The Orlando Magic walked off the floor at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee disappointed but proud.
The NBA Cup was just out of their reach once again. Losing 114-109 to the Bucks on a Damian Lillard three and layup in the final minute was a bitter pill. It was a tough loss regardless of the NBA Cup stakes.
This new competition is still getting settled into the NBA psyche. Some players took the loss as just a loss. Something that happens in the regular season. Others took it harder. There was a missed opportunity to score a quality road win.
In the end, falling short of heading to Vegas in the NBA Cup does not affect the Magic’s playoff hopes – other than drawing the Bucks one game closer in this instance. Orlando’s regular season marches on Sunday against the New York Knicks. In a few weeks, the NBA Cup will only serve only as an early season distraction.
Still, it was a lesson. The games had stakes if the teams wanted them. And the NBA Cup was important to the Magic. Like it was last year, Orlando wanted to do well. The team saw it as a chance to grow and gain experience in meaningful games.
The Magic used it last year as a launching pad for their playoff push. They gained confidence from the experience of going 3-1 and falling just short of the wild card thanks to a 30-plus-point victory by the Boston Celtics on the final day.
They wanted it again. Whether this proves to be a confidence builder will be revealed in time. But now that the Magic are out of the tournament, what did they learn? Some thoughts:
1. The Magic still must prove themselves
If there is a big criticism for the Orlando Magic’s 17-10 record so far, it is that it is devoid of quality wins. Orlando is 4-7 against teams with records above .500 – two against the Phoenix Suns, one against the Los Angeles Lakers and one against the Miami Heat.
East Group A ended up not being the tall task it looked like in the summer. The Philadelphia 76ers are not the contending team everyone thought they were.
And so, in this tournament, Orlando lost the two games against winning records. And that loss at the New York Knicks, a 121-106 defeat that saw the Magic trail by as much as 37 points and flirt with not advancing, was jarring.
Orlando still needs to prove itself against quality teams. The Magic still need to win these games – whether under pressure and facing stakes or not.
2. The Magic are serious about competing
Despite the disappointing losses to the New York Knicks and Milwaukee Bucks on the road, the Orlando Magic still proved they are serious about winning. The way they took care of their business against the Charlotte Hornets, Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers spoke to the seriousness and maturity of their approach to these games.
Orlando lamented giving up a 20-point loss to the Nets in the team’s first NBA Cup game last year. The team looked back at that game as an example of the maturity they needed.
Wiping the floor with the Hornets for a 25-point win set them up to earn the wild card and advance to the quarterfinals. It set the tone for what they could do.
But what worked about those first three games was the Magic took care of business. They defended at a high level and used that to launch themselves on offense.
Orlando has established its way to win and it all starts on defense. It is no surprise the Magic leaned on that. They had to win with three very different offensive showings. But the defense remained consistent. And that got them moving in the right direction during this important time.
3. Jalen Suggs lives for the moment
Jalen Suggs was feeling the lows of the loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. His postgame press conference barely rose above a whisper after the loss in the quarterfinal. He missed two shots down the stretch that kept the Magic from keeping up and advancing.
But as much as the attention was rightfully on Franz Wagner for how he developed throughout the NBA Cup games, Suggs also emerged as a clutch player.
Suggs averaged 18.8 points per game, with 5.2 rebounds per game and 3.4 assists per game. His individual games were spotty in isolation. But he had a lot of big moments.
He hit a critical three-point to ice the game against the Philadelphia 76ers, helping Orlando pull away in the fourth quarter for a 12-point win. And then he scored 18 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter to give the Magic a chance to upset the Bucks.
Suggs has always been a big-time fourth-quarter performer. And while he laments some misses late in games, he is still a great fourth-quarter player – his 4.6 points per game in the fourth quarter of games is second on the team behind Franz Wagner and it jumped to 7.0 points per game in the NBA Cup games thanks to 18 in the fourth against Milwaukee and 11 in the fourth against Philadelphia.
