One week ago, the air was heavy around the Orlando Magic.
The reason for that weight was obvious.
It was Friday night at the Kia Center when the Magic came down from the incredible high of their first-half showing and a 22-point lead to deliver one of the worst offensive halves in NBA history. The Magic scored just 19 points in the second half and made a lone field goal in the fourth quarter. They missed an NBA record 23 straight shots and went 45 minutes of real time between field goals.
That is how the Magic saw a 24-point lead dwindle into the fourth and the Pistons zoom ahead to force Game 7.
As Orlando has begun picking up the pieces from this series, that was the most immediate thought following the Game 7 loss.
"I mean, we were up by 20 in Game 6," Anthony Black said in the locker room after Game 7. "We just didn't close the series. Franz being out obviously hurt us also. His offense and defense on Cade were obviously missed. We feel like we had enough to win, that's why it's frustrating."
Black said the Game 6 defeat will stick with the team throughout its offseason. President of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said Monday when he addressed the media that the team was still a bit shell-shocked from the series.
It was not just the Game 6 loss as blaring as those alarms were. There were plenty of other reasons why the Magic lost that series.
And they are sitting and thinking about those reasons as they prepare for their offseason.
Weltman painted that sort of measured response to the defeat. The team being up 3-1 with their full roster was a sign of positivity. Orlando proved it was good enough to compete. It just could not put all the pieces together.
And so the team is carefully examining why it lost and how it can improve.
But several long-term issues reared their heads in the series. And Orlando will need to solve those problems heading into next season.
Offensive problems remain
The biggest issue for the Orlando Magic remained their anemic offense.
The team had nominal improvements this season, scoring 114.2 points per 100 possessions and finishing 18th in the league. That was their best finish since Dwight Howard's last season in 2012. But that was hardly anything to celebrate.
Going up against one of the best defenses in the league in their first-round series, the Magic were still not a strong offensive unit.
They posted the worst offensive rating of the first round at 101.9 points per 100 possessions. It was at 102.3 points per 100 possessions through the first four games in the series.
The surprising part of Game 6 was the depth of the issues, not that it happened. Orlando had long scoring droughts throughout the season. Offense remained a constant struggle and source of frustration all season.
That loss in Game 6 stung and just highlighted where this team continues to fall short.
"Game 6. Had the game and couldn't find buckets in the second half," Jalen Suggs said outside the locker room after Game 7. "Had a couple of good looks that would have been huge to make. I think consistently offensively being able to score, not only to get buckets but to stop runs and help our defense."
Suggs especially struggled in that department. He averaged 11.1 points per game but shot just 24.1 percent from three. He was 3 for 15 from three and 7 for 28 in the final three games of the series.
As Orlando looks back at the series, there were a lot of self-inflicted wounds. Missing 14 free throws and turning the ball over 16 times in the Game 5 loss stung more than anyone realized.
And then that second half in Game 6 was almost all self-inflicted.
"It just hurts," Wendell Carter said in the locker room after Game 7. "We gave ourselves an opportunity to take this series and connect all the dots. At the end of the day, they played a good game and played a good series. They came back. As I look back at it, there are a lot of self-inflicted plays that us as players could have done a lot better job. It definitely hurts. But it's nothing we can do now but look to the future."
The Magic ultimately have had no way to make things easy for themselves offensively. And that is one of the reasons they are looking for a new coach and pondering some bigger changes.
Rebounding was key
With the Orlando Magic's offense struggling, the team could not afford to lose the possession battle. The Magic needed to win the offensive glass and turnovers all series long.
The team that had more offensive rebounds won all seven games in the series. The team that took more field goal attempts won six of the seven games in the series -- they tied in Game 5. The push and pull of the series was all about who gained those extra possessions.
Orlando finished with a 32.6 opponent offensive rebound rate. The Detroit Pistons scored 15.7 second-chance points per game. Those kept Detroit in the game despite Orlando's strong defense.
And in the last two games of the series, the Pistons grabbed a 33.7 percent offensive rebound rate and scored 16.5 second-chance points per game. The extra opportunities just wore on the Magic and it culminated in the Game 7 blowout.
"The rebounding. In the games that we won, we controlled the glass. And the ones we lost, we didn't," Desmond Bane said after Game 7. "I think they turned up their pressure. I think that was an adjustment they made throughout the series. Obviously, missing Franz is a big piece of what we do on both sides of the ball. We still had our chances to close this thing out."
Orlando was not even a bad rebounding team during the season, finishing fifth with a 71.0 percent defensive rebound rate. But issues popped up throughout the season. It was always something the Magic had to guard against.
It was more proof of how small the margins were for the Magic all season long. And how the Magic were seemingly so close and so far.
Instead of hosting a Game 3 on Saturday, the Magic are now a week into their offseason trying to figure out what went wrong. And figuring out how much change they need to fix it.
It clearly was not a ton that separated the Magic from the Pistons. But it was enough.
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