Orlando Magic coach Sean Sweeney has consistently praised his team's fight throughout their 2-7 start.
Watching the Magic, effort has rarely been the issue that has plagued them. It is the direction that effort is pointed. It is the identity this team has been trying to build and failing to fully embrace.
Things have not clicked for this team, to say the least.
The team ranks in the bottom 10 in both offensive and defensive rating. The only thing consistent has been the inconsistency and the self-inflicted mistakes that have kept the team from finding its base.
Saturday's 126-119 overtime loss to the Golden State Warriors stood out because of how against type it went. The Magic finally looked like a team that understood who it was and what it would take to win.
With Desmond Bane out with an illness, along with Paolo Banchero, Jalen Suggs and Noah Penda with their longer-term injuries, the Magic played with a grittiness and heart that should define this team.
They dominated the offensive glass, protected the ball and won the possession battle. They fought their way through an abysmally poor shooting performance to climb back from an early 15-point deficit. They found their defensive identity at long last.
There was a lot to be pleased with as signs of what this team can be.
"I'm happy with how we competed," Jamal Cain said after Saturday's loss. "We competed the whole game and gave ourselves a chance to win. But they got 30 [Stephen Curry] on the other side."
But a close loss to Stephen Curry is of little solace.
This is a Magic team that has been to the Playoffs the last three years. They have dreams of going deeper. This is not a team that should be searching for its identity, even amid injuries.
This is not a team that should be celebrating moral victories.
Saturday's game gave a road map for how the team has to play. It was more reminiscent of the team everyone is used to. It took Curry going supernova at the end of the fourth quarter and in overtime to put the undermanned Magic away.
What matters for this Magic team is whether they turn this game into a pattern they can keep building on, or whether they will return to the frustrating play that has put them in a hole and made them look like a tanking team.
A moral victory only means something if it becomes a lesson learned.
Steps in the right direction
It is an understatement to say the Magic have struggled to open the season.
Even after a solid showing against the Golden State Warriors, the Orlando Magic rank 23rd in offensive rating (107.6 points per 100 possessions) and 25th in defensive rating (116.1 points allowed per 100 possessions). Even in last year's slow start, the Magic were already settling about where they would finish the season.
Even Saturday's game was hardly impressive. The Magic had a 109.2 offensive rating and a 114.5 defensive rating. The defense was at least trending in the right direction for most of the game. Take out a frustrating first quarter, and the team had a 122.0 offensive rating for the rest of the game.
The Magic have not been able to put the pieces together this season. They have not yet played a full 48-minute game that can restore faith.
This was at least most of a solid game. The Magic got over their poor shooting and found a way to compete. That is something to build on.
"I think there is a lot of good things we can take away from," Franz Wagner said after Saturday's loss. "I think a lot of guys stepped upa nd played really aggressive. We'll need everybody to play like that. Big improvements in a lot of areas. Obviously tough not to come out with a win. We'll build on it."
Orlando controlled the possession game for the first time all season, giving up only three offensive rebounds and outscoring Golden State 33-2 on second-chance points. The Magic turned it over only 14 times for 10 points. They had five in the first quarter.
That kept the Magic in the game, with the Magic taking 33 more field goals than the Warriors.
That is the grit the team has been missing. The Magic have not been able to grind out victories without their shooting this season. That was always a characteristic of this team.
The Magic showed the character they will ultimately need to win.
Time is ticking
A solid game is all well and good. But even the worst teams have good nights. They may not always win on those good nights, but their opportunities to win come all the same.
The Orlando Magic certainly had their opportunities to win, going up by six early in the fourth quarter and losing that lead. They had multiple chances to pull ahead in the fourth quarter they could not take advantage of. Wendell Carter had a pair of free throws to tie the game in overtime and missed both, allowing Stephen Curry to give the Warriors breathing room and a four-point lead.
Orlando fell behind by 14 in the first quarter again amid their poor shooting before finding their footing to inch back into the game.
The end of the season will not care about the progress the Magic made in this moment. It only cares that they won.
In an Eastern Conference that is expected to be tight, these first three weeks the Magic took to figure themselves out could be costly.
A moral victory is only a moral victory if the team actually learns its lesson. Only time will tell if Saturday's gutsy effort in defeat was a turning point for this team or just a blip on the radar.
If this season is going to regain any measure of success, it must be a turning point. The Magic cannot return to their ways of getting outworked on the glass and turning the ball over on a fifth of their possessions, as they have repeatedly done this season.
The Magic's season is not lost. They are still only a half-game behind the Charlotte Hornets for the final play-in spot and three games behind the Toronto Raptors for sixth. With the one-win Sacramento Kings, Utah Jazz and Milwaukee Bucks next on the schedule, the Magic can close that gap quickly with three straight wins.
But time is ticking on this season quickly. And the Magic better hope they have finally found their identity.
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