In the second quarter, the Orlando Magic finally got some blood as proof for all the pain they were going through.
Tristan da Silva got to the rim for a layup only for Peyton Watson to fly in and block the shot into a wedgie. The hit on the shot caught da Silva in the head. He paused and needed to check for blood, holding his hand over his eyes and temple as he went away from the play.
He would need stitches before returning to the game in the second half.
Orlando was cut hard there. That sequence included Peyton Watson meeting Cole Anthony at the rim to block a dunk clean (he fell hard to the floor and did not return) after the ensuing jump ball.
Even when the Magic seem certain to make a play right now and do the right things, momentum changes quickly. The momentum and air in their balloon pops and bursts. They cannot sustain much of anything. And there seems to be no relief.
But all the Magic can do is try to put their heads down and find a way to fight through this losing valley. But each mistake and misstep only seems to make things worse. Heads droop, they look to the sky for answers for missed shots and look anywhere for relief. It is not coming immediately. They have to find the answers within.
Meanwhile, the Denver Nuggets were running back at them and taking advantage. Slowly but surely they took the lead after the Magic's hot start. Slowly but surely they pulled away. And then with one big 10-0 burst from Jamal Murray to close the third quarter, the game was over.
Orlando trailed by 16 at the end of the third quarter. Bloodied, frustrated and defeated, the Magic fell to the Nuggets 113-100, trailing by as much as 24 points for a third straight blowout defeat.
Little by little, the Magic's identity has been chewed away. It is a thousand cuts like the one stitched back together on da Silva's eyebrows that do the Magic in right now. Nothing is easy and there seems to be no relief.
"I'd be lying if I said it was not or if it wasn't difficult," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Sunday's loss. "These guys are giving everything they have in these moments for what they have. They played an amazing first half, I think, despite the circumstances whether we're making shots or missing shots. I thought our level of aggression and focus and game plan discipline in the first half was fantastic. When you're playing with eight or nine guys, I think those guys are giving you everything they have every moment of the game. I just think we wer tired out a little bit and that toward the end of that third quarter because that's when you saw it come on."
A tired team
This is a tired team, as little as that excuse will give anybody solace.
The Orlando Magic played nine players in their rotation and Paolo Banchero remains on a minute restriction. With the effort and intensity they require, they are losing steam and struggling to find enough in reserve to play at that level of the full game. But they need it to succeed.
Nobody has ever felt sorry for the Magic or their injury predicament. They are not going to feel sorry for them now. And the Magic can feel that fatigue and that lack of attention to detail slip away.
Injuries always rip away a team's margin for error. The Magic's injuries have ripped that to shreds. That it took this long to collapse is a minor miracle.
Jamahl Mosley said he liked the team's execution and effort in the first half. They trailed 54-52 at the half and led most of the way. Orlando was making enough shots and forcing turnovers to stay in the game despite a poor shooting percentage.
But in the second half, the Denver Nuggets picked up the tempo. And they closed the third quarter with force.
The Magic cut the deficit to six with 1:53 left after a Paolo Banchero and-one layup. Jamal Murray answered though by getting by the defense drawing a foul and scoring a layup of his own to push it back to nine. He then hit a layup to make it 11.
Finally, after two offensive rebounds, Murray hit a three and then hit a pull-up jumper to beat the buzzer. A personal 10-0 run put Orlando down 16 at the end of the third.
That was the game. Poor shot selection from Banchero—he was 4 for 16 for the game—trying to match that burst opened the door for that devastating run.
The Magic did not have the force to come back. That is something missing from this team. The momentum and energy from earlier in the season has dissipated. This team is not meeting its mark.
"We've proven we can win no matter who is out there," Anthony Black said after Sunday's game. "It's easy to make that excuse [about injuries] and it's very true. At the same time, we know we can be playing much better. We've just got to figure out how to do that. I'm confident we will do that."
Hunting for the standard
The Orlando Magic are hunting for their standard again. The energy from their home crowd gave them a momentary burst. But it was something they could not sustain for 48 minutes.
Eventually, all of those weaknesses and shortcomings inherent to the roster and missing due to injury came to the front.
The Magic struggled to get above 40 percent shooting after a hot start. Their 12-for-41 shooting (29.3 percent) from three was improved over their struggles in Boston, but they still seemed to be hunting for threes and leaning on them at a frustrating rate.
This was the 16th game shooting 40 or more threes. They are 7-9 in those games now.
Those frustrations hide some genuinely good things the Magic did. The Nuggets made shots (51.9 percent) and scored in the interior for 52 points. But Orlando was disruptive again forcing 21 turnovers for 23 points. The Magic turned it over only seven times. They grabbed 16 offensive rebounds.
Orlando had the energy that is essential to the team's success. But it slowly dissipated. The misses and the Nuggets' ability to get to the line—26 for 31 for the game—slowly gutted the team of its energy.
The Magic found no relief. It feels like there is little relief now. But the games keep coming and this group has to find a way to win.
"Just have to get a win," Kentavious Caldwell-Pope said after Sunday's loss. "We've got to get back in that winning column. Also, we've got to just stay focused on what's the task at hand. It's one game at a time and we've got to go in and try to play 48 minutes. It's not going to be a perfect game, but try to play as perfect as possible."
The Magic need a game to make mistakes and they do not have to be so perfect. The group as they are constructed are enough to win games. Just not against these elite teams.
But there is hope. They see Jalen Suggs and Franz Wagner making progress on the practice courts and doing more. The feeling is they will be back soon.
And perhaps whole again, the Magic will make their push up the standings and put this part of the season behind them.