Cole Anthony knows time is running out for him to make his return to the court.
Out for the last six games and eight of the past nine with a left big toe strain, Anthony is eager to get back on the court before the postseason begins—and is making progress toward his return. More than anything, he and everyone feel the team is finally coming together. The wins have started piling up with more regularity.
With some caution, fans can start to believe.
That belief may never have left the Magic's locker room. Anthony said unequivocally that Orlando can be an elite team. The group just needed to put the pieces together. That has been the team's ultimate struggle.
When those pieces all come together, it looks like a thing of beauty.
The Magic work exactly how they were supposed to, leaning on two matchup nightmare 6-foot-10 forwards hunting for mismatches, kicking out to open shooters taking shots confidently and hounding teams defensively with disruption and energy.
The Magic have always had their way to play. It just has not all clicked together.
They have looked more like themselves in recent weeks. They have looked like the team that could have devastated the league, stolen homecourt advantage in the first round and threatened the elite teams in the Eastern Conference in a playoff series.
It may be late in the season, but those pieces are coming together. Whether they have enough to become an "elite" team, as Anthony believes they can be, remains to be seen. But a 121-91 thrashing of the Sacramento Kings, where the ball flowed to open shooters, they dominated the paint, they played stifling defense and had all those pieces locked together, sure makes it feel like the Magic are playing their best basketball when they need to most.
"I think we're just playing good basketball right now," Paolo Banchero said after Saturday's win. "We had a little rough patch. We were able to stick through it and figure out what we could do to help ourselves. I think we're doing a good job figuring out the small things to help some of our struggles out. It's been helping us on all fronts, I think."
Orlando has now won seven of its past 11 games after that disastrous seven-game homestand after the All-Star break and clinched their spot in the postseaosn. At least for the moment, the Orlando Magic have pulled ahead of the Atlanta Hawks in the standings since March 5–that was so long ago the Miami Heat held the division lead.
That goal is now checked off for the Magic. That first step is done.
To make noise when they get there, no matter what seed they are, will take more games like this. The kind of games that get the bench off their feet, pushing guys to get after it more on defense, and the kind of games where everything works so easily.
Orlando has had some of these elements at various parts of the season. But rarely since the team went on its tear through November and December have the Magic consistently put all those pieces together like this.
"I think we've just got to stay the same," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Saturday's win. "Slowly piece by piece. I think it's one game at a time. We're doing some really good things. The more we can string it together for 48 minutes, the better we'll be.
"I think they responded the right way to the other night. They took the challenge on to play for 48 minutes. This group did a great job of holding each other accountable and just continuing to play the right way first and foremost defensively."
48-minute effort
The Orlando Magic led from start to finish, putting their grip on the game early and never looking back.
It started with the defense of course. The Magic struggled to contain Domantas Sabonis early around the basket. But everything else was locked down.
They forced 16 turnovers for 16 points and held the Kings to 7 for 28 shooting from three. That is both a low percentage (25 percent) and low attempts for a 3-point shooting team like the Kings.
Orlando's defense never let up even when the team went through its offensive lulls.
There just were not many of those lulls.
Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner paced the team through the first quarter. But Orlando expanded the lead to 17 behind strong play off the bench. Goga Bitadze had eight of his 12 in the opening quarter. Caleb Houstan began his three-point barrage with six of his eventual 18 points.
Houstan hit 6 of 7 from three as the Magic poured it on from deep making 18 of 39 overall. The Magic poured it on and never let the Kings get back into the game at any point.
This was even with Paolo Banchero not looking as sharp and dialed in as he has these past few weeks. But he still soaked up attention for 24 points despite his 9-for-19 shooting—and 5-for-11 from the foul line—and fired six assists.
Wagner had 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting. And it was much the same. The Magic got their two star players going downhill to suck in the defense. It then came down to the team dishing to the perimeter and trusting the shots would go in. They were going in with regularity.
Caleb Houstan buried six 3-pointers for 18 points and Goga Bitadze added 12 points. That was enough to pace the team as the ball moved to open shooters and everyone played with supreme confidence—winning both of the first and third quarters by 17 points to pull away.
That lifts everyone's spirits. It is the vision the team has had all season.
"This is when you want to play your best basketball," Goga Bitadze said after Saturday's win. "We've been making shots as well. We really play defense and get stops and lock in defensively. We have great shooters on this team. Nobody can say that we don't. It hasn't been great for us this year. When you hit a couple of shots, it's so smooth. I feel like we can beat anybody if we make shots. We hit a couple of shots, it gets everyone going."
Sustained signs of life
Orlando has looked more like the team it imagined it would be during the last few weeks.
In the last 11 games, the Magic have a 108.2 defensive rating (third in the league among teams' last 11 games) and a far more encouraging 113.4 offensive rating (still 20th, but not abysmally bad).
The team is hitting threes—making 35.2 percent of threes, which is so much better than what the team was shooting. And Banchero is playing the best basketball of his career with his run of 30-point games.
The Magic are not perfect by any means, but this is closer to the version they wanted to be. And it is happening much more frequently now.
There is excitement about the team again and confidence is flowing once again.
Coach Jamahl Mosley continually said the goal for the team was to play its best basketball as the season came to its end. The Magic hoped to be peaking as the Playoffs were set to begin.
All the signs are the Magic are coming together at just the right time. They can still be the elite team they imagined. And it can happen in more than a few moments.