At halftime, the Orlando Magic came to the locker room energized by their effort in the first half against the New York Knicks.
The ball was moving to create open three-point looks that they were making. The defense was scrapping and keeping the New York Knicks from breaking free from three. They were disrupting everything.
More importantly, the Magic's turnovers were down. After such a high-turnover game in Thursday's loss to the Miami Heat, the Orlando Magic were eager to do a better job protecting the ball. They had just five turnovers at halftime.
This was a game the Magic could win. They were frustrating the Knicks' offense and scoring with enough energy and efficiency. Any of their mistakes they could easily clean up.
There was a lot to be proud of. What they did had purpose and intention behind it. The Magic were locked into the gameplan.
Even after the break, the Magic got three straight stops, including a turnover. But the Magic did not take much advantage of it.
Tristan da Silva turned the ball over on the opening possession. After Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hit a three, Jalen Suggs turned it over, forcing the Magic to scramble to force a turnover back.
Then Goga Bitadze committed an offensive goaltending. That is three turnovers in the first four possessions. It became four in the first five. And Jalen Suggs picked up his fourth foul of the game when Karl-Anthony Towns bowled him over in the post and Suggs tripped him as he made a layup.
The game was still close but it would not remain that way if those trends continued. And those trends indeed continued.
Whatever focus and attention to detail the Magic had in the first half they completely lost it in the second. A game tied at 63 with 6:23 left in the third quarter when Suggs picked up his fifth foul quickly unraveled. Again the screws tightened on an undermanned Magic offense and things fizzled.
They had lost their intention and attention to detail.
The Magic gave up a 13-5 run to end the third quarter. By the time Suggs checked back in during the fourth quarter, the Magic were down by 15 points. The whole gameplan had fallen apart and ended in a 108-85 defeat, handing New York the season series and a potential playoff tiebreaker.
"We were doing a great job in the first half, getting the shots we wanted and executing in the right way," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Friday's loss. "We'll keep talking about it because I think in the first half we did a very good job of being intentional in our focus and intentional in our execution. And then part of it was on the break. We were getting the stops that we needed but then we'd come down and couldn't convert on the other end because of careless turnovers."
The turnover issue
Turnovers have been an issue for the Orlando Magic throughout the season. They are 24th in the league in turnover rate, coughing it up on 15.9 percent of their possessions.
While their defense can recover in most instances, it still stresses their defense. And it gives away a chance for the Magic to get a shot.
Considering how precious each possession is for the Magic, those turnovers become costly. And when the offense struggles, as seems so often the case, those turnovers hurt even more.
In this case, it proved to be the difference. That little dip in energy helped the Knicks blow the game wide open.
Orlando scored just 31 points in the fourth quarter, shooting 11 for 39 (28.2 percent) and 4 for 16 (25.0 percent) from three. The Magic turned it over 12 times in the second half.
While that equaled the Knicks' 12 turnovers, it is what they did with those turnovers that mattered.
Orlando scored only six points off turnovers while New York scored 15. For the game, the Magic had only 10 points off 18 turnovers while the Knicks scored 24 points off 17 turnovers. That is a huge issue.
On top of all of this too, the Magic's usual issues of fouling took over as the Knicks got 34 free throw attempts off 23 fouls, even though the Knicks are one of the worst teams at getting to the line all season.
Orlando's physicality worked against it in this one. It compounded the mistake and made it too hard for a struggling offense to catch up.
"We kept fouling them," Goga Bitadze said after Friday's loss. "They got to the line. We did a poor job of staying locked in. We were really trying to play hard, play aggressive, and sometimes we were a little over aggressive and it kind of cost us the game today. But I mean, still a good effort. If you ask me, we fought to the very end."
Missed opportunities
These are missed opportunities the Orlando Magic are leaving on the board. These are extra possessions their defense is creating that they are not taking advantage of. And if Orlando is looking for easy ways to break defenses and steal points, which the team so desperately needs, it starts here.
The Magic are second in the league forcing a 17.5 percent turnover rate. They are fourth in the league scoring 20.4 points off turnovers per game. To say the least, scoring half of their average is a big loss, especially in a game against a quality opponent and a team close to them in the standings.
With so many players down to injury, the Magic know their margin for error is small. They know that they cannot afford mistakes. That they cannot afford to give up opportunities especially against teams like the Knicks.
And they gave up too many of those chances. And then compounded that mistake with the string of turnovers the Knicks were so adept at scoring off of.
"It just gets kind of hard," Jalen Suggs said after Friday's loss. "We also started to turn the ball over, which we weren't doing in the first half. We were being very deliberate with taking care of the ball and making sure that we're not giving them free possession or free opportunities to go down and score. They're a good enough offensive team already. They don't need any help. I just think we got a bit lackadaisical in that area and they took advantage. That's what good teams do."
Playing at a deficit
Without Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, the Orlando Magic are playing at a deficit. They are still working to make up ground. Everyone has to be sharper. And that has become clearer with Moe Wagner out now too, taking away an anchor scorer off the bench.
Orlando's defense is still game and the team is still competitive, but the offense is breaking down. Eventually, the defense will crack.
"It's hard. We're not robots," Bitadze said after Friday's loss. "You can't play 82 games and 48 minutes the same way. If you do that, we should go 82-0 which is impossible. We're still a young team. We're still learning. All I see is guys going out there and competing every single night no matter how many bodies are down. We know we're able to go out there and any five-man group that is out there is willing to do anything to get the win.”
At least against the playoff-level teams, the Magic have faced throughout this homestand, it takes a fully focused and intentional effort. That is the part that has slipped. Orlando has not been able to make up this ground.
The hope of Banchero's return will alleviate some of these concerns for sure. But the Magic will need to be more attentive as they navigate the rest of the season.
Right now, they are not making up that margin for error. And every moment when they lose that focus is a moment that costs them in the long run.