The Orlando Magic’s effort can’t quite cover their weaknesses

Effort overcomes much.

That seems to have been the motto and ethos of the Orlando Magic for the past two years. Whatever shortcomings they might have offensively, in particular, they would make up for with sheer effort and defensive grit. This would exhaust their opponents and give them a chance to win.

That effort apparently hides all of the magic’s weaknesses. The individual brilliance of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner creates and compensates for much this list lacks.

One bad night won’t derail this team’s identity and mission. A healthy Orlando Magic team is a formidable force if the Magic are to face the Milwaukee Bucks in the playoffs.

Still, it’s hard to ignore what led to the disheartening and frustrating 122-93 loss to the Bucks on Wednesday. A loss of this magnitude, in which the Magic trailed by as many as 32 points and trailed 34-16 after the first quarter after a 19-0 run, forces the losing team to examine itself.

Losses of this magnitude say more about the losing team than the winning team. And while the Magic will surely play better when they head back to Milwaukee in March to close out the season series — and potentially in the playoffs — it’s hard to ignore what this team struggled with without its typical grueling energy.

This magical team relies most of all on its effort. And without it, all their faults are exposed.

“It was not our standard” coach Jamahl Mosley said after Wednesday’s loss. “It wasn’t Orlando Magic basketball. Not even close. We’re going to have to talk about it and figure out what it was that didn’t allow it, but it wasn’t Orlando Magic basketball. The big part of this group is , that they always find a way to come back.”

The shooting struggles

The biggest problem remains the team’s shooting.

The Orlando Magic opened the game, shooting 3 for 15 from the floor. They gave up a 19-0 run, going scoreless for more than five minutes. Down 34-16 at the end of the first quarter, the Magic never really made a push, getting the deficit down to 13 in the second quarter, but then letting it balloon back to 20 before halftime.

The Magic finished the game shooting 34.7 percent from the floor and 12 for 46 (26.1 percent) from three. The 46 3-point attempts represented the eighth time this season the Magic made 45 or more threes in a game. Orlando is 3-5 in those games.

Even worse, the Magic were 2 for 14 in the first quarter. They settled for threes. And for an Orlando team shooting the worst team 3-point field goal percentage in the last decade, that’s not a healthy formula.

Orlando needed to increase its 3-point volume and needed to remain confident shooting threes. But that’s not this team’s game. That might be something the Magic need to address more forcefully in the next trading windows to become a more clearly contending team.

But it’s not like the Magic can’t win without three-point shooting. That is what the settlement for these three represents. It’s the lack of energy and intensity not attacking the rim that matters for this team.

The Magic make up for their poor three-point shooting by attacking the paint and getting to the foul line. It has also been a struggle at times for this team.

Orlando scored just 32 points on 32 field goal attempts. The team totaled 21 free throws, but only nine in the first half and only two in the first quarter.

It almost didn’t matter what the Bucks did – 7 for 12 from three, 54 points in the paint and 35 free throw attempts. This was about what Magic was missing. Milwaukee clogged the lane and dared Orlando to shoot.

The Magic let the Bucks dictate the terms of engagement.

“We were just a little out of shape tonight from the jump,” Wendell Carter said after Wednesday’s loss. “It was very easy for them on the offensive end. And so for us, we didn’t put any pressure. We settled for a lot of threes. . . . We settled a lot instead of moving it side to side. did a poor job of going into this game applying pressure and making it difficult for them on both ends of the court.”

With Paolo Banchero — with seven turnovers in this game — still working his way back, the Magic didn’t have a clear way to attack the basket.

It remains a big problem for the team as well. Outside of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, Orlando lacks players who command double teams or can get to the basket to force the defense into rotations.

Effort hides weaknesses

But the Orlando Magic’s efforts have always mitigated those shortcomings. When the Magicians say they are enough, they are talking about their intensity making up for what they lack due to an injury.

They must make up through offensive rebounds and scoring off turnovers. They must craft extra possessions wherever they can find them.

The Magic made up points in many areas.

The Milwaukee Bucks forced 13 turnovers for 15 points. The Magic still forced 21 turnovers for 19 points, and five of those came in the second quarter as the team cut the deficit to 13. Of course, eight of the Bucks’ turnovers came in the fourth quarter, when the game was already decided.

The Magic gave up just three offensive rebounds and grabbed nine of their own – giving the Bucks 62.5 percent for the game. They outscored the Bucks 10-3 on second-chance points (although the Magic were just 3-for-9 on second-chance field goals).

Orlando has a formula to win and overcome the team’s many shortcomings. But it all comes down to the thing that creates such a nice margin for error.

When the Magic can’t make shots and can’t get into the paint, they find themselves in trouble. The Bucks ran on all the long rebounds to score 22 fast-break points. Orlando lost touch and lost touch and couldn’t reel Milwaukee back in.

And without consistent scoring to fix things, the Magic fell behind too quickly to be competitive. The missed shots took the Magic out of their defensive identity.

“We’ve always said we’re not going to let shots or misses affect our effort or energy, and that wasn’t there tonight,” Mosley said after Wednesday’s loss. “We let some of that affect us. You have to start the game the right way with the right amount of energy and intensity. And tonight we looked like the back-to-back team. We played with more energy when we had them back-to-back last time Tonight wasn’t good old fashioned ass.

These are known problems. No one is surprised that Magic has these problems. Their efforts cover them well.

But the fact that the Magic didn’t play with effort was downright shocking. Orlando has bounced back from poor performances before to get signature wins. The Magic expect them to do it again.

It doesn’t change what they know they’ll have to fix in the long run. Even when they are healthy, they will have to answer these critical questions.

At some point in the playoffs, the effort won’t be enough. The Magic will need to find an answer to these shooting issues and the things that put a wrench in their offense.