Magic Four Game Losing Skid

Orlando, FL— After seemingly finding a way to win games with bodies down, the injuries have finally caught up to the Magic who have now dropped their fourth game in a row.

Magic guard Cole Anthony told Kendra Douglas at Madison Square Garden, ‘We have enough, we are enough.’ Unfortunately, everything continued to go downhill after that impressive win and powerful statement in New York.

After Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, and even Moe Wagner had all gone down, many fans expected this team to fall off a cliff, but somehow, someway, this team continued to stay afloat. The preparation of the staff, the ‘next man up’ mentality, and just the overall resiliency of that locker room kept this team fighting for much longer than what should’ve been expected.

Orlando was a top-four seed in the East for most of the season despite the onslaught of injuries, but with the losing streak, the Magic have found themselves falling in the standings and are now the 8th seed in the East, right in the middle of the Play-In Tournament. 

Raptors Takedown Magic

Suffering a 109-93 loss on Tuesday evening in Toronto, frustrations began to boil over for many fans, and rightfully so. The Magic have what feels like every day a new injury or illness popping up, the team can’t shoot the ball from distance effectively, and what’s supposed to be the team’s backbone with their defensive identity, hasn’t been there.

Magic Head Coach Jamahl Mosley spoke in the post-game in Toronto and was asked if fatigue and only having eight players was a factor in the loss to the Raptors.

“I mean, I don’t think it’s really an excuse at that point. It’s just – that’s a reality. I think that becomes a reality. We came out great, we had high levels of energy, intensity, communication, running through screens, getting over screens. As the game wore on, trying to maneuver with eight guys, having to continue to battle, continue to fight, and then they got extremely physical.”

Second-year guard Anthony Black responded similarly to the team having only eight players available and guys being tired.

“It’s tough playing with eight dudes for sure. We’ve got dudes playing battling different things. It’s always an excuse you can make but like we always talk about we know we have enough. We’re not letting ourselves make that excuse.” 

Orlando’s Stats for the Last 15 Games

Jamahl Mosley and his players are clearly not allowing fatigue, injuries, and other factors to be an excuse for this team. Having said that, the numbers during the team’s last 15 games are bad, but over this four-game losing streak, they’re glaringly horrific. 

For context, over the last 15 games the Magic have a record of 5-10, a defensive rating of 111.0, and are shooting 29.4% from three-point range.

Paolo Banchero has been on a four game losing streak with the Magic so far, looking to turn things around

If you thought those numbers were bad, trust me it only gets worse. In the last four contests not only have the Magic dropped every one of those games in convincingly losing fashion, but the numbers are eye-popping. Over that four-game stretch, Orlando has a defensive rating of 121.1 (26th), an offensive rating of 98.2 (29th), and is shooting a dreadful 25.3% (30th) from deep.

The Magic have been decimated with injuries all year long as their best players and multiple other guys on the depth chart have missed a ton of games including Paolo Banchero (34), Franz Wagner (20), Gary Harris (25), Jalen Suggs (11), etc. 

We all know it’s not only hard to win in this league, but it’s even harder to win in this league when you have a very limited rotation, especially when those guys are toward the bottom of the depth chart. Orlando has been forced to play guys like Corey Joseph, Caleb Houstan, Trevelin Queen, and others for 20+ minutes a night and there’s only so much you can do as a staff when you have to rely upon the guys at the end of the bench night in and night out, it’s just the truth of the matter.

Why Magic Fan’s Shouldn’t Panic

Having said all of that, the reason I’m not concerned about the play of this team right now is because they’re derailed with injuries. Simple as that.

Paolo Banchero since returning from injury, excluding his first game back, hasn’t looked quite like himself and that’s expected when you’re coming off a two-month hiatus and the team is down bodies when you return.

Franz Wagner, who has been upgraded to “Return to Competition Conditioning”, will almost certainly not look his former self immediately when he returns from injury. This can be applied to any of our players who have now missed an extended period of time with Jalen Suggs (back), Goga Bitadze (concussion), Garry Harris (hamstring), etc. 

Coaches and players say it all the time, there is going to be an ‘adjustment’ period and players will have to get assimilated back into the lineups together. We’ve all seen how great this Magic team can play when they’re healthy, that’s the big caveat, and I believe they can compete with anyone in the East when they’re healthy. 

My last point is that if Jeff Weltman and the front office felt so inclined to make a push this year, he has the draft capital and depth to make a move at the deadline if he’d like to do so. The NBA Trade Deadline is on Feb. 6th which is just 15 days away and the Magic could make a move to help bolster this roster. 

We’ve seen names such as Cameron Johnson, Collin Sexton, Anfernee Simons, De’Aaron Fox, etc all be linked to the Magic. Regardless if the Magic make a move at the deadline or not this is still an evaluation season where the team can assess who they can build around their big three moving forward. 

Orlando is in Zero Rush

The most important thing Magic fans need to remember through these tough stretches, as cliche as it may be, is that it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. 

Paolo Banchero is just 22 years old and both Jalen Suggs and Franz Wagner are 23 years old. Orlando has nothing but time on their side, especially since they’ve locked up Franz and Jalen for the foreseeable future and we all expect Banchero to sign a rookie supermax contract extension this offseason.

Despite the team’s injuries, their shooting woes, and their lack of any kind of floor spacing, I see this team climbing the standings and getting into playoff form at the right time. Orlando is just 45 games into the season and has a ton of time to get guys healthy and to get players back into the rotation well before the postseason.