The Orlando Magic were down by nine in the third quarter when a simple play changed momentum.
Paolo Banchero held the ball on the wing and watched Desmond Bane try to curl around Wendell Carter at the top of the key. Both defenders went with Bane, leaving Carter wide open. Banchero fed him the ball for a simple three.
The feeling in the Kia Center at that point was simply relief that a three had gone in. And the Magic were able to race back into the game and tie it very briefly.
That remains the potential for this team and the energy offense can give them. Much like last year, that potential offensively was short-lived. It was back into the dark on a 3-for-24 shooting night.
And once again, the Magic's shooting struggles made all of their other flaw that much more devastating.
Without consistent ball movement, pace or shooting, the Orlando Magic could not keep up with the Chicago Bulls. When Ayo Dosunmu hit two three-pointers late in the fourth quarter that made the hill too steep to climb in a 110-98 Bulls victory.
Orlando is still looking for that rhythm and still looking for its offense.
"I just didn't like our energy, our swag pretty much all game," Franz Wagner said after Saturday's loss. "That's every individual, but, as a group, we just have to be better about that and play until you can't play anymore. It wasn't all bad. We didn't hit a lot of shots, that doesn't help. But we can't let that affect, in general, how we play."
Simply put, this thing is not going to work unless the Magic are bigger threats to score. Without better shooting, their pace becomes a liability to their defense, as good as it might be.
The Magic continue to leave opportunities on the board even after working for quality shots and looks -- both in the paint and at the rim. The question is how can the team move forward while these struggles continue?
The familiar enemy
The Orlando Magic are still battling their familiar enemy. And nothing can move forward until they start making 3-pointers
The Magic finished the game just 3 for 24 from three. At least eight of them were wide open threes and it follow a startling 2-for-15 showing in the second half in Friday's loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
The Magic's struggles to hit threes were an albatross around their neck. It dragged everything down.
There are going to be bad shooting nights over the course of a season. But Orlando made many of its offensive changes and made its big moves this offseason to try to alleviate the team's struggles from deep.
It has not quite clicked yet. And the shooting frustrations are filtering to other parts of the team.
Nobody has much of an answer right now as this team still tries to come together.
"I think it's just playing better and taking our shots," Paolo Banchero said after Saturday's loss. "When you aren't making shots, nobody is really happy or in a good mood. We just have to do a better job of scoring the ball."
The Magic posted their worst offensive rating of the season, scoring a season-low 98 points on a season-low 90.7 offensive rating.
Desmond Bane, the big acquisition meant to fix the team's shooting woes, struggled even to get threes. After a 1-for-6 showing in Friday's loss to the Atlanta Hawks, he missed both of his 3-point attempts.
The poor 3-point shooting spread to everybody, though. Banchero was 1 for 4. Tyus Jones missed both of his threes -- and has yet to make a three this season. Tristan da Silva had his worst shooting game of the season, missing all six of his 3-pointers.
It was hard to build momentum without that. And without 3-point shooting, the team's trust in its offense wavered elsewhere.
Magic missed everywhere
The problem was not merely that the Orlando Magic missed so many threes.
The team began to hesitate on them. The Magic were trying too hard to get to the rim and to the paint. And that led to cascading problems because that, too, was a struggle.
And then the ball stopped moving and the team tried to force things to the basket leading to turnovers, mistakes and more frustration.
The ball seemingly moved even less -- just 13 assists on 34 field goals. And then Orlando was trying to get downhill to the basket and coughing it up.
The Magic struggled near the basket, making only 50.9 percent of their shots in the paint (they won points in the paint 58-54, despite this) and only 22 of 40 shots in the restricted area, well below the league average.
Paolo Banchero made only 3 of 9 shots in the restricted area and Franz Wagner made only 5 of 10. These were all points left on the board.
Add in the Magic's struggles to finish in transition -- 3 for 11 on fast-break opportunities, an attempt number that is also well below what the Magic wants.
"I think it's easy to make excuses," Anthony Black said after Saturday's loss. "But we do have to do better at the rim. Those easy layups are deflating plays when we get actions and don't make bunnies at the rim. Those are two things that we can fix. It's just on us making layups and taking care of the ball."
Orlando's offense has expanded and changed in many ways. But the team is still struggling to control its pace. That is seen not only in the high turnover rate -- 20 turnovers for 24 Bulls points -- but also in how much the team is overcooking and missing shots around the rim.
Right now, the offense is completely out of sync and dragging down other parts of the team or outright leading to exasperation and frustration.
Even though Orlando's defense has steadily improved with each game. The offense has struggled too much for it to make a difference. The team's defense ultimately collapses.
This team is still finding its way.
"It's a resilient team," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Saturday's loss. "Understand it's not going to be your night every night from a shot-making side but the ability to make sure we sit down and get stops. But then you go down there and don't convert it, it does take a toll. But our guys understanding and knowing that, it's something we can look at and fix."
The bare fact remains. The Magic's main objective this offseason was to improve the team's shooting. Everything they have done is working to be a better shooting team to unlock the other parts of this team and its potential to be among the best teams in the league.
The Magic shot the ball extraordinarily well in their opener and in the firs thalf of Friday's game. But things have fallen off.
And this whole project simply cannot work if the team does not make shots.