Two weeks ago, the Orlando Magic were at their lowest point after a loss to the Detroit Pistons.
They had given up back-to-back games with a defensive rating of worse than 130 points per 100 possessions. They did not look anything like the team they knew they could be. They looked like they were searching for their identity.
Things did not look much better even after two straight wins when the Orlando Magic closed their road trip with a national TV embarrassment against the Atlanta Hawks. They did not feel much better on Sunday after turning the ball over 17 times for 29 points in a frustrating loss to the Boston Celtics.
The team needed a breakthrough. They needed a statement that they were on their way to becoming the team everyone thought they could be. That this team knew it could be.
Is this the statement?
With one long Jalen Suggs three midway through the fourth quarter, he quieted the crowd at Madison Square Garden, helping hold off a rally in the fourth quarter. Anthony Black delivered a dagger three of his own and Desmond Bane got Mike Brown to pull his starters with a corner three late in the quarter as the Orlando Magic coasted to a 124-107 win over the New York Knicks.
They looked like the Magic. They looked like the team everyone imagined they could be.
On national TV no less, the Magic declared that rumors of their demise were wildly exaggerated. They showed exactly who they can be.
"We're trending in the right direction," Desmond Bane said after Wednesday's win. "We're playing better basketball. It takes time. it's new for everybody. Trying to get this thing to come together. I think we're heading in the right direction. Keep trusting our habits and what we're doing and enjoy the journey."
It has been a difficult start to the season.
The process of coming together has taken a bit longer than the team hoped. Players have had some difficulty grasping the kind of offense they want to run and translating it to the defensive end. Orlando has had to keep the faith in the process. It has not been pretty at times.
But it is getting better. The Magic are finding their identity and a major win goes a long way for this group.
It starts on defense
The Orlando Magic's identity starts on defense. That has always been the case.
The biggest frustrating and puzzling element from the early season has been the team's lack of defensive toughness and togetherness. The team was built to bet on its defense being among the elite units in the league.
That has not been the case for most of the season so far. They have struggled to avoid silly fouls. They have been caught in transition and given up loads of offensive rebounds and second-chance points. Something would always stub their toe.
If Orlando was going to right the ship, the team needed to start on defense. Nothing else mattered. The offense is a growth from the defense.
The Magic played one of their best defensive games of the season in holding the high-powered Knicks to 107 points and a 105.9 defensive rating, the third-best defensive performance this season.
Orlando got back to the physical, bruising style that defined their team during the last two seasons. They frustrated the Knicks and made eveyrthing hard.
"I'm proud of the way our guys defended," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Wednesday's game. "That's the first priority. That's who we are, a defensive team that can get out and run because of our defense. To be able to be physical on the ball without fouling. Our ability to guard the right way, contest all shots and keep them off the 3-point line. To limit them to that and get them into our range is what we tried to do."
Even Jalen Brunson had to work hard for his 31 points. It was an uphill climb for the Knicks all game long.
Orlando held New York to just 36 3-point attempts, making 11. The Knicks average 43.4 attempts per game. The Magic bottled the Knicks up, forcing 14 turnovers for 17 points and scoring 20 fast-break points.
The Magic controlled the game's tempo and used that to feed their success, leading by as much as 20 in the first half.
That was the realization the team needed to make. Their defense was always going to lead the way. Reclaiming that was always the first step to flipping their narrative and turning their season around after that slow start.
Statement made?
Everyone seemed frustrated with the way this season started.
They have not played to the standard they set for themselves to this point. Every opportunity the team has had to take that leap, they have fallen short. It has been a season of false starts and moving one step forward and one step back.
Winning against one of the elite teams in the East, like the New York Knicks, shows the team can compete against the top teams in the conference. That they could dominate the Knicks and dictate the tempo in every way speaks to this team's talent and potential.
That was always present. Orlando knew it had a lot to work with. It was just about putting the pieces together.
"It felt like we were together from the very beginning all the way through the end," Bane said after Wednesday's game. "Paolo [Banchero] obviously went down [with a sprained left groin in the second quarter] and we suffered a little bit of adversity with that, they made their run, but we stayed together and found a way to make plays when they mattered and get stops when they mattered. A good collective team win."
The Magic got the best version they have seen of this team yet. They saw what this team can do. It was everything they imagined from their offseason.
The rest of the conference should be scared that Orlando has figured some things out.
They should be scared that Orlando's defense is starting to whip into shape. They should be scared that the Magic are capable of generating quality shots. They should be scared that the Magic have multiple attackers and scorers -- particularly with the likelihood that Paolo Banchero will miss time with a strained right groin after he left the game in the second quarter.
This is a different team. And they are starting to come together.
"It's not a statement. It's our process," Jamahl Mosley said after Wednesday's game. "If we can sit down and guard the right way every single night, trust the pass, share the ball, get out on the break and convert on the break and do a better job defending without fouling, that's our process. The result will take care of itself. But we have to continue to focus on our process, and it starts on the defensive end of the floor."
Mosley has spoken a lot about the team's need to trust its process and the results will take care of themselves. But the team needed some results to match that process.
This team has come a long way in the last two weeks. Now, the team hopes it can build on this.