The Orlando Magic know something is different about this team and this season.
There is clearly a bad taste in everyone's mouth from last year. There is a clear determination to make this season better.
That first sign something was different was in the huddle in response to a frustrating 44-point second quarter that saw the Atlanta Hawks flip the game from a 10-point Orlando Magic lead into a 14-point Hawks lead.
This was a moment when the team broke apart last year. This was when the team would give in to their frustration.
That is not what Orlando did in the team's opener Wednesday.
The team got together and figured out how to respond, scoring 38 points in the third quarter and go on a 19-8 kick in the final six minutes to take a one-point lead to the fourth quarter.
That response says everything about the character of this team. It speaks to how this team is evolving. It was an encouraging instance that this team can build on as they grow with a new coach.
That will last far longer than a season-opening game.
"I think it's huge. It shows resilience. It shows how connected we are," Desmond Bane said in the locker room after Wednesday's opener. "We trust in what we're doing. We kind of doubled down on it. Coach would call a timeout and say we have to get back to doing our stuff. I like the way we competed. We've just got to clean some things up."
There is still clearly work to do after a 132-125 defeat to the Hawks in the Magic's opening game. There are a lot of rough edges to smooth out. Progress with a new coach and coming into a new season will not be linear.
The ultimate question from the Magic's opener is determining what part of the game was repeatable, correctable or permanent. Twenty-nine other teams are wondering that about their first games too.
In the end, the Magic played a nip-and-tuck game with the Hawks that came down to Nickeil Alexander-Walker making two critical threes in the final 90 seconds. The Magic did not have the shot-making to make one final push on this evening.
If the goal, as Sean Sweeney put it, was to build habits and reinforce the good things the team is doing, the Magic showed at the very least what they will be about.
Their work continues.
A team coming together
The Orlando Magic have been working to learn what coach Sean Sweeney wants throughout training camp. They are learning a new offensive and defensive system.
Even with the familiarity on the roster from a team that has largely remained intact, there are still a lot of things to learn. The team is not completely on the same page -- just look at how Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner miscommunicated on the switch that led to Nickeil Alexander-Walker's clinching three.
This team made a lot of mistakes from its turnovers (20 of them for 24 points) and fouled a lot (28 fouls for 36 free-throw attempts).
But it was clear there were positives to hold onto too. And if the game was about reinforcing an identity, the Magic showed the kind of team they aim to be.
"It's the first game. We knew it wasn't going to be perfect from some of the calls we were making to pick-and-rolls to some of the schemes that we were running on the defensive end," Wendell Carter said after Wednesday's loss. "For being out there and being in the mix, there were definitely some things we can correct. I feel it's all correctable stuff. It can be fixed."
Orlando can hold onto how the team generated a lot of good shots. The team had 30 assists on 41 field goals. The Magic made 48.2 percent of their shots. They got 40 3-pointers and felt largely good about them -- both Tristan da Silva and Desmond Bane got 10 3-point attempts each.
The Magic saw the best of what they could be. They got the ball moving. Their defense buckled down in that third quarter to race back into the game. The Magic went shot for shot with one of the best offenses in the league.
"It's game one," Desmond Bane said after Wednesday's game. "We've been together for six weeks now, getting after it. A lot of growth to still be made. The players, the coaches, everybody is bought in. I don't doubt that's going to happen."
There was a lot to like. Sweeney said he liked how the team responded. That is a positive thing.
But clearly, the Magic have a lot to fix too. This was a loss, after all. And Orlando hardly looked like a finished product.
Work still to do
It is expected that there will be some hiccups. The team is not going to come out of the box perfect.
As promising as things were, the Orlando Magic looked like a team playing for a new coach and in a new system for the first time. They looked like they were still getting a feel for what they were doing.
That is how a team turns it over 20 times. That is how a team gives up 44 points in the second quarter, succumbing to fouls. They are still fine-tuning how everything runs.
The Magic and Hawks played the game at 110 possessions. That would be the third-most possessions they played in any game last year.
There was a lot to fix and correct, coming in a loss.
But for most of the game, the Magic played right with them. But the team lost control in that second quarter. Their defense, giving up a 118.9 defensive rating, was nowhere near the standard this team has set.
More than anything, that is what the Magic will try to clean up.
"There is plenty to work on, certainly," Sweeney said after Wednesday's game. "A lot of correctable things. Defensively, I think we can do a much better job than we did tonight. We will do a much better job than we did tonight. Definitely after the first game, we have a lot of teachable and learnable things."
The test for the Magic will be how quickly they learn from these miscues and what is a single-game aberration and what is a pattern. And whether that pattern is encouraging or concerning.
A loss is not good enough in a season of such tight margins. There were plenty of positives to hang onto. The team seems to have the cultural parts down.
Now it is cleaning up the execution. And that may take time.
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