A couple of weeks ago, with a team many predicted to finish inside the Eastern Conference’s top three, disappointing to begin the season, All-Star forward Paolo Banchero sat at his cubby in the visiting locker room of Madison Square Garden. The Orlando Magic had just beaten the New York Knicks in a fashion reminiscent of their physicality from the previous few years.
The Magic were regaining form. And on this night, a 17-point victory during which they lost Banchero to a groin injury that has kept him off the court since, what was supposed to be a brute squad looked brute again.
“We lost that a little bit,” Banchero told me then. “It started off rough. We weren’t guarding teams like we usually do. And we kinda had to look ourselves in the mirror and realize, we’re not gonna win many games giving up 130, 120.”
The Magic had misplaced their identity. Now, they’ve found one, though not in the way many might have predicted.
Read the rest of my NBA notebook, which includes more on Orlando’s in-season transformation.
