The Orlando Magic made a mad dash for the last eight minutes of their game against the San Antonio Spurs. It was like suddenly the time pressure of the end of the game caused everything to click into place for them.
After struggling to defend consistently or find any offensive rhythm, everything just clicked into perfect place. This sleeping giant had finally awoken.
The Magic trailed by eight points with 3:14 to play when they went on a 10-3 run to pull within one point with 1:04 to play on a Franz Wagner three. Down by three with 7.7 seconds left, Franz Wagner drew a foul on Harrison Barnes and sank all three free throws to tie the game.
The Magic had seemingly saved the game and given themselves a chance to win.
But the margin for error to complete this miraculous comeback was still too small.
De'Aaron Fox worked his way to the elbow, Jonathan Isaac anticipated it and met him there but tagged him on the way up for a foul. The Magic had 1.4 seconds down by two and drew a play to get Franz Wagner a cut going to the basket. But Luke Kornet tracked back to swat the ball out of bounds as time expired to give the Spurs a 114-112 victory.
The Magic ran out of time to make their comeback. They started too late.
"We're just better than that," Isaac said in the locker room after Wednesday's loss. "I got to be better. I made a terrible crucial mistake at the end of the game. But we've just got to be better as a group. We've got two games of not playing our standard of basketball. We were able to win against Chicago but this one bit us in a butt. We're going to raise our level of play and get back to our standard."
The Magic have talked throughout the early part of their season about this desire to play to their standard. It has been a consistent rallying cry.
The Magic failed to meet it. And even a close loss with a chance to win was not enough to make them feel good about things. Orlando aspires to do a lot better and the team finally paid for falling short.
Lacking intentionality
The Orlando Magic found themselves down early. They found themselves trying to play catch up for most of the game.
The San Antonio Spurs certainly came out of the gates with a greater spark, taking a quick seven-point lead and making four of nine 3-pointers in the first quarter.
That helped set the tone for the game and forced the Magic to climb uphill for most of the game. It was San Antonio controlling the tempo and rhythm of the game. The Magic spent most of the game chasing it and trying to find it.
"I think it's intentionality," Jalen Suggs said after Wednesday's loss. "We have to come out with energy and purpose. I think we allowed them to take the lead early and hold the lead for a while until it was time to come back instead of delivering that first blow and making them play at our pace instead of playing at theirs and allowing the game to flow from there and waiting for our time to strike."
The Magic typically impose their will on the game through their physicality and their defense. As coach Jamahl Mosley often says, their offense is typically an outshoot of their defense. Everything must start on that end.
Orlando could not get a grip on the game. Every time the team seemed poised to make a run, San Antonio would get a stop, create a turnover or convert a tough shot to stem the tide.
The Magic's problem was once again its offense, taking another poor performance with just 104.7 points per 100 possessions. The Magic finished the game shooting 9 for 27 from deep. The Magic could not keep up.
The reality is the Magic are good enough to get away with it. They are a quality enough team to sleepwalk through the majority of a game and still give themselves a chance to win. Even against another good opponent like the Spurs.
When that spark turned on, it became truly devastating. The Magic could close the gap and nearly steal the game. But that is not enough.
Missed Opportunities
The Orlando Magic had their opportunities if they could have played with the right intention and focus from the beginning. If they had played Magic basketball.
Orlando did many things right and did plenty of things that would normally point the team to a win.
The Magic had 27 assists, the 10th-most assists in a game this season. It was just their third loss with 27 or more assists this season.
They outscored the Spurs 64-42 in the paint. It was their fourth straight game with 60 or more points in the paint and sixth time in eight games dominating the paint like that.
They had 21 fast breaks and turned the Spurs over 19 times for 23 points. The Magic checked a lot of their boxes.
But there were still so many opportunities left on the board.
Orlando made only 32 of 65 field goals in the paint, missing shots around the rim and layups on their attacks. The team was just 8 for 18 on fast breaks.
In a two-point game, those missed opportunities were costly. Those were the momentum-killing plays that kept the Magic from retaking control. It is what kept them from getting over the hump.
"We need to take a look and understand exactly what we're trying to accomplish in these games," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Wednesday's loss. "We can't turn it on and off. It's not a light switch. You've got to come out and play for 48. We played well for about eight minutes of basketball."
Orlando was out of sorts, trying to catch up. A team that has made a living getting to the line took a season-low 19 free throw attempts.
These were missed chances.
What this game represented then was a warning. Orlando is good enough to make up deficits and compete on nights hwen things are not working completely.
But this cannot be the habit. The Magic cannot count on crazed comebacks at the end to save them. They needed to be sharper on both ends to beat a quality team.