The Orlando Magic have been in this situation before.
After they received the devastating news of Paolo Banchero’s injury, they had to go face the Cleveland Cavaliers and play the final four games of a five-game road trip while trying to figure out a central question:
Who are we without our star player?
It clearly took some time for the Magic to reconfigure themselves and find their way to play. But they did. They leaned on their defense most of all to anchor everything they would do. Then they discovered Franz Wagner could step up and be an All-Star.
Orlando did more than keep the ship steady with a five-game win streak to sweep their homestand. They found an identity and kept winning.
Now Wagner is out and Banchero is still slowly working his way back to the court. The Magic have to reconfigure themselves again. It has been only three games, but the Magic are still working to carve their identity again.
“The biggest thing is finding a way to play,” Jonathan Isaac. “It’s something that’s really difficult when your team has an ingrained way of playing offense and defense and then guys go down. It’s not just a flipped switch. We’ve got to watch film and figure out how can we be more intentional when we don’t have those guys who have the ball in their hands a lot of time. It’s not easy, it’s not simple.”
Some elements seem simple.
The Magic are third in the league in defensive rating and have to remain an elite defensive team. That is the only way to keep themselves in the game.
Jalen Suggs emerged in the Magic’s first two games as a critical player. His 14 points in the fourth quarter delivered the win over the Phoenix Suns. His 18 points in the fourth quarter on his way to a career-high 32 points against the Milwaukee Bucks nearly sent the Magic to Las Vegas for the NBA Cup semifinals.
But there is more than that.
The Magic have to find ways to maximize possessions and manufacture points. They have to change their offense some.
That might mean pushing the pace and looking for more transition opportunities. The Magic have struggled on fast breaks all year, ranking 20th in the league with 14.1 fast break points per game this season.
Isaac said the Magic spent the last two days of practice focused on implementing more transition and early offense into their sets and working on playing more pick and rolls. Anything to create some movement on offense and players free downhill.
Orlando has been a strong offensive rebounding team too, stealing possessions and points on second-chance opportunities. It is indeed important for Orlando to maintain this element to their game.
It will be difficult to continue winning with both Banchero and Wagner out. But Orlando has remained confident in itself. The Magic know the margin for error is smaller, but these first three games have proven what they are capable of.
The Magic are not going anywhere in the Eastern Conference standings. Now they need to find a way to keep stacking wins.
