The Orlando Magic were 1-4 and searching for answers after losing to the Detroit Pistons in October.
They were a sieve while trying to adjust to a faster-paced offense. The Magic did not look like themselves, and the team seemingly needed to face some hard truths.
A pair of wins over the Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards brought a reprieve. But another blowout loss to the Atlanta Hawks to close the road trip and send the Magic to 3-5 in the first eight games had everyone asking: What is wrong with the Magic?
A few days off before the NBA Cup group opener against the Boston Celtics seemed to set things right. The Magic burned off 10 of their next 13 games. All seemed to be right, even as the Magic dealt with an early bout of injuries.
The early-season concerns and the struggles the team had seemed to be put to rest. The Magic seemed to be back to their normal selves. They seemed to be cruising.
The last week has brought back many of those struggles and concerns. The West Coast road trip and Friday's loss to the Charlotte Hornets looked more like those games in October.
Perhaps those problems never went away. Perhaps the Magic are still guarding against these same issues.
Orlando has now had two extended stretches of below-standard play. Two extended stretches of lackluster play, lax defense and poor rebounding. Two stretches where the team lost some of its identity in the process.
There are reasons for both. But this is a pattern the Magic must be aware of.
What is going wrong?
The way the Orlando Magic have played the last two weeks has been shocking simply because it has gone against everything the team has built throughout the season since that 1-4 start when everyone freaked out about the team's foundation.
Injuries are certainly part of the equation.
Orlando is playing without Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs. Injuries to Tristan da Silva and Goga Bitadze have gutted the roster a bit, too. Paolo Banchero has been slow to return from his groin injury.
This is a team that is seeking direction. But that is when the team is supposed to lean on its identity. Defense travels and is meant to be consistent. The by-committee approach and next man up only work if players are sharper and more tuned in.
There has been some of that too -- from Anthony Black's strong run of play to solid games from Wendell Carter, Noah Penda and even Tyus Jones. have stepped up. But the pieces have not come together because of these foundations.
The Magic rank 12th in the league in defensive rating at 113.5 points per 100 possessions. They rank eighth in defensive rebound rate at 70.7 percent and fifth, giving up 13.8 second-chance points per game. On top of this, Orlando has won several of the effort points, getting 16.2 second-chance points per game (seventh in the league) and 32.2 percent offensive rebound rate (ninth in the league).
But since returning home from the NBA Cup, all of those numbers have been backsliding. The Magic have dropped in the rankings of all those usually solid categories.
Since Nov. 14, the Magic are 26th in the league with a 119.8 defensive rating. They are 24th with a 65.5 percent defensive rebound rate and last in the league, giving up 20.5 second-chance points per game. They are 18th with a 30.0 percent offensive rebound rate and 29th with 11.5 second-chance points per game.
With all the injuries, that has predictably led to a downturn offensively. That has only made all of these issues greater.
Orlando might be 3-3 in its last six games, but the team is struggling mightily at the moment. The team's bad moments are really bad. And things the team has relied on as strengths have not been there.
The foundation is a bit shaky.
Is this a long-term problem?
The question is whether the Orlando Magic need to do something about this.
Is it something that the team should be worried about? Is this something embedded in the team that will not go away? Do they need to be worrieda bout this popping up again?
Injuries have certainly played a role. Orlando is without several key players right now. Even though the Magic have been a shockingly good offensive team, they still have all the same concerns (shooting specifically) that they always have.
Paolo Banchero has been slow to come back, and all the absences have only emphasized his shortcomings and where he has been off since his return.
The assumption is that the team will get healthy and things will begin to normalize. Even getting a few key players back should get the team back into balance.
But the Magic have been consistently outworked in many of these games.
Coach Jamahl Mosley specifically called it out after losses to the Golden State Warriors and the Charlotte Hornets. That is something Orlando has been unfamiliar with in the last four seasons under Mosley.
The Magic made their reputation by outworking teams, even if they did not have the offensive firepower or the talent to win most games.
That is the identity the Magic must return to. Effort makes up for a lot of mistakes.
Like the back-to-back against the Charlotte Hornets that followed the loss to the Detroit Pistons, the Orlando Magic recovered with a much more energetic effort in the win over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday. Their effort helped them stay in the game despite falling behind by 17.
The team found a breakthrough offensively -- thanks in large part to Anthony Black's career-best game -- and buckled down at key moments defensively in the second half.
They do not need to be perfect to win, they just need effort and intensity. That is the foundation for their success.
If things still feel uneasy after that game, it is because the Magic won in spite of their defense at times. They just made so many shots in the second half.
Orlando will find its balance again. Every team -- even the best ones -- go through some quiet period during the course of the season. There have been a lot of weird results in the days following Christmas.
But the Magic must be wary. They have now had two of these five-game downturns. Massive downturns that compromised their energy, attention to detail and intensity.
They must guard against this the rest of the season.