For the first time during the last two games, the Orlando Magic are openly acknowledging the vibes this team has lived off of are off right now. The spirit and energy are down as players deal with frustration and the mounting losses.
Nobody is happy with the state of things for the Magic right now. Nobody is accepting these results. They are struggling to find their way out. They know they are the ones that have to find that way.
"I think the spirit could be better," Paolo Banchero said after shootaround Tuesday afternoon. "I think that is part of the reason we've lost some of these games. I think it's on us to take the initiative and fix it. No one outside the locker room is going to fix it. We have to depend on each other and look out for each other in these moments."
Coach Jamahl Mosley agreed with that assessment in his pregame availability. The Magic needed to find a way through and needed to find their fight again. But they needed to put themselves in a position to win again. They needed to limit mistakes and show some fight.
Would that be enough to get them a win?
The Magic both ran out of time and ran out of steam thanks to a frenetic comeback to fall 104-99 to the Golden State Warriors.
Spirit and fight made the game look cosmetically better. But there were no answers in San Francisco. There was only the continued reality that they do not have a margin for error to make up for those critical mistakes.
The spirit can be there all it wants for the Magic. But their weaknesses and lack of offensive force were more apparent in the last month of the season as the team sank in the standings.
The defense can no longer bail out a sinking offense. It has become far too difficult to win.
"I don't think it's a question of our fight, but we had the mental lapses where we gave up a 40-point third quarter," Cole Anthony said after Monday's loss. "We gave up as many points in the third quarter as we did in the first half. It's going to be hard for us to win games like that."
Remove the incredible play of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner and the insane energy and defensive intensity of Jalen Suggs, and this Magic team is missing a lot that it needs to one day win a championship.
A closer comeback
The Orlando Magic are closer and looked better Monday night in rallying from a 15-point deficit to take a fourth-quarter lead. But closer is not good enough for what this team wants to accomplish. The Magic cannot rely solely on its defense and its offense is actively holding the team back.
They trailed by 15 points entering the fourth quarter and clawed their way back into the game. Franz Wagner scored 14 of his 21 points to spearhead the run. Cole Anthony hit a floater with 4:27 left to give the Magic a two-point lead.
Things unraveled from there though.
Andrew Wiggins tied the game back up on a turnaround jumper. Kevon Looney forced the Warriors back into the lead with a tough putback and then Draymond Green hit a tough hook shot over good defense. Moses Moody's three made it a five-point game with 1:07 to play.
The Magic could no longer find offense and execute down the stretch. The Warriors pulled away for the win.
Sharper everywhere else
The Orlando Magic are not operating at full capacity with its two stars. The Magic understand both are still catching their conditioning and their rhythm. That explains part of the team's downturn offensively.
But those shortcomings are only part of the story. While the team has to be patient as both players find their footing. It means the team has to be sharper everywhere else. The team has to make up for what it does not yet have.
That is where the team continues to struggle.
The culprit, as Jamahl Mosley always loves to say, is rarely the game's final moments. It came in the third quarter when the Orlando Magic let a tie game become a 15-point deficit thanks to a 39-point quarter for the Golden State Warriors.
The Magic gave in to their worst instincts, fouling eight times to send the Warriors to the line for 15 free throws. Golden State too caught fire hitting six of eight 3-pointers in the quarter. The Magic did not have the firepower or confidence to keep up.
Orlando's defense always gives the team a chance when it plays well. But this losing streak has seen stretches like this bury the team. There has been no relief or adjustment to find scoring. It is all a frustrated mess.
"It's a 39-point third quarter where you let go of it a little bit, your communication breaks off, you don't knock some shots down," Mosley said after Monday's loss. "You look at a 15-0 free throw count in that third quarter. We have 52 points in the paint, attack the basket 47 times and shoot 10 free throws. That is a factor in it. But that's not the only factor in this game."
Orlando finished the game shooting 43.4 percent from the floor and 8 for 32 from three. Eighteen offensive rebounds saved the team, but the Magic managed only 18 second-chance points.
Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and Cole Anthony are the only players thinking about driving to the basket. Every other player tries to spread the floor but simply cannot make enough shots to break the defense out of its shell. Every drive is seemingly right into traffic.
That explains part of their struggle.
Wagner was 9 for 19 in the game. Banchero finished with 18 points on 9-for-24 shooting, struggling through much of the game and settling for jumpers with just one free throw attempt in the game.
Anthony was 11 for 21 for 21 points as he constantly kept the pressure and gave the Magic the offensive lift it needed.
"That's progress," Anthony said after Monday's loss. "It's better than us getting whooped by 20. We got to take every small win we can, break down the film, and we've got to get better and get ready for this next one against Sacramento."
Banchero is right that no one is going to rescue this team except themselves. But it also dances around the already acknowledged and increasingly apparent truth: The team lacks the offensive force to allow the team to have lapses as it did Monday night.
The lack of a consistent offensive push, the continued poor shooting efforts and the regular sub-25-point quarters are too much for even a good defensive team ot overcome. Orlando cannot take nights off on defense or waver for any moment in the game.
The Magic showed in the fourth quarter they still have the urgency and will to win these games. But it is something that takes a lot to get to. And it still is not enough.
That says it all as the Magic try to continue to find answers and a way out of this rut.