same way the Atlanta Hawks did not in Wednesday’s loss.

It continues with the team’s lack of ball movement offensively and inability to get easy shots to make up for those deficiencies.

Orlando has some quality creators and playmakers in Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero and now with Markelle Fultz. But the ball stops when it reaches them and the ball does not kick back out when they are able to collapse the defense. There is just a general sense of settling for the perimeter or the tough shots rather than moving it quickly to find holes in the defense.

Whether it is running into a bit of a wall of fatigue because of the huge burdens he has had to carry, Franz Wagner is struggling especially in recent games, only coming alive late after struggling to hit shots he has consistently hit this season. He had only nine points on 4-for-8 shooting as he could not get himself involved in the game.

Banchero could not get going either. He scored nine points on 2-for-8 shooting in his first game he failed to score 10 points in his career.

The only player in the Magic’s starting lineup to reach double figures was Bol Bol at 18 points on 7-for-8 shooting. He had five turnovers though as he was forcing his offense as much as anyone and the Raptors were able to trap and harass him throughout the game.

Bol’s highlights and scoring numbers pop off the page, but he still makes a lot of critical mistakes. Not to single him out. A lot of players are making these same mistakes too.

The whole picture is not working well together.

The Magic right now need to find a way to make their play simpler. They need to find a way to put players in the best positions and get everyone on the same page. right now the team is not able to make up for the deficiencies their big lineup presents — namely its lack of lateral quickness and ability to keep players in front or its poor outside shooting to give its drivers a chance to create space inside.

These issues go beyond something simple like that. Orlando is hardly disruptive defensively. The team gets precious few deflections and seemingly even fewer fast-break opportunities — 16 fast-break points in this game is a good number for the usually struggling Magic.

Orlando’s bench was able to shrink that massive lead in the fourth quarter thanks to a much more energetic defensive effort, Terrence Ross’ hot shooting and much better ball movement and spacing.

Yes, that came with the game already decided. But it showed perhaps the benefit of this team going to a more traditional look to find some offensive balance and spacing. At this point, Orlando has to consider doing whatever it can to make life easier for itself.

It has to do whatever it can to become more competitive.

that was always the goal for this season. And that is what the team is missing.

Effort is expected and not nearly enough for this team. The Magic have to be in these games with a chance to win. That is the only way this team is going to grow.

Orlando wanted to be more competitive this year. Right now the team is not getting to the fourth quarter. The Magic have to do at least that to grow and develop the way they want.

Being non-competitive like this is just not an option for this season. And that is the only way this season gets lost.

The Magic have to find their way out. And that may necessitate some real changes to force it to happen.