Desmond Bane helped the Orlando Magic pick up another rival

The Orlando Magic were frustrated throughout Sunday's game against the New York Knicks.

Franz Wagner going down to what has been diagnosed as a high ankle sprain certainly rattled them a bit and left them in a bit of a daze. Shots were not falling, and the Magic lost contact at various points throughout the second half.

About midway through the fourth quarter, some frustration boiled over.

Following Anthony Black knocking the ball away from OG Anunoby in transition, Desmond Bane flew in for the rebound and landed inbounds. He then reared up and spiked the ball on Anunoby's back. The claim on the broadcast was that Bane was falling out of bounds and it was his way to save possession.

You can be the judge of that:

The play was reviewed and, while the Magic retained possession, the call was upgraded to a technical foul for a hostile act by Bane. Anunoby got up and seemed to ask Bane what he was doing, and that led to both teams seemingly needing to be separated.

More than anything . . . everyone was just confused.

"I was confused," Anunoby said after the game. "It was funny, I mean, but it was confusing. He said he was trying to throw the ball somewhere, but he threw it off me. But it was funny. Yeah they would’ve had a fast break, but it’s all good, it was funny. It made me laugh."

Both Bane and Anunoby seemed to take it lightheartedly after the fact. There seemed to be no hard feelings.

The league saw things a bit differently, fining Bane $35,000 for the incident. You live and you learn.

But it has added to a growing list of extra-curricular incidents involving the Magic this season. This was not even the first one involving Desmond Bane, after he was ejected for spiking the ball on Onyeka Okongwu after he got beat in transition and wrapped him up to prevent an easy layup.

Orlando is growing quite the list of rivalries and incidents in addition to their reputation as a hard-nosed, physical defensive team.

Not backing down

Desmond Bane's two incidents with the New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks are the highest-profile incidents, garnering some chuckles for how silly it looked for Bane to be spiking the ball.

But the message was kind of the same, the Magic do not back down from anybody. And they will do everything they can to try to get under opponents' skin. Knicks fans cascaded Bane with boos every time he touched the ball in the fourth quarter after the incident. That seemed to rile the team up more.

Orlando has been unafraid to play the villain this season. They will get into scraps and talk a lot during games. Teams that are not mentally tough or can get drawn into those arguments find themselves getting suckered into it.

The loss to the Hawks is certainly an example of it bending too far the other way. But even in that blowout, Bane's ejection seemed to inject some life into the Magic for however brief it was.

That was not the team's only ejection early on this season.

Jalen Suggs was ejected from the Orlando Magic's blowout win over the Philadelphia 76ers when he came over to pull Andre Drummond off Wendell Carter after Drummond tried to spark his team with some overly physical play with Carter.

Carter's reaction to Drummond seemingly trying to square up with him and start a fight drew plenty of reaction on the internet.

The Magic were not done picking up scuffles and rivalries. In the aftermath of their win over the Detroit Pistons, Isaiah Stewart was seen shouting at Orlando Magic players as the team celebrated clinching its spot in the NBA Cup quarterfinals. The two teams had to be kept somewhat separate after the game ended.

Orlando did not seem bothered by this. It was clear how much they had gotten under the Pistons' skin in the game. There was already some bad blood between the teams after last year's game.

Physicality wins

This has become kind of normal for the Orlando Magic. They get into these incidents because they are a physical team. They do not apologize for fouling and hitting teams.

If there is one thing that coach Jamahl Mosley has built with the Magic, it is this reputation for physicality. Teams know when they face Orlando, they are in for a battle. One that will not be so easy to recover from.

The Magic beat the Knicks twice, and in both games, both coach Mike Brown and players on the Knicks lamented that the Magic were just far more physical. Gavin Schall of Locked On Knicks said the Knicks got punked in the Magic's Nov. 12 win. The Magic's physicality can clearly rattle and bother teams.

That was a point of pride for New York that the team withstood the physicality in Sunday's game.

"They're well coached, and they're a really good team," Brown said after Sunday's Knicks win. "I thought, when we played down in Orlando, the second game down in Orlando, we started the game right. I thought a lot of it was led by Landry [Shamet] at the point the ball and then he got hurt and kind of took our foot off the gas a little bit in the department of being physical and they didn't and it resulted in and win for them. So it's good to get a win against a good team. It plays a certain way, and we hadn't kind of figured it out yet."

That second game saw the Magic put a fourth-quarter run together to bury the Knicks. It was again a soul-searching loss. New York's win on Sunday meant a lot to them. It was a boogeyman they have not been able to shake.

The Magic have gone through the league already and made some enemies.

The Boston Celtics complained about their physicality throughout their playoff series last season. The Detroit Pistons have gotten into several shoving matches with the Orlando Magic over the years. Trae Young has often complained about the Orlando Magic's physicality when the Atlanta Hawks face them.

And now the Knicks have faced the wall that is the Magic three times. They have felt what that feels like. And it is not pleasant.

Orlando cetainly needs to watch its own temper. There is no reason for Bane to spike the ball on anyone.

But the Magic are not going to back down from anyone ever.