Orlando Magic fighting to the end to make the most of their season

The Orlando Magic trailed by four points with 37.3 seconds left after Cooper Flagg hit an and-1 bucket over Wendell Carter.

The Magic seemed to have let a game slip away from them. The Dallas Mavericks' veterans were winning the day as the Orlando Magic struggled again to make shots.

As they came to the timeout, Paolo Banchero said Desmond Bane had one message for his teammates: They were going to win this game.

It is the kind of confidence and bravado that comes from a team that knows it is talented but also one perhaps that is trying to convince themselves of something that is not there.

The Magic had the attitude and belief they were going to win. That is the only thing that mattered and the result is all anyone will care about.

The Magic came out of the timeout trying to get Bane open for three. He took the attention and fed Jalen Suggs for a three-pointer. The Magic were back within one.

They forced a tough mid-range shot from Flagg and got the rebound. They gathered the ball and attacked immediately with time winding down.

Suggs got to the 3-point line, got around a screen to force Daniel Gafford to step up, and then fed Wendell Carter on the roll for a dunk with 1.4 seconds remaining and the lead.

In less than 40 seconds, the Magic scored five consecutive points and then forced a turnover on the inbounds to secure a 115-114 victory over the Mavericks, stealing a critical win in their playoff chase.

Orlando showed it was willing to fight until the final minute. They were ready to fight to the end and gut out a victory. And they needed it.

"I feel like it shows a great amount of poise to be able to execute down the stretch and not get caught up in the heat of the moment," Tristan da Silva said after Thursday's win. "Kudos to Jalen, obviously, for making that big shot at the end and setting up Wendell to go ahead late. He's been making great plays for us."

This season has been a fight to regain the team's identity and to play that 48-minute effort. It has been a fight to find that reserve and that secret sauce of effort and energy that defined the team throughout its recent run of playoff appearances.

There was always this spirit that the team would never get outworked and never quit. The Magic have not always looked that way this season.

As long as there is time left in the season and something to play for, the Magic need to be fighting. Exactly as they did in Thursday's win.

It starts with effort

Effort and energy have long bee the defining feature of Jamahl Mosley's Orlando Magic teams. That it became even remotely a question has been one of the more confusing parts of this season.

Energy is everything for them.

The difference in Thursday's win was purely on effort and enegy in a game where execution was not always crisp.

The Magic seemed a bit lethargic throughout the game. The offense moved slowly, laboring through its reads and actions. Paolo Banchero, who finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and six turnovers, stood at the top of the key waiting for the next action to come.

Orlando only gained the lead and went up by 11 in the third quarter because of that trademark energy.

The downturn in energy and how slow the ball moved was part of why the Magic lost a nine-point lead with 6:40 to play, going 1 for 13 in an extended stretch that kept the door open for Dallas to come back.

Orlando needed to rally because their effort and energy remained inconsistent. Certainly their execution was inconsistent throughout the game.

But as long as there was time left on the clock, the Magic seemingly had a chance. That is what they must believe.

"I think there are lessons you learn from it," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Thursday's win. "We made some mistakes before it. That's the beauty of the game is you have to play 48 minutes. It could have gone down when they got the and-1 with Cooper, I think it's a big portion of us continuing to play all the way through. That's the momentum we're going to need to play the full 48."

Without effort, the team would have been stuck asking itself questions again.

Seeking their identity

Identity has remained the question facing this Orlando Magic team throughout the season.

They cannot take back the season to this point -- with its injuries and missed expectations. They can only hope to move forward and make the most of the remaining season with plenty more to play for in the final 21 games.

The Magic's identity has always been based in this try-hard attitude. It is something that has been lost throughout the course of this often-frustrating season.

The team has tried to root itself in its defense, but far too often this year as opposed to the last two, the team's defensive effort has gone with its shooting.

That is the sign of a team that does not quite trust itself.

"Everybody wants to win in here," Jalen Suggs said after Thursday's win. "Everyone wants to do their job and play great for the next man, so we can stack up wins. We're never going to play perfect. But I think just staying locked in."

That trust is growing, though.

The Magic are starting to put together more solid defensive efforts and more consistency. And even though Orlando lost another double-digit lead thanks to poor shooting in the fourth quarter -- the team made 6 of its first 21 shots in the fourth to give away the lead and made only 4 of 15 threes in the quarter -- the team still rallied to get the win and stay in the game. They did not let it slip away.

Results made the mood. This is a different conversation if the Magic had lost.

The Magic needed to stick to the details and their process. They needed that trust to come back an densure a victory.

Ultimately, the game came down to a decision: To quit and accept defeat or to keep fighting.

The Magic kept fighting until the end. They gave themselves a chance. And like their playoff hopes, they have not seemingly quit on claiming some success this season.