After Jalen Suggs receives the ball at the foul line, he usually takes the ball in one hand, closes his eyes and gives a couple of deep breaths before going into his free throw routine. That is part of his routine to center himself and push away all the noise in the game.
There was a lot of noise in this game, especially in the fourth quarter. Suggs needed to find a way to quiet everything around him because suddenly the game seemed to be getting out of hand.
Orlando needed Suggs to be composed. And in the critical moment with the ball in Suggs' hands, he simply was not as the Magic searched for some answers after losing a 17-point first-quarter lead and a 10-point lead entering the fourth quarter.
This was the Miami Heat's night to make the comeback, forcing six turnovers in the fourth quarter and hitting 5 of 8 3-pointers to stun the Magic on their home floor. Orlando could only look for answers as their star player went 1 for 4, missing all three 3-pointers, and turned it over four times.
Suggs finished with seven turnovers in the game. as the Magic fell 89-88 on a jumper by Tyler Herro with 0.5 seconds left. An emotional Magic team seemed to lose itself.
The energy was simply off for a team riding so high on vibes. And the mistakes piled up in defeat. The Magic's frenetic energy worked against them, leading to mistakes and ultimately a frustrating loss.
"You are giving a team extra possession and extra chances to go down and score and also free stops," Suggs said after Thursday's loss. "I don't know, just handling the ball at being in actions coming out of there and giving them seven free possessions myself alone is inexcusable, to be honest, if you want to win games. That's all I want to do, I want to win."
The Magic can count the squandered opportunities to win and how they responded to them, giving away the lead and having to fight back to reclaim it.
Mistakes that build
The highlights will display the ending that showed signs of promise for the Orlando Magic.
On a night when the Magic could not shoot, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hit a critical three to draw the Magic to one point. After getting a stop when Alec Burks committed an offensive foul trying to get around a Magic trap in the corner, Goga Bitadze's putback with 10 seconds left gave the Magic the lead and a chance to escape.
But Herro was the hero. He dragged Trevelin Queen across the lane and hit a contested 19-foot pull-up shot with 0.5 seconds left to deliver the Heat the victory. Suggs got a look from the corner for three but released the ball too late as it rimmed out anyway.
It was a tough shot and the cap to a night that will sting because of all the mistakes leading up to it.
"No other way to put it—23 turnovers, 25 points—you're not giving yourself an opportunity and those were leading for breaks," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Thursday's loss. "We talked about it before the game, if we take care of the ball versus this team, get good looks, give yourself an opportunity. But we still fought to the end, because that's what we're going to continue to do no matter what."
It will sting because of the chaos that surrounded the team in the fourth quarter and most especially Jalen Suggs.
The frustration was written on his face. Orlando needed its heartbeat to calm down and play with the poise and precision needed to finish the game. All the emotions that define who he is sometimes need to be put away. The Magic needed some calm to keep the Heat at arm's length as the Magic had all game.
Instead, Orlando succumbed to its worst habits. The ball stopped and lost its energy, only sending the team deeper into its worst self.
The Magic turned it over 23 times for 25 Heat points. They shot only 5 for 29 from three, missing plenty of open looks but often settling for shots from the perimeter. Orlando scored only six points in the paint—on 3-for-9 shooting—and got to the line with only four free throws in the fourth quarter.
Orlando was settling for shots and visibly frustrated with any lack of foul calls made.
Frustration at the end
That was the frustration written on Jalen Suggs' face as he turned to the officials looking for foul calls and needed teammates to calm him down. Before two critical free throws late in the game, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope talked him down before entering the foul line to shoot his free throws.
Nobody wants this emotion to change. It is the team's superpower. And Orlando's frenetic energy can rattle and defeat teams.
But in the chaos of this game and the frustration of not hitting shots, the Magic's attention went to their emotions and not to the task at hand.
"We have to be locked in for 48 minutes," Goga Bitadze said after Thursday's loss. "I'm not saying we were not. We've got to pay more attention to the gameplan. I think we lost it somewhere and let them get those threes up. They hit a lot of threes. Our defense was pretty good. But some games they are going to make more shots."
That is the only way to explain the relative slipping with their defense in the fourth quarter.
Alec Burks scored 17 points off the bench, making all three of his 3-pointers. He caught fire early in the fourth quarter, getting fouled on a three-point attempt and hitting a three to bring the Heat within four quickly.
Miami as a team made 15 of 30 from three. And while some of that came from players like Haywood Highsmith hitting three 3-pointers or Jaime Jaquez hitting three 3-pointers uncharacteristically, some of it came from miscommunication or two guys leaving the ball.
The 3-point math was a major detractor for the Magic. And something they could not overcome even if they won almost every other stat category in the game.
"If you look at the game, we still had a chance to win it at the end obviously," Tristan da Silva said after Thursday's game. "As we just talked about, 23 turnovers, that's something that's in our power and our control. I feel like we can learn from this one and move on to the next one. We've got to make sure that we learn from that, otherwise this game will not bring any value to us."
The Magic it seemed left one on the table and they felt it.
Orlando is always going to be an emotional and intense team. That is who they are. But those emotions got the better of them in the fourth quarter.
Orlando started the game dictating everything to Miami. The Heat ended the game dictating everything to the Magic. And that is a hard hill for this Magic team to climb.
Orlando will not make excuses. The team knows it let this one slip away.
It is a lesson the team will have to carry with them moving forward. The team knows it has enough to win. But mistakes and emotions can derail them. And that is enough to bump them off course.