Fans were rightfully frustrated after a 113-108 loss to the Houston Rockets.
The Orlando Magic had seemingly turned a corner, building off their major victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on the road, and put together one of the best halves of basketball they have had all season. Their defense was hounding and flying around. The offense was flowing and moving quickly and confidently.
The NBA is always dangerous -- particularly when Kevin Durant is on the other side of the floor -- and things change quickly.
It took just seven possessions for the Rockets to erase a 19-point deficit and, ultimately, take a one-point lead into the fourth quarter as the Magic's mistakes compounded and grew. All the goodwill was gone as the Magic scrambled to stay in the game.
Ultimately, even leading by five late in the fourth and by one with three minutes to play, the Rockets made the shots and the Magic could not make the plays to close the game.
In the end, it was a loss. The question is: Will it be the same as any other?
Will this loss become a second loss, halting the momentum of the last 10 games where the Magic have seemingly found some footing?
The Magic have not made the leap everyone hoped this year. But this team has been good at responding to even seemingly crushing defeats. They have rarely had long losing streaks.
The team is confident that its response will match the disappointment of Thursday's loss.
"We're going to respond for sure," Desmond Bane said after Thursday's loss. "I think we've done that all season long. There was that stretch that we went on where we were winning a game, losing a game, winning a game, losing a game. I don't think responding is something that this team has struggled with. Excited for another game at home."
This has been the pattern all season. Orlando takes a crushing loss and responds with a nice win. But then fails to build on that momentum.
There is plenty of confidence that the Orlando Magic will respond and put in a good effort Sunday against the East-leading Detroit Pistons. But to climb the standings, they will need more. This simply cannot be a call-and-response.
The Magic are still fighting to do more. And they are still struggling to put the pieces together.
An up-and-down season
There will be plenty of time to write about how the Orlando Magic did not have the season they imagined in the offseason. The Magic will need to assess what went wrong and how to become a more consistent team in the offseason.
The goal for the rest of the season is to make the most of the remaining games. Certainly, part of that is getting out of the Play-In and catching the Philadelphia 76ers for the 6-seed. They entered Sunday's games up 1.5 games on the Orlando Magic (the Philadelphia 76ers play the Boston Celtics on Sunday evening).
And certainly, the Orlando Magic must fend off the Miami Heat, sitting a half-game behind them in eighth (the Magic have two games in hand).
A lot of that is still about the Magic figuring themselves out.
Since Franz Wagner's injury on Dec. 7, the Magic are 17-17. They are literally a .500 team. That goes beyond the 13-game stretch from Dec. 20-Jan. 11 when the Magic exchanged wins and losses. Orlando has struggled to find its footing all season.
"It's an 82-game season," Jevon Carter said after Thursday's loss (he was not part of that run in December). "There's going to be win streaks. There's going to be losing streaks. There's going to be blowout wins and blowout losses. Close wins and close losses. That's just the nature of the NBA. You have to have a short memory and just bounce back."
Bouncing back has been one of this team's key traits.
There are no long extended win streaks, but that also means the Magic have not given the ship away either. They have not suffered any long losing streaks or losing stretches, as they did last year at this point of the season when they lost nine of 11. They have always responded.
Their at-the-time devastating loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Dec. 26 was followed by a rousing win over the Denver Nuggets. Their bad fourth quarter in Toronto against the Toronto Raptors was followed by a big late shot from Paolo Banchero at the Indiana Pacers.
Their four-game losing streak in January was followed by a rousing win at the Miami Heat and a huge comeback win over the Toronto Raptors at home.
They have won six of their last nine and are looking much better. But that momentum can get stopped pretty quickly.
How the team moves forward
Going up against the East-leading Detroit Pistons will be a challenge on its own. But how the Orlando Magic play and whether they come out focused will say a lot about this team.
The Magic are nearing the final quarter of the season and will need to build some wins and consistency to climb the standings.
The Magic showed they were capable of hanging with one of the top teams in the West on Thursday. Tehy simply failed to execute and had a horrendous stretch that cost them the game.
Coach Jamahl Mosley said the team spent its practice Saturday tightening up its defense and focusing on its pace. Getting back to the things that helped them build the lead. The kind of things that the team has struggled ot make consistent all season.
There is no time to dwell on a lost opportunity. This is the NBA, there is only the next opportunity to respond.
"We've got to flush it and get ready for Detroit," Paolo Banchero said in the locker room after Thursday's loss. "They've been playing great basketball. We've got to be ready to accept that challenge and be better. I thought we played good basketball for most of the game today. Just got to take what we did good, reapply it and clean up what we didn't do good and try to get a win on Sunday."
The Magic will need to respond once again, as they have all season. And then they will need to find a way to build momentum to get over the hill once again.