Even when the Orlando Magic were down by 15 points at the half, it did not feel like the team was completely out of it. The culprit for the deficit were the normal frustrations—turnovers and missed shots. But this vaunted Boston Celtics offense had not cracked them. Even without Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, the hill seemed scalable.
That is the first sign of belief. The acknowledgment that the team can achieve its goals.
Teams around the league are finding this Magic team difficult to crack. Especially coming out of the halftime locker room, their defense seems to find another gear. They adjust and tighten their grip. They believe.
And then? Then anything can happen.
The question the rest of the league has to ask itself as the Magic continue defiantly to compete and push around some of the best teams in the league is: What will this team look like when All-Star-level players in Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner are back in the lineup?
Because even without them, the Magic are a dangerous team. A team no one can take lightly.
The Magic have not wasted this time beset by injuries. They have not accepted defeat. They continually seem to turn doubt into belief.
So just roll with it. Believe in this Magic team. Believe in every part of them no matter who is in or out of the lineup.
The results speak for themselves as they stared down the defending NBA champions and their vaunted offense and locked them up for the second half, getting under their skin and frustrating them out of their 3-point happy ways in a 108-104 stunner once again.
The Magic erased a 15-point halftime deficit, took a 10-point lead, saw it wilt to one and then turned to their rookie Tristan da Silva—off a pass from two-way player Trevelin Queen—to ice the game and put the Magic up four with nine seconds to play.
None of it makes sense. Except it makes perfect sense. This team believes in everything they are doing. They believe they can win.
"I think the importance of it is our identity stays our identity," Queen said after Monday's win. "We're a hard-playing team. Everybody knows that regardless of who is on the court we're going to play hard. The turnovers and the silly mistakes we have during the game, that's just us playing so hard sometimes that we turn it over or make mistakes. But we control the controllables. We play hard the whole 48 minutes and we got rewarded with two good wins."
That is the characteristic of every great team. They have their way to play and they fill in and step up. It is every cliche in the book—winning by committee, next man up, and the like. Orlando needed to play exceptionally well to defeat a team like the Celtics.
They continued to step up to the plate and drag the Celtics into a game of their liking.
The seeds of belief
Still, the Orlando Magic found themselves down by 15 points at the half. The team was turning the ball over—finishing with 20 for 29 points—and fouling too much. Not to mention Orlando could not hit a shot. The Orlando Magic were not making things hard enough for the Boston Celtics.
Considering all of that, the Magic did not waver or blink. They knew they could lock back in and give themselves a chance to win. They had to execute and deliver.
The Magic have been in this situation before needing to make up a deficit and fight their way back into the game. They have always been up to the challenge. That has defined this group as much as anything.
"We were down 18 but nobody had any ounce of doubt that we were out of it," Jalen Suggs said after Monday's win. "To come back in the second half against a team like that who is coming off a 'chip, a lot of veterans and a lot of great players over there with the injuries we have and how heavy the days have been with injuries and uncertainties with our brothers, to come out and do it as a unit. We had complete trust in each other."
That is what it has to take for the Magic to survive all the injuries and devastating to the team that the last few weeks have brought. The season has punched and staggered the Magic on several occasions. But they keep rising up.
That is how these games have gone as they scramble and fight their way back into every game. They learn and adjust and tighten and focus as the game goes on.
There is a lot of confidence for a reason. And when teams allow them to build that confidence further, it becomes dangerous.
A quick 7-0 run to cut the lead in half to open the third quarter was the first sign of trouble for Boston. The Magic took the Celtics out of their game, eventually bogging them down in a defensive battle. Orlando forced 19 turnovers for 23 points, including 11 for 16 in the second half.
They reached deep into their bench again with da Silva not only hitting the game-clinching shot but scoring 18 points with 4-for-8 shooting from deep. It was Trevelin Queen getting the first start of his career and scoring 17 points to go with three steals and a block as he took turns defending Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis.
They simply believe in each other.
"We've just got dogs. It doesn't need to be explained," Cole Anthony said after Monday's win. "We have a bunch of dudes on this team who are very capable and you are now getting to see with dudes out are capable players. We're just going out there with a chip on our shoulder and we're just hooping. Mose has told us we have enough and we all believe that. That's what we're trying to prove every night."
Resolve overcomes the challenges
There are still a lot of challenges ahead. The Orlando Magic play at a frenetic pace and tempo. It feels like it is something tough to sustain.
But for the last two seasons, the Magic have sustained this pressure. They have sustained this intensity. They have made this their identity.
The Magic are down a lot of players and they feel the pressure that comes with that. They feel the margin for error when they make mistakes.
But they also see the resolve they have to overcome them. They see how their effort and intensity makes up for a lot of what they are missing. They see how their defense can still win and give them a chance if they stick with it.
Everyone is bought into their identity.
"It's who we are," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Monday's win. "I'm not going to get tired of saying it and I don't want them to act surprised. We talk about the belief you have to have, the work ethic you have to have, the togetherness we have, that's this group. I don't think there is any other way to put it. I think that's what they've shown and that's what they continue to prove. And they believe it."
And that identity transcends who is in or out of the lineup. This is a fighting group and it is a gritty group. They have to be to survive all they have survived.
And so it is time to stop questioning what they do not have and believing in everything they do have.