West Coast heartbreak part of growing up for young Orlando Magic

The Orlando Magic wrapped up their five-game trip out West on Sunday night, with a 2-3 record and the feeling that this was an opportunity that got away from them.

Whereas on the surface picking up road wins against the Golden State Warriors (who they are now 3-0 against in their last three meetings) and Portland Trail Blazers shows growth, head coach Jamahl Mosley will know there is still much work to do.

Two-time MVP Nikola Jokic broke the Magic’s hearts in lifting the Denver Nuggets to a three-point win over them, while they also lost to the Utah Jazz by only four points on this trip. Throw in a 136-111 drubbing at the hands of the Sacramento Kings, and there were hard lessons learned.

Despite the close losses, the Orlando Magic are still just about hanging in there in the race for the play-in, and can now look forward to four of their next six at home.

The tough manner of losing two close games, and then getting blown out in another, would be enough to deter a young team from continuing to play the way that they are trying to.

Make no mistake, the Magic were not great in all five of the games either. The loss to the Kings was as bad as they have played all season. And the defeat to the Nuggets was not helped by some poor periods of play.

The win over the Warriors was all that is good about this young team and could have set the tone for a positive trip. Interestingly the Warriors are the only one of those five opponents who they have a winning record against at 36-32 all-time.

Against the other four teams combined, they are 114-155 all-time. If you think back to some of the ghastly trips previous iterations of this team have gone on in the past, this was still better than some of those experiences.

Point guard Markelle Fultz continued to play big minutes (30.4 minutes per night on the trip) and averaged 15.6 points per game as well. His 3-point shooting may still be close to non-existent, he made one of only five attempts out West, yet that is not stopping him from having an impact.

Franz Wagner also had a trip to remember, with the nickname “fourth-quarter Franz” sticking after a tremendous showing in the frantic win over the Trail Blazers. Wagner has been one of the best players in the league in fourth-quarters this season, which has been huge for the team.

Center Bol Bol also got revenge of sorts against his former employers in the Nuggets. He could not quite help the Magic get the win, but he finished with an impressive 17 points and six rebounds. He was also back to casually producing moments of brilliance, such as this.

Yet the trip cannot have been all good. Although it was a necessary growing experience for the young group, the lack of consistency once again reared its ugly head.

Put simply it is the biggest factor holding the Magic back from getting more serious about making the play-in.

It would be unfair to lay all of this on one person, as even rookie sensation Paolo Banchero has had less impactful games at times this season. But in Cole Anthony, the franchise clearly have a player who is struggling for consistency on a nightly basis.

One minute he is outworking the Magic’s bigs on the glass, to snatch timely rebounds and provide an energy boost off the bench. His 4.5 boards per night this year have been valuable, and out West he upped that number to 4.8 a game.

Less impressive was the 8.4 points and 4.0 assists per game he put up during those games, while shooting 27.3 percent from 3-point range. The Magic at this stage have players with more clearly defined roles, and Anthony’s feels like that of sixth man.

But in his third season, he is not showing what he can do often enough to warrant that role. Trading him may not be the answer yet, but nights where he forces shots and makes the wrong decisions, and we saw both during the trip, frustrate because we know what Anthony can do.

Ending with a glass-half-full mentality and the Magic could have gone 4-1 on the trip if they had shown more experience and poise. Two factors that we know will come as they continue to get reps together.

The organization has also had a 60-137 record on the road in the last five seasons (not including this one), and are 425-540 all-time versus teams from the Western Conference. So getting two wins and displaying some of what is good about this group was important.

The Magic are not yet at full strength either, with Jonathan Isaac looking lively during his stint with the Lakeland Magic so far. How they could have used a player like him during some of those difficult stretches throughout the five games.

With four of their next six games at home before another four-game road trip (against only one team from the Western Conference in the surging Minnesota Timberwolves), they will get a chance to show that they have grown from a tough and at times heartbreaking trip soon.