Anthony Black's Earth-shattering dunk reveals a major truth about the Orlando Magic

If you want to know the difference between Anthony Black from the first two seasons of his career, look no further than the dunk that has literally the whole basketball world talking.

In a tie game with 2:30 to play, the Magic got a steal and fed the ball forward to Black in transition. Black was on the right side and there was no hesitation as he attacked quickly. He Euro-stepped to the middle through two defenders before rising up for a massive right-handed jam.

Four Memphis Grizzlies jumped with him. All of them fell to Black's powerfully massive dunk as the Uber Arena crowd started buzzing.

That dunk gave the Magic the lead for good. But it was more than just the lead. It was an attitude shift.

"That was ridiculous," Paolo Banchero said on Amazon's postgame show. "One thing about AB is when you see him running that floor, you have got to give him the ball because he can do stuff like that on the break. As soon as I saw him do that cross step, I knew he was going to go up to dunk it. I don't know why all of them guys jumped. He isn't one to jump with coming down the lane."

Orlando held on for a 118-111 victory over Memphis. More than that, the Magic got their swagger and aggressiveness back. They were searching for their identity through the first half of the game, and they found it.

Orlando's success is about this audaciousness. It is about this aggressiveness and confidence. It is about this swagger.

The Magic have spent a lot of their season this year unsure of themselves. Their defense has not been as reliable as it was in years past. They were trying some new offensive concepts that did not click fully, despite their relative success.

The team has needed moments to remind itself who it can be. To put aside some of the timidness and uncertainty.

That is what Black's dunk could exemplify. That is what the Magic did when they looked their best in the critical moments of Thursday's win.

Taking control

The Orlando Magic certainly looked timid to open the game, letting the Memphis Grizzlies make 9 of 14 3-pointers in the first quarter and falling behind by 16 right out of the gate. They trailed by as much as 20, playing All-Star-Game-levels of defense.

Orlando could not keep up with the pace and could not seemingly get a grip on the game. It looked like the same tentative, unassured play that had plagued the Magic for much of the last month.

"I think we played too slow," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Thursday's win. "They got out in transition a ton. We missed a lot at the rim, which led to fast breaks for them. We've just got to do a better job, one, finishing at the rim and, two, knocking our shots down, but then it's got to be a clear sprint to get back in transition, knowing this is a team that wants to get out and run."

Slowly, Orlando retook control.

It started with Paolo Banchero pouring in 11 points in the second quarter to get the game back within single digits at the half. Slowly, the Magic started to play with some confidence.

Then came the third quarter, when the Magic held the Grizzlies to 12 points and 3-for-18 shooting. Orlando was back to playing its aggressive defense, poking and prodding Memphis into tough shots and using those misses to feed Orlando's fast break.

The Magic opened an 11-point lead, flipping the game completely on its head.

"I thought we came out in the third and played really good defense like the Orlando Magic do usually," Franz Wagner said after Thursday's game. "That was the key to winning the game."

Whether it was Anthony Black draining threes or Moe Wagner finding his groove and scoring around the rim -- even taking his first charge since returning! -- the Magic found energy plays from everyone.

Defense is ultimately what helped Orlando take control to begin with. One of the turning point plays in the second quarter came when Desmond Bane got back in transition to block a dunk attempt from Jaylen Wells. That came with the Grizzlies up 10.

This was Magic basketball.

Aggressive, confident, assertive and never backing down. This was a team playing with joy and confidence. Two things that have been lacking lately.

When this team puts its foot down and is all on the gas with its physicality on defense, it becomes a tough team to beat. All the pieces work in perfect harmony.

And far too often they have gone into a shell, uncertain what to do.

Black's dunk awakens the beast

After dominating the third quarter, the Orlando Magic reverted to the problematic, lethargic play that has led to far too many fourth-quarter collapses.

The Memphis Grizzlies erased a nine-point deficit in two minutes because they were suddenly getting into the paint with ease, getting to the foul line and making outside shots again.

The Magic were caught on their back foot and questioning everything again.

They deferred again to Paolo Banchero, setting him up at the top of the key or at the mid-post, and watched him try to bail out the offense. He made the right plays, trying to dish the ball to open shooters, and they missed.

It took Black's dunk to get the team back on track. It really took Franz Wagner taking over with a putback off his own miss to tie the game before Wendell Carter knocked the ball away from Jaren Jackson Jr. for Paolo Banchero to steal setting up the runway for Anthony Black's dunk.

From there, the Grizzlies could not crack the Magic. When Franz Wagner gained separation from Santi Aldama to hit a floater 1:03 to play for a five-point lead, the Grizzlies were out of time against this confident Magic team.

They had found their way again.

Orlando will still need to find its way through the forest. The Magic are hoping that this game can build some momentum and rebuild some confidence. It was certainly good to have Wagner back in the lineup.

But it should be clear what the Magic need: They need the attitude Black had in transition. They need the belief and confidence that they can take on an entire team and finish through them.

That invincibility and bravado is essential to this team's culture. At last, they looked like the more assertive team to prove it.