The Orlando Magic knew the challenge in front of them against the tanking Washington Wizards had little to do with the team in the red and white jerseys.
On their whiteboard in the locker room before the game were the typical pieces of information coaches provide to them: the projected two-deep, 3-point percentages and matchups. But there was also a list of other goals that the coaching staff wanted the team to achieve.
This second item was unusual. It is not on the board before every game (at least where the media in the locker room can see it). But it seemed poignant to remind the team that they were playing against themselves and their standard more than the opponent.
Those goals should remain private. But each pointed to a detail that is critical to the Magic's success. Each was something they could control. Something simple that they could dominate against an inferior opponent.
It turned out that the Orlando Magic needed all of them to defeat the Washington Wizards on Thursday. For far too much of the game, and especially in the fourth quarter, the Magic seemed to lose those details, that rhythm and that intensity that had built their six-game win streak.
It was only in overtime when they snapped back to attention, rediscovered them and pulled out a 136-131 victory.
A win is a win in the end. But the Magic know that everything comes down to how they play. They control their own results.
"It's more about us in these games," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Thursday's win. "Understand that Washington was going to come and play hard. But it is about us and what we need to do in these moments. Defensively, we didn't do the things we needed to do. All those things that we talk about doing, they were able to do."
In the end it was the details that won the game for the Magic.
Jalen Suggs hit a three to break a tie with about a minute to play in overtime. Tristan da Silva blocked a Bilal Coulibaly layup and grabbed a late offensive rebound to kill clock and end the game.
Orlando escaped a disaster.
The details win games
The Orlando Magic built as much as a 19-point lead simply by executing the simple things and putting together enough defense to build their lead.
Orlando kept Washington at arm's length but never quite put the game away. That is a lesson the Magic are still learning.
They never went for the kill to put the game away. The door was slightly open ith the lax play the Magic displayed.
"I think the biggest takeaway is to dagger teams when they are down and keep the foot on their neck, Jalen Suggs said after Thursday's win. "We've got to put teams away when we got them like that. That's just not good enough. We did our job getting up 20, and we let it slip away. I think that's the biggest takeaway. Just not playing with the game when you've got a team down and giving them life."
Things changed dramatically in the fourth quarter, where Washington outscored Orlando 42-27 to force overtime.
The Magic led by 16 with 6:18 to play when the Wizards started to make their run. Washington hit on three 3-pointers and Bilal Coulibaly scored 15 of his career-high 29 points to erase the deficit and tie the game on a banked-in three-pointer with 5.8 seconds to play.
Orlando made only two of its final seven shots in regulation. The team's defense compounded mistakes with fouls and poor rebounding -- five Washington offensive rebounds and 12 second-chance points in the fourth quarter alone.
With the Magic unable to get into the paint with just six points on 3-for-8 shooting, their offense became stagnant and reliant on Paolo Banchero's isos to get them through. The ball got stagnant, and the offense stalled.
The team looked tired and emotionally spent after Wednesday's huge win. And the Magic were running on fumes to get to the finish line.
The win is all that matters
The Orlando Magic still did plenty to put themselves in a position to hang on for dear life to the end. And they made the plays in overtime to secure the win.
Ultimately, that is all the standings will care about. And at this time of year, that is the only stat that truly matters.
The Orlando Magic peripherally blamed the mental and physical fatigue that came from playing a hard-fought win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
"I saw the second night of a back-to-back take place," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Thursday's win. "Our guys got ahead a little bit. They did a great job playing with pace and playing with speed. You have to give Washington a ton of credit. They came out and played hard. That was a big portion of it."
The team further lost some juice when Jonathan Isaac left the game with a left knee sprain that had everyone worrying the worst when he fell to the floor after a missed alley-oop clutching his troublesome left knee.
The team was as emotionally drained as they might have been physically drained. The Wizards' comeback started after that moment.
But through all the frustration, the Magic still found enough to get the win. It was not handed to them by a tanking team. The Wizards' deep bench wanted to win. Orlando still had to earn it.
That will be a lesson too. The Magic cannot take anything for granted.
"This game was a reality check, too," Tristan da Silva said after Thursday's win. "You've got to be locked in every single time you are on the court. I felt like today, in stretches, we didn't do a really good job of that. You do that against a team that has momentum and feels good about themselves, it can cost you the game."
That resiliency is still a valuable trait the Magic are showing more and more of. This win streak was built on that resiliency.
Orlando still must realize that it can be its own worst enemy. While many of those bad habits have been put away in the past few weeks, the team that struggled so much still exists within this group. It came out for good chunks of Thursday's game.
The team still has goals to check off, no matter the opponent. And it remains all in the Magic's control.