Everything seemed to collapse for the Orlando Magic at the end of the first half with Jalen Suggs lying on the floor clutching his left ankle.
For the Magic, already hit with major injuries to their two best players, this seemed like an unconscionable blow. In the 96 seconds between Suggs going to the floor and halftime, the Oklahoma City Thunder went on a 10-1 run to blow the game open and lead by 19 at the half.
The Magic trailed by 23 early in the third quarter as Suggs tried to play through the seemingly devastating injury before getting pulled after four minutes for his own good.
Orlando had to find answers now without its three best offensive players against the best defensive team in the league.
It would have been easy to despair. But that is not who this team is. They still had a half to figure it out. They still believed. They still knew they had their defense to lean on. They knew they still had a chance if they could lock in and play Magic basketball.
Slowly but surely, Orlando whittled that lead down in the third quarter. They got it back within single digits by the end of the quarter. In the fourth quarter, they took it down to two points. Orlando was not going away. This was a game deep into the fourth quarter.
The Thunder eventually made the plays. They hit some tough shots against a difficult Magic defense and the Magic's offense ran dry. It came down to making and missing shots.
But Orlando, down so many key players, found itself in the game. The team did not go away.
It leads to one inescapable truth: The Magic are good enough to win.
Even down all the players they are missing. Even with their shortcomings as a team. The Magic continue to prove themselves capable of winning. It is a matter of whether the Magic can reduce their mistakes that will determine their outcome.
"We're more than capable," Wendell Carter said after Thursday's game. "No matter what five we roll out there with, we're all capable of winning. Of putting together stops, of putting together great runs. On the flip side of it, in the first half, we can't have lapses like that. On both sides, we did a good job in the third quarter bouncing back on both sides. But it should have never even gotten to that. We should have been locked in from start to finish."
This is a team that is confident and plays without excuses. That is what teams that expect to win and make the playoffs do. They know they are down with injuries right now and know they have a large deficit to make up.
The expectations have not changed much for the Magic
But that has not stopped the Magic from competing and maintaining their place in the Eastern Conference standings—sitting in fourth.
The Magic went 13-7 in the 20 games after Paolo Banchero's injury and before Franz Wagner's injury. They are 1-3 since Wagner's injury, with three straight losses coming to the red-hot Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks and Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder. All three games were decided in the fourth quarter.
Goga Bitadze said after practice Thursday the Magic know if they play their game, they are capable of winning. That is what these games come down to. Orlando has to take care of its business and play its identity. For the Magic it is more about what they do than their opponent.
That is the confidence of a team that believes it can win.
After Thursday's loss, the Magic looked inward—to their 20 turnovers for 26 Thunder points, including 14 for 22 points in the first half—rather than at their opponent for why they lost 105-99 on Thursday. They know that if they can play their game and execute, they can beat any team.
The question is whether the Magic can put all the pieces together. They need to do so to give their defense a chance to lock in.
As Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said the Magic’s offense might be changing a bit but their defense remains the same. That is still what the Magic emphasize and their ticket to success.
Orlando ranks third in the league in defensive rating at 106.2 points per 100 possessions. The team has a 110.9 defensive rating in the last four games without Wagner, a poor mark for this team but still good enough to give them a chance to win against most opponents.
The defense is always the key to the Magic’s success and their ability to compete. The problem since Franz Wagner’s injury is that it slips just enough to put them in the hole. That happened in the second quarter Sunday too when the New York Knicks ran past them just as it did in the second quarter against the Thunder on Thursday.
The Magic surely want to tighten up their defense. That is still essential for them to win as the Magic try to find ways to expand their offense. The offense has struggled.
But everyone is gaining something and fighting through adversity. That will help them as they prepare for the playoffs.
"These are invaluable lessons," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Thursday's game. "You'd like them to come on the other side of the column. But in order to feel the sting of how important the possessions are, how important the communication is, understanding what the gameplan is, those are so important for these guys to feel and see as we move forward. As you get healthy, it also allows for guys to see what we're capable of doing. That's going to be the important piece. We have to take this, learn from it and be able to apply it as well.
Orlando is playing at a deficit without their two best offensive players. Everyone is still figuring out how to fill in the gaps and step up to help this team win. But they still have that belief they can win.
In all four games without Wagner, the Magic found themselves within striking distance in the fourth quarter. They found themselves with the chance to secure a win. And each time they fell only a little bit short. They found themselves looking at their mistakes and their slips as much as what their opponents did.
Orlando’s depth has indeed been stretched thin. The margin for error is thinner. And that is evident. Slight mistakes now have major consequences. Everyone can acknowledge that.
But expectations around the building have not changed. Orlando is not thinking about what it does not have or missing out on their postseason goals. The Magic are still capable of winning and expect to continue winning.