It did not take long for Orlando Magic fans to lay blame on two people for the team's 113-108 loss to the Houston Rockets on Thursday.
The team was rolling, playing its best basketball of the season and leading by 19 points, when things suddenly changed. A 20-0 run gave the Rockets life and the lead heading out of the third quarter. Kevin Durant closed the game even as the Magic stayed in the game, trailing by one with three minutes to play.
Orlando continues to struggle to get over the hump. Everyone has a part to play in what went wrong. Just as everyone has a part to play to put this behind them and prepare for Sunday's game with the Detroit Pistons.
But the ire in the immediate aftermath of the game turned to two people: coach Jamahl Mosley and guard Jalen Suggs. And these are the two people who will likely face the most scrutiny this offseason as the Magic try to correct a disappointing season.
The Magic are still doing more good than bad in the grand scheme of things, even if Thursday's game was one they should have won.
But even when the team is rolling, its big questions are not too far behind. That is what the Rockets' 20-0 run in the third quarter was a reminder of. The Magic are not quite a title-contending team yet and they cannot leave any stone unturned to figure out how to get there.
And with their payroll and apron responsibilities, the Magic know they must get there quickly. The question of how to get there will ultimately turn to the two figures at the center of Thursday's frustrating 3.5 minutes, where the Magic lost their lead.
Suggs and Mosley were at the center of a frustrating run
It is unfair to pin the 20-0 run on one player or on one thing. It was a perfect storm of mistakes, missteps and a good team finding its stride.
The Houston Rockets erased the Orlando Magic's 19-point lead in just seven possessions. It hit the Magic like a ton of bricks. The team tried too many home runs instead of keeping things simple and could not reel the game back.
It would not have taken much to turn that momentum back. But Orlando could not avoid the turnovers and mistakes that fed Houston's push for the lead.
The proximate cause were three turnovers from Jalen Suggs during that run. It was a compounding of mistakes over and over again even with the Magic's starters still in for much of the 20-0 run.
Suggs added to the problems with a technical foul going into a timeout with the Magic trailing by 12. That brought the deficit down to 11 as Reed Sheppard hit the second of his three 3-pointers to cut the deficit to single digits afer a turnover coming out of the timeout.
Suggs struggled in his first game back from a back strain offensively. And that stretch saw him on the bench for the entire fourth quarter.
Fans have been quick to blame Jamahl Mosley for any of the Magic's ailments, including keeping Jalen Suggs in the game during this stretch of the game.
After the game, Orlando fans criticized Mosley for holding onto his timeouts, even though he burned a timeout after the first seven points of the run after Sheppard hit his first three of the run. Mosley has often let his team play through these mistakes. But he tried to reel the team back in.
Then again, he turned out the same lineup after the timeout to little effect and stuck with his normal rotation, removing Paolo Banchero with two minutes left and the lead down to three points (for Desmond Bane, for what it is worth).
Nobody was able to stop the bleeding. And much like this season, everyone is looking for answers for why the team cannot put the pieces together.
Orlando Magic face big questions this offseason regardless
The anger over this particular loss will subside. The Orlando Magic are still in a better place and improving quickly even with some bad losses on their record.
In the last 10 games, the Magic are 6-4 with a 110.0 defensive rating. That looks more like the tough-minded defensive identity everyone expected from this team.
Orlando is still looking to string together marquee wins. But the team is still 1.5 games behind the Philadelphia 76ers for sixth and avoiding the Play-In. The Magic should be in that race to the end of the season.
Still, that is not where the Magic want to be. All of that is sugarcoating many of the issues that led to a collapse like this. It is a clue and a preview of the big questions the Magic will ask this offseason as they try to climb into contention.
Jamahl Mosley has been at the center of a lot of attention among fans and even around the league. The Magic have failed to meet expectations, and the potential for a third straight first-round exit with a roster whose payroll is about to balloon leaves everyone thinking about a coaching change
All the levers Mosley has tried to pull this year have not worked.
What the Magic do with their coach will be the first big decision of this offseason -- and affect how they approach how to get over that hump they have struggled to climb this season.
Suggs too will face plenty of questions.
Suggs is still mostly beloved. His defensive energy is vital -- and in a good defensive half, the Magic had a 71.4 defensive rating with Suggs on the floor in the first half. He has greatly improved his point guard skills.
But Suggs has dealt with various injuries this year -- first recovering from knee surgery from last year, then a hip injury, then an MCL sprain and then a back strain -- that have limited him to 35 of the team's 58 games (on pace for 59 games if he plays the rest of the season).
Injuries have been the biggest issue the team has faced the last two years. And Suggs has played 50 games just once in his career.
With Anthony Black set to get a big extension, the Magic will have to decide if Jalen Suggs is the right guard for the team's future.
The issues that were apparent in that run Thursday cannot be forgotten. They are part of the key questions the Magic need to answer this offseason. And already the battle lines and decision points are coming into focus.