The Orlando Magic have had a ceiling on their potential all year.
Everyone can feel it. And it is not Paolo Banchero's absence because of his injury.
Everyone knows something is blocking this team from reaching their full potential and being a team that is a serious threat—not merely the team that is surprisingly at the top of the standings. Doing this without Banchero is surprising enough.
That ceiling that everyone feels on the Magic is a simple one. It is their shooting.
The Magic entered Friday's game with the worst three-point field goal percentage in the NBA. They have turned in some abysmal shooting performances. Only their elite defense was keeping them in games.
What was worse is that nobody could complain about the looks or even who was shooting those shots. They were just missing.
Consistently when pressed and asked about the team's poor shooting, players and coaches told everyone to keep the faith and stay patient. The process was fine even if the results had not caught up.
Even when it looked clear frustration was winning after every miss and affecting the confidence of the next shot, the Magic wanted to remain confident in what they were doing.
Maybe, just maybe, things are starting to change. Even in the small moments everyone could see the power the Magic's 3-point shooting can have.
As it did in the fourth quarter against the Charlotte Hornets on Monday, it was the lid coming off the basket with a series of made threes that gave the Orlando Magic an offensive spark to pull ahead and never look back. With this defense, it only needs a little bit of offensive cushion to put the locks on all of the doors.
In Friday's 123-100 win over the Brooklyn Nets, that moment came in the second quarter. The Magic struggled to pull away from the Nets with the offense looking typically bogged down. Orlando was not on life support, but the team was letting Brooklyn hang around.
And then, the floodgates opened. The results started to deliver for the effort the team has put in from beyond the arc.
The threes started to fall. Their faith was rewarded in a major way.
"We've been doing a good job, especially in these last 2-3 weeks of focusing on the right stuff and not worrying too much about the result," Franz Wagner said after Friday's win. "If you keep playing the right way, I think these games are going to happen more and more."
Coming out of a timeout, the Magic found Jett Howard for a three. Then Kentavious Caldwell-Pope got a three off another assist from Franz Wagner. Then Wagner drained a step-back three.
Three straight threes made for a 9-0 run and turned a four-point game into a 13-point game. The Magic added a putback dunk from Wendell Carter to lead by 15 and go into the locker room up by 12.
The damage to the Nets was done. Orlando found confidence from deep and never stopped.
3-Point shooting coming around?
The Orlando Magic made 18 of 35 3-pointers in the game Friday, their second game this season shooting 50 percent or better from three—both are against the Brooklyn Nets.
They made four more threes from the outside shot-happier Nets. They made another 10 of 20 in the second half as they pulled away, leading by as much as 28 in the game.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope followed up his game making 6 of 10 3-pointers against the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday with 19 points and 4-for-5 shooting from deep on Friday against the Brooklyn Nets.
Franz Wagner made three of his six 3-pointers on his way to 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Tristan da Silva made three of four and Jett Howard made two of four. Wendell Carter hit his first three since returning to the lineup.
The Magic always believed they had shooters better than their percentages. But they were not delivering.
That is how a team like the Magic builds a runaway win. And if the last three games are any indication, this is something that is a trend.
Ever since the Orlando Magic broke the seal with back-to-back-to-back threes in the fourth quarter against the Charlotte Hornets on Monday, they have been on a tear.
Orlando has made 39 of its last 86 threes (45.3 percent). Suddenly, the three-point shot is not something to be afraid of but a weapon that is turning close games into runaways.
Orlando looks like a more modern offense.
The team has always had that look.
Magic have always had quality threes
The Orlando Magic needed to increase their 3-point volume after taking the second-fewest 3-pointers in the league last year. The basic math dictated the Magic needed to make more threes, and taking more is the first step. It was still always about the quality.
At least statistically, the Magic's 3-point quality has improved.
Orlando went from 21st with 8.5 corner threes per game to fourth in the league in corner threes, taking 11.3 per game—they went 5 for 10 in Friday's win. They have spent much of the season so far taking the most corner threes in the league.
For whatever this data is worth from NBA.com, the Magic average 22.8 3-pointers where the closest defender is six or more feet away, the third most in the league. Last year they attempted 18.2 of these shots (15th in the league).
The problem was always the percentages. The team needed to make these shots.
They are making only 33.2 percent of their corner threes, the third-worst mark in the league. They are making only 32.5 percent of their "wide-open" shots, the second-worst in the league.
Friday's effort showed the power of that process finally paying off.
"We were finding good ones," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Friday's win. "I think a lot of them came because we ended up getting stops. There were cros smatches everywhere and our guys were willing to step into the shots. This is what we talk about with the process and the work you are putting and having the confidence to keep taking those same shots."
Coaches will talk all the time about how they cannot control makes or misses, only the process of getting these shots. The numbers suggest the Magic are getting quality looks. Perhaps defenses are more than happy to let the Magic fire away from deep considering how much they have struggled so far this season.
If the Magic ever started hitting these shots, that could dramatically change the team's offensive outlook. That is what has happened in the last three games where the Magic's offense has matched its devastating defense.
But the Magic never wavered from their process. It starts for them with defending—forcing 20 turnovers for 34 points against the Nets—and getting downhill to the paint—48 points in the paint and 22 free throw attempts. That is how the team kicks out for these "Magic shots."
That they call them that shows the Magic know the kind of looks they want to get. Now it is just about making them.
"Honestly, I thought we played the same way we've been playing," Franz Wagner said after Friday's win. "Obviously, it feels good to make a couple more shots. I didn't notice anything different. We didn't try anything different. It's just remembering it starts with attacking the paint and getting there first.
Maybe now the Magic are turning a corner.
If that is the case, then maybe the Magic are more dangerous than anyone thought. Maybe their offense can function at a higher level with this kind of 3-point shooting.