10 losses the Orlando Magic regret from the 2023 season

10 losses the Orlando Magic will regret from 2023

8. Nov. 7 vs. Houston Rockets

A good team takes care of business against bad teams. The Orlando Magic were not healthy to start off the season and it is important to acknowledge that fact.

But the Magic gave up 134 points to a bad Rockets team and gave up a ton of 3-pointers to one of the worst shooting teams in the entire league. This was a team looking for its identity and not finding it early in the season.

When the Magic look back at their results, they will certainly see this game as one of the biggest missed opportunities. They got hit with a bad night at the worst opportunity.

In a season that started poorly (2-8 record going into the game), Orlando needed to find a way to get a win to steady the ship and failed to and only allowed the season to continue and spiral out of control.

At this point, it felt like the Magic were certainly in for a very long season as they struggled to put the pieces together.

7. Nov. 27 vs. Philadelphia 76ers

Teams need to take advantage of opportunities. And they need to build off their success too.

The Orlando Magic have been depleted for the majority of the past few seasons and have been taken advantage of. But in a pair of games against the Philadelphia 76ers in November, the Orlando Magic failed to take advantage of their opponent being shorthanded.

Worse still, after a close loss in the first meeting, they found a way to lose by 30 to the 76ers without Joel Embiid, James Harden and Tyrese Maxey.

This was the low point of the season for sure. At this point, the Magic were so injury-depleted, it seemed difficult to know where to start with them. It was hard to find a way out until players got healthy.

Early on in the season, the Magic were struggling to find wins. This was a game Orlando had to take advantage of and could not. Instead, the Magic got blown out and was a big disappointment in a season where every win counted.

Fortunately, they got some relief soon in the form of some healthy bodies.

6. Dec. 28 at Detroit Pistons

Once again the Orlando Magic found themselves against a bad team in the Detroit Pistons without Cade Cunningham. Even on the second night of a back-to-back, this felt like a winnable game and the kind of game a postseason team takes care of one way or another.

Orlando continuously found themselves against teams at the right time and came up short. These were the chances the team could not get back.

Instead, the Magic were playing down to their competition and allowing a team at the bottom of the standings to have career games and standout performances. Orlando allowed Saddiq Bey (28 points) and Alec Burkes (31 points) to torch the team off the bench. These are all games that the Magic failed to win games they should have.

On top of that, this game was marred by a fight that started between Moe Wagner and Killian Hayes. That fight would claim nearly every player on the roster, forcing the league to spread out suspensions over two games. This was a loss that really resulted in three losses in the end.