Even under normal circumstances, the Orlando Magic were never expected to keep pace with the Boston Celtics from beyond the arc.
The Celtics' whole offensive strategy is built around a freely shooting 5-out style that stresses even the best defenses, leaving the paint open and daring teams to help to stop their elite drivers in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown before they kick out to the 3-point line. The Magic's length and size typically does well to close those gaps.
But this is not about how the Magic match up with the Celtics on defense. It is whether they can even match the volume Boston plays with. And this undermanned roster for Orlando could not either slow down Boston's shooting onslaught or make shots of its own.
That difference stood out the most.
Boston did not get its usual volume—was it good Magic defense or the Celtics finding more room in the paint?—but still made 17 of 37 (45.9 percent). The Magic were only 5 of 32 (15.6 percent). It is a math problem for the Magic against a team like the Celtics.
But it is more than that. Everyone at this point knows it as the Magic continue to trail the entire league in 3-point field goal percentage. Shooting is an issue that does not have an easy answer.
And more than five seconds of silence says it all as Jamahl Mosley looked at the box score to respond after Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel asked him, "What's the message and how do you improve from three?"
"Got to go back and look at them and see if we are getting the right ones," Mosley finally said after Friday's loss. "I think that's a big portion of it. We're getting downhill and teams are collapsing. We're going to see more zone, understood. We have to continue making the right play.
"I'm never discouraged when we're getting the right looks. I think it's trusting your body of work, trusting the process of what you're capable of doing and having confidence to knock these shots down. We're going to continue to get open looks. We just have to have the confidence in order to do it. They are collapsing the defense, we are making the right play, the one extra pass and we are getting some fantastic looks. We just have to make sure to keep our confidence and continue to put the work in to knock these shots down."
The silence and what was unsaid is that even when the Magic get quality looks they are missing them. It suggests there is not something broken about the offense.
It is simply about making those looks. And that is something nobody has a clear answer for.
Historic struggles
The numbers are staggering from deep this year and verging on historic infamy.
The Orlando Magic are shooting a league-worst 30.4 percent from three this season.
It is the worst percentage for the team since the inaugural 1990 season when the team shot 29.5 percent from three. Of course, that team took only 393 total attempts all season (4.8 attempts per game). This year's team has already taken 1,592.
If this trend continues, the Magic will post the worst 3-point field goal percentage in the league since the Charlotte Bobcats shot 29.5 percent in the lockout-shortened 2012 season.
It defies explanation because so many 3-point shooters took major regressions.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is a career 36.6 percent shooter who is shooting only 31.7 percent from three this season. In fairness to Caldwell-Pope, he is shooting 36.1 percent in his last 14 games on 5.1 attempts per game.
But he is not alone in finding a sudden decrease in his shooting.
Jalen Suggs has gone from a reliable 39.7 percent to 31.2 percent as his volume and usage increased amid all the injuries. Wendell Carter went from 37.4 percent to an icy 20.3 percent. Jonathan Isaac went from 37.5 percent on low volume to 24.7 percent. Cole Anthony has gone from 33.8 percent last year to 30.3 percent this year.
Those kinds of extreme regressions are everywhere on the roster. And it is an issue nobody has a solution other than to say to keep having confidence and keep shooting.
"We've got to stay confident to do that," Cole Anthony said. "I felt it out there. A few of us missed shots and the world's over. I'm guilty of that a lot, obviously. But I just think we've got to stay consistent and trust our work. Shots will fall. I'm confident it will change for us and we'll start to hit shots."
Will star returns help?
That is all the team can do is be confident that the tide will turn and that the Orlando Magic will not be this historically bad for the second half of the season.
The hope is that the return of Paolo Banchero to full health and eventually Franz Wagner will give the team enough playmaking force to dish to the perimeter. The Magic may just need some time to figure out how to play together again and rediscover their rhythm.
Indeed, the absences of the Magic's stars have hurt the Magic's shot quality in some respect.
Still, the Magic are not a team indiscriminately jacking up threes. They are still among the league leaders in getting "wide-open" threes as NBA.com's tracking stats define them (when the closest defender is six or more feet away).
According to those stats, the Magic take the ninth-most wide-open threes in the league at 20.2 per game. Unsurprisingly, they have the worst percentage at 33.0 percent.
The quality of their 3-point shots have decreased since their best players went out.
Since Franz Wagner's injury was announced on Dec. 7, the Magic have 17.7 such attempts per game. They still shoot 33.3 percent on these attempts.
Banchero's return has helped some—the team has bounced back up to 20.8 of these attempts per game. But it still comes down to making or missing shots.
Missed opportunities are holding the Magic back
The game against the Boston Celtics was not the best example. The Orlando Magic were just 5 for 17 (29.4 percent) on these wide-open threes. The quality of their attempts was not there.
According to the analytics site NBA Game Report, the Magic lost 4.7 points from their expected percentages from wide-open threes. The team scored 0.96 points per shot behind their 1.12 expected points per shot.
That would not have been enough to defeat the Celtics on Friday. But a similar thing happened in Wednesday's game against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Orlando went 12 for 46 (26.1 percent) from three in that game and 6 for 23 on wide-open threes. The Magic struggled to touch the paint in that game, but they still got and missed plenty of quality three-pointers.
NBA Game Report estimated they lost 8.7 points from wide-open threes and scored only 0.88 points per shot, well below the 1.11 points per shot.
That again may not have been enough to win the game with where the team struggled. But straight numbers do not factor in the confidence and energy boost that comes from making shots or the drain that comes from repeatedly missing open threes.
But there is not much to do but to keep trusting the shots will go in and to work harder to create teh quality looks that create confidence.
And that is something that tactics, gameplanning, coaching or anything else cannot fix.
The Magic are bleeding points from beyond the arc. They are missing good opportunities to score. And Mosley likely knows it even if he is trying this best to put on a brave face.
There is ultimately very little he can do to help his team make shots. They are creating the kind of looks that at least on paper should go in. He likely sees them in practice making these shots. It is just about executing them.
And for that he can only be silent on as the team tries to find its groove again.