The Magic didn’t exactly come out of the gate roaring. When you trade four first-round picks for a guy who has never made an All-Star team, a 4-6 start is the last thing anyone wants to see.
But Orlando’s season flipped in Game No. 11, when Desmond Bane buried a game-winner that seemed to snap the whole roster into place.
Since that shot, the Magic have looked like the team they believed they were building. They’re 8-2 in their last 10. They knocked off the East-leading Pistons on Friday. And they clinched their NBA Cup group to punch a ticket to the knockout round.
A win like that can feel like validation. The early bumps are in the rearview mirror, and the numbers back it up.
Orlando has posted both a top-ten offense and defense during this run, a rare sight for a franchise that has spent more than a decade near the bottom of the league offensively.
Now they’re headed to Las Vegas with a chance to prove they’re built for big games. You don’t get many of those in November, but the Magic handled their first shot at one. And now they get another.
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