A lot of things felt off in the Orlando Magic’s loss to the New York Knicks on Sunday.
The team did not seem to have the same attention to detail and energy that has defined them. If anything, the Magic seemed to put their attention in the wrong places.
As Orlando tried desperately to climb back into the game and keep its home win streak alive, the frustration on players’ faces only grew.
The missed shots, the turnovers and the foul disparity were written on their faces. Every opportunity they had to climb over the top to get back in the game seemed undermined not only by the Knicks and their brilliant playmaking and shot-making but also by the Magic’s own frustrating decisions.
For a Magic team that has prided itself on its maturity and composure throughout the season, this was out of character.
As Moe Wagner said after the game, put your energy in the right place and in a positive place and it will return to you. The Magic did not have their energy in the right place.
After an off day Monday, the Magic returned to work Tuesday and broke that all down. In the team’s film session, several players spoke up to talk about the team's body language and approach to the game. To many on the Magic felt like they were going through the motions and withdrawing from the game.
They needed to call each other out on it and then put it to work on the court. That is a tough thing for a young team to do. But they went through the process and held each other accountable.
"Personally our body language and our approach are the two things I took away from that," Jalen Suggs said after practice Tuesday. "As a team, just our overall competitiveness. I think we were a bit distant on the court. We talked about that in film today. We were kind of out there floating. People stepped up and what needed to be said—good things and things we needed to learn from. Everybody voiced their opinions today which is great"
The Magic's veterans like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Cory Joseph were among those who spoke up. Suggs said when Caldwell-Pope speaks the room stops and everyone listens to what he has to say. Even Joseph's words carry a lot of weight in that locker room. This is still a team learning how to win at a higher level.
But the Magic's young stars, Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, sitting out but still active during the team's practices, also spoke during the film session.
Everyone is trying to build this program and build what this team is about along with the standards they try to meet on and off the court.
For as good as the Magic are already and the lofty expectations they are pursuing, this is still a young team. This is still a maturing team. They have their youthful energy and emotions, but learning to channel that in the right way is still a challenge.
It is a challenge that comes naturally from a growing team.
"It started last year in the summertime," coach Jamahl Mosley said after practice Tuesday. "Their ability to get together on their own. Their bility to communiate with each other on and off the court. That's what you want. It's what you're asking them to do to take ownership of all sides of it. Our coaches do a great job of empowering that and allowing them to use their voices for the things they see on the court."
A critical lesson
Being able to know they did not live up to the standard is a sign the Orlando Magic know what they are capable of. Mosley said the team realizing it and calling it out to each other is a sign of the team's maturity. They have each other's backs.
Sunday—along with this period without the team's two main stars—is serving as a lesson for them on how to manage their emotions and play with the tiniest margins for error. Orlando's confidence that it can win has not waned. But now the execution and attention to detail have to grow significantly.
That was what slipped up Sunday against the Knicks.
In a game where the Magic were competitive—holding one of the best offensive teams in the league to 100 points—a small slip defensively late in the second quarter was essentially the difference and a frustrated second half kept the team from getting over the top.
For now, everything starts with Suggs. With Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner out of the lineup, Jalen Suggs is more of an emotional heartbeat for this team than ever. The team will take its cues from him.
Looking back at Sunday's game, Suggs was critical of his approach to the game and the way he regulated his emotions. He and coach Jamahl Mosley spoke about that throughout practice Tuesday. The takeaway for Suggs was to stay consistent with his body language and not go up and down.
Then it came time to take that to the court. Jalen Suggs said he and Anthony Black got into it in a particularly heated point of practice. But the lesson was to let that frustration go quickly even when coaches are burying their whistles to see how players respond.
But just as important, when the practice was done, Suggs was helping Black understand how to move him off his spot and discussing how the team can get better. They talked their smack talk in the moment, but they were teammates after, learning and growing.
The value of the team's continuity is the trust everyone has built during the last three years. This is the point of the season where that can become valuable.
A continuing process
It is still a continuing process, however. The Orlando Magic will still make missteps and have moments where they need to remind themselves of what it will take to win and compete regularly.
They have already shown they have the resolve and determination to compete even on their worst nights—just look at the win over the Charlotte Hornets a few weeks ago. This is a team that is passionate and determined to win.
That is what made Sunday's loss shocking. It felt like the team let its emotions get the better of them. The team did not look or feel like itself.
Especially against the better teams in the league, Orlando still has a lot to prove that its way and its intensity can be used the right way.
It is a reminder this team still has a lot of room to grow.
"We have so many guys on the team who are emotional, who wear their hearts on their sleeve and play with that passion and fire. But not letting it go too far up or too far down is the challenge that we're all looking at and trying to work at daily," Jalen Suggs said after practice Tuesday. "We're all getting to learn this together, we're all getting to work on this thing and apply it daily as a unit. Nobody is going through this process by themselves."
The Magic are still working on it and still improving day by day. This is a young team still maturing.
Sunday felt like a rare slip-up. But it may yet prove to be a growing moment for this team.