The Orlando Magic have faced losing streaks before. They lost five in a row in the immediate aftermath of Paolo Banchero’s injury in October. They have been in losing ruts before and gotten themselves out of it.
This though? This feels different.
Even allowing time for Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner to work themselves back into game shape after they missed months due to injury. But a 101-79 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers says it all. A five-game losing streak in January – something the team specifically said they would try to avoid in the preseason – has the Magic dropping down to seventh in the Eastern Conference and sitting at .500 at 23-23.
This is not how the season was supposed to go. This is a big road bump in the process. But it is in the past.
The question for the Magic is: How do they get themselves out of this? How do they move forward and improve?
There is a lot to clean up to reclaim their identity. There are still key players they need to return to the lineup. There are still ways for this team to improve.
But the only way out of this rut is together. Nobody is coming to save the Magic – even the returning players from injury. Orlando has to save themselves.
“It’s going to take everyone,” Franz Wagner said after scoring 20 points in his return game Thursday. “We have to stick together. Also not making any excuses. No one is feeling sorry for us. If any one of us is, we have to stop that right now because it is going to snowball if that is the case. I think ups and downs are part of the season and they are opportunities to grow. I think there is a good chance for us to do that.”
The Magic are not alone even among elite teams going through a dip. It happens during a season. But the dip the Magic are experiencing is a pretty deep hole.
The Magic have a 100.0 offensive rating since Paolo Banchero returned (the second-worst in the league since Jan. 10). They have the worst effective field goal percentage at a woeful 45.3 percent. Predictably, the team is 1-6, accounting for their drop in the standings.
Worse still, the Magic’s defensive rating in the last seven games has dropped to 115.7. That is unsustainable for this team even if the offense were normal for them. At least against Portland, the Magic gave up only a 105.2 defensive rating.
Context matters. The Magic played the majority of these games with just eight or nine healthy players and without three of their five normal starters. The team needed to get healthy and they are still bringing back their players.
But even then, their returns are not going to flip a switch. The Magic are not going to add talent back and automatically improve and be back to where they were before the injuries overwhelmed them.
It is still going to take the team working together, trusting each other and building to get out of this. There is no time to stop working and find their way out of this rut.
“You can have a woe is me, this stinks. Because it does stink when you come out and don’t perform to your level,” Jamahl Mosley said. “You can say OK, we didn’t do our job tonight or play to our standard of basketball. Have that for tonight. Then when you wake up in the morning, you have to realize you have a job to do because there is nothing or no one coming to save you.”
