A missing body on Saturday turned into a useful reminder for the Orlando Magic.
Desmond Bane sat out against the Golden State Warriors, the first game he has missed since arriving in Orlando, after getting sick and staying in the hotel. He watched from his room while trying to get his energy back, then returned to practice Monday with a little teasing from teammates about how long they had gone without him. It was only one game, but Bane has already become a steady presence.
He was moving around Monday and working his way back toward the court. Bane was not listed on the injury report and looks set to play Tuesday against the Sacramento Kings.
Even with the 2-7 start and all the uncertainty around the team’s early-season identity, the mood inside the locker room still has some bounce. Saturday’s overtime loss, at least, gave the Magic something to hold onto.
“What’s being asked of us is something we are capable of,” Bane said after practice Monday. “One of the things that I like about it was the first half wasn’t going our way, but we chose not to lay down and came out in the third quarter and really responded.
We had a chance to win a game on the road. It didn’t go our way.
I was proud of the way we fought and some of the things we were able to do on the glass.”
That game looked different from much of Orlando’s rough opening stretch. The Magic won the possession battle, took care of the ball better than usual and forced turnovers from a sloppy Warriors team. They also controlled the glass, finishing with 31 more field-goal attempts thanks in part to 33 second-chance points.
For a team that has spent the first three weeks searching for traction, that was something tangible. It was a sign that the buy-in is still there, even if the results have not followed.
The problem is obvious: the Magic need more than encouraging losses. They need those stretches of solid play to turn into wins, not one-off flashes. They have the pieces to make it work, but they have not put them together yet.
Injuries to Paolo Banchero and Jalen Suggs have made the climb harder, and the team is still learning a new system under its coach. That has shown up in the numbers and in the way the Magic have looked at times - frustrated, inconsistent and still trying to make the system feel natural.
Sean Sweeney said the answer in moments like this is to go back to the team’s core.
“Any time there is an adverse situation, we want to play to our identity,” coach Sean Sweeney said after practice Monday. “I think you always want to anchor back to who you are and what you want to be. In this situation, or any situation where you have something that is not ideal, let’s get back to who we are and how we want to do things.”
That identity has not fully shown up yet. Orlando sits 24th in offensive rating at 107.6 points per 100 possessions and 25th in defensive rating at 116.1 points allowed per 100 possessions. The issues have been clear: turnovers, where the Magic rank 27th with a 17.9 percent turnover rate, and defensive rebounding, where they are 20th at 67.7 percent.
So the season has become an early chase. The Magic cannot erase the 2-7 start, but they can decide what comes next. They have to fight their way toward the style they want and climb back into the standings.
“I think it’s huge,” Desmond Bane said after practice Monday. “We’ve got many more months left of this thing and a lot of room and a lot of time to improve, and we will.”
Bane said the carryover has to come from Saturday’s effort: play with force, move the ball, stay patient and attack the paint. That is the formula the Magic need to make stick.
They are not buried yet. At 2-7, Orlando is tied in the loss column with the Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards for ninth and 10th in the East. They are one loss behind the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat for seventh and eighth, and two behind the Atlanta Hawks and Toronto Raptors for fifth and sixth.
And with the 1-9 Sacramento Kings, 1-9 Utah Jazz and 1-9 Milwaukee Bucks coming up, the Magic have a chance to steady themselves. They can use this stretch to gather confidence and start shaping the season around something more solid than hope.
For now, that is the assignment: respond to the adversity, and prove who they are.
In Other News...
Shorthanded Magic Just Proved Something Important On This Road Trip
On the second night of a back-to-back, with a short bench and a long injury list, Orlando still found a way to look like a team with some fight in it. The Magic went into Utah and handled the Jazz 123-108, getting a huge night from Franz Wagner, who led the way with 38 points, while Desmond Bane added 25 and Anthony Black chipped in 22.
The bigger takeaway for Orlando was not just the result, but the manner in which it came. Playing with only 10 available players, the Magic improved to 4-7 and showed they can still generate enough offense and composure to win on the road even when the rotation is stretched thin. For a group trying to steady itself early in the season, that kind of response matters. [Read more 🡒]
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After four straight losses, Orlando finally found some traction in Sacramento, where the Magic snapped the skid with a 107-100 win at Golden 1 Center. Franz Wagner set the tone with a season-high 33 points, and Anthony Black gave the offense a needed lift with 26 as Orlando showed a little more balance than it had during the slide.
The lineup shuffle was part of the backdrop, too, with Sean Sweeney going to his sixth different starting five of the season and putting Anthony Black in the opening group while Jase Richardson returned to the bench. Sacramento made it uncomfortable late behind Darius Acuff Jr.'s 29 points and Zach LaVine's 31, but the Kings still dropped their fourth in a row and sixth straight at home, leaving Orlando with a much-needed result and a few things to build on. [Read more 🡒]
Wendell Carter Jr. Is Back At The Center Of A Magic Debate
Wendell Carter Jr. has found himself back in the middle of a familiar kind of Magic conversation, the sort that tends to surface when a team has a useful big man and other clubs start looking for help inside. Orlando has reason to value Carter as a steady frontcourt piece, especially with his production giving the roster a dependable presence around the rim and on the glass.
The latest buzz comes from the Warriors side of the league, where interior depth has become a talking point as Kristaps Porzingis has stepped away for health reasons. One analyst floated a framework that would send Porzingis and draft capital to Orlando for Carter, a move that would give Golden State a different kind of frontcourt fit while putting the Magic in position to weigh whether Carters current role is the right long-term one. [Read more 🡒]