Orlando Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said he felt the team had good focus and intensity in their lone practice in Sacramento after the All-Star break. It was the right attitude that he hoped the team would have after getting a reset after the break.
Of course, the proof would come in how the team played. This is a results business, and the results for the Magic have not been that great in the last two-plus months.
Through one quarter, it looked like more of the same for the Magic. It looked like that hope from a better practice was leading to more disappointment as the Orlando Magic shot a shade better than 20 percent and trailed the league-worst Sacramento Kings by 10 points.
The Magic flipped that script pretty quickly. A 16-0 run gave the Magic the lead in the second quarter, and the team went on to make 27 of 50 3-pointers, setting a franchise record for most threes in a game (a seemingly annual tradition in the Magic's lone trip to Golden 1 Center).
Orlando returned from the break with a 131-94 romp that saw the team defending at a high level to generate improved offense and its star put in a 30-point masterpiece performance.
On top of that, the Philadelphia 76ers lost to the Atlanta Hawks, drawing the Orlando Magic within a half game of the 6-seed with a game in hand.
As the Magic returned from their All-Star break, they have faced a season filled with frustration and disappointment. But many of their goals are still in front of them. There is still something to fight for.
And this is the time of year the Magic want to see the playing at their best. There is still the chance to make something happen this season.
"I think you have to come back with a different type of mindset," Desmond Bane said before the loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. "I think after the break, you will see a lot of different things. You will see contending teams hitting their stride and playing well. It's a different time, and you have to approach it as such. Every night is very meaningful, and we'll be playing some meaningful basketball down the stretch."
This is indeed the time for the Magic to play their best. This is the time of the season when there is a lot more on the line.
If the Magic were going to tie things together and find their focus and urgency, nothing brings that quite like deadlines. And Orlando is now in a 28-game sprint to the end of the season.
Magic fighting for consistency
That sprint was derailed with the news that Franz Wagner would miss the next three weeks, when soreness in his left ankle will be re-evaluated. The Orlando Magic will not get to fulfill its hopes of seeing its team at full strength.
But that does not change the focus and mindset shift that comes with a Playoff push.
The Magic have had a lot of success after the All-Star Break the last two seasons, rallying to 47 wins with a 17-10 record after the break in 2024 and a 12-6 kick to finish at .500 last season. The team knows this is the part of the season they have been waiting for, one way or another.
"The mindset adjusts to one game at a time," coach Jamahl Mosley said before the loss to the Bucks. "We've been looking at it that way now. But it has to be more so. You aren't looking at the end, you are looking at one game and that moment and what you need to do. You can't get to the end of the season without going game by game."
Jamahl Mosley has been preaching this one game at a time mentality for a while now.
That is certainly how the Magic must think.
They have struggled to string wins together. Their three-game win streak just before the break was their longest since Dec. 1. Orlando has now won four of the past five, perhaps the team's best five-game stretch of results since very early in the season.
The Magic cannot make up the ground they need to make up in the standings without stringing together those wins. It will happen one game at a time and one win at a time.
Orlando still has the capabilities and the abilities to accomplish these goals. It has been hard to put those pieces together this season.
But deadlines bring pressure. And perhaps this Magic team will thrive under pressure. It has worked for them in the past.
"We've kind of been in the same position every year," Paolo Banchero said after the loss to the Bucks before the break. "Coming off the All-Star Break is when we have to start to turn it up. At the end of the day, we have to figure out how we can be better for the postseason because we don't want to have the same result as the last two years. I think obviously you have to come out hungry off the break. But we also have got to be better and figure out what type of team we want to be."
The Magic are disappointed with where they are. They do not want another first-round exit. Ultimately they are still driven by the desire to advance deeper in the Playoffs.
Plenty to play for
That does not help matters in the short term. The Orlando Magic are where they are in the standings. It will make accomplishing that goal that much harder.
But this is the part of the season that everyone gets measured by. No matter where the Magic finish, what they do in these last 28 games will ultimately be how they are judged.
If the Magic can put some of those pieces back together, much of the frustration from this year will be forgotten (or downplayed).
This team knows it is now or never.
"That's when you have your vision for the Playoffs happen," Tristan da Silva said before the loss to the Bucks. "That's when it really gets real. That's when teams that have a chance still have a lot to play for. Learned that last year. I feel like we're all excited for the last third of the season when things get a little more intense and a little more real. I think everybody is excited."
The Magic got off to a good start in Thursday's win. They showed resolve and resiliency they have struggled with for much of this season.
They got a feel-good win. And something that gets them off and running.