It almost did not matter. Nearly 40 minutes of rough, lifeless basketball was nearly forgotten behind a heroic effort that showed what this team can do in whittling a 19-point deficit to a single possession.
There was finally life in the Orlando Magic as Paolo Banchero cut the deficit to four with an and-1 layup with 40 seconds to play.
When the Magic forced a 24-second shot clock violation on the next possession there was even more life inside the Kia Center. When they got an open three for Wendell Carter out of the timeout and dug out the rebound for another Paolo Banchero score to go down two, there was plenty of hope.
When Franz Wagner forced a turnover on the inbounds pass, the Magic had a chance to tie.
The energy and urgency were all there. The elements the team has struggled to corral were finally present. The Magic were finally the more attentive, confident and dominant team.
When the Magic inbounded the ball, they found Franz Wagner coming toward the basket through a lane to get to the rim. He got the layup and shot everything was designed for. He just missed it, letting the Toronto Raptors off the hook for a 104-102 victory.
The Magic's remaining question is why that energy and urgency were not present before. They have been searching for that throughout this season, and it was another day after another loss that left them wondering.
"Urgency has been the word since coming back from All-Star break," Paolo Banchero said after Sunday's loss. "In terms of trying to find it, I think as a team we've just got to play better. We didn't play very well on offense. I wouldn't attribute it to their ball pressure. I would attribute it to us not executing well enough."
Replacing Jalen Suggs
This is not a new issue. It is something the Orlando Magic are trying to find right now. But it has become greater since Jalen Suggs' injury especially.
The team that has struggled through much of the last two months is not the same team that seemed invincible and without reproach for their effort in November and December as they began their battle against injuries.
The news Sunday that Jalen Suggs would undergo arthroscopic knee surgery to remove cartilage in his injured left knee does not bring relief. It was a crushing blow to the team, and it will remove one of its key energy players indefinitely. It is looking increasingly as though Suggs will not return this season.
But Suggs' absence has made a lot of games like this feel common.
Suggs is the "head of the snake" on defense and the team's defense and energy have notably lagged and lost consistency since then. Orlando has struggled to find a way to replace him.
There is no way to replace him, but the team needs to find the energy and urgency to play at the level and standard it wants to meet. The Magic are not looking for an excuse even as they have struggled without one of their key leaders.
"We can blame it on a lot of things. We can blame it on guys being out, losing J[alen Suggs] for an extended period of time, rotations," Wendell Carter said after Sunday's loss. "But at the end of the day, as men, as professionals, we've got to look ourselves in the mirror and figure out ways to continue to help each other. It's not necessarily about ourselves or scoring more points, it's just about getting the win and getting the job done no matter what it takes. We've got to play desperate right now."
Everyone in the locker room has contributed to this downfall. They are struggling to meet the standard they have set for themselves and living up to it for the full 48 minutes. There are too many of those lulls.
Frustration building
The frustration building in the Orlando Magic's locker room—if not frothing and overflowing—is coming because the team has failed to live up to its standard. It has failed to reach its potential. And there is no one to save them. Orlando has to figure it out internally.
Until then, teams keep taking advantage when the team's energy and attention dip.
That energy was not there from the beginning on Sunday as the Magic came out sluggish and struggled to move the ball or initiate any actions.
When the Orlando Magic made its push to take the lead and finally found some spirit it got ripped away from them with fouls and repeated trips to the line, keeping the Toronto Raptors in the game even when the Magic had things rolling.
The Raptors delivered a staggering blow when they raced ahead of the Magic on a 12-1 run to go up by nine late in the final of the third quarter. Immanuel Quickley scored nine of those points, attacking downhill and in transition.
That momentum carried into the fourth quarter as the Raptors built as much as a 19-point lead, going 15-5 on six more points from Quickley.
Letting go of the rope in that moment killed the energy on the team, bringing audible frustration from the crowd at the Kia Center too. The Magic could not play well enough for long enough.
They were too late to respond.
"We had moments where we responded the right way and we had moments where they went on runs," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Sunday's loss. "It was an up-and-down game which we knew it was going to be. It's just been ups and downs similar to what has gone on throughout the year. Our ability to stay even-keeled the entire time is going to be very important."
Is it too late?
Then the Orlando Magic found some energy too late. They closed the game on an 8-0 run in the game's final two minutes, cutting the deficit to two and giving themselves that chance to win at the end.
The Magic finally found their scorers with Paolo Banchero scoring 13 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter and Franz Wagner scoring nine of his 25 points in the fourth quarter.
The Magic are desperate for a victory. They are struggling to find the urgency to get it. They found it too late Sunday and ran out of time to steal one from the Raptors. They have seemingly been searching for it for a while now.
The frustration of continuing to talk about and seek it is growing as they seek a better 48-minute effort.
"I think a big portion of it is we understand the standard in which we know we can play and we need to put that together for 48 minutes," Mosley said after Sunday's loss. "No one loves losing at all. But I think we have to find a way to stick to our process of what we're doing and how we need to play each and every single night. That's the next and continued step forward."
The Magic have entered the final 20 games of their season—the final quarter of the season. They find themselves locked in the Play-In battle. That is their reality.
There is no more time to wait and no last-second comeback to make. The Magic need to find their urgency and energy or things could continue to slide for them.