The Orlando Magic are capturing the attention of people around the league.
The attention of fans.
The attention of pundits and analysts.
“Don’t sleep on the Orlando Magic,” Stan Van Gundy, the former Magic coach and Turner analyst tweeted. “After beating Philly on the road tonight the young Magic are 15-11 in the last 26 games after a 6-20 start. The improvement has been phenomenal and [coach] Jamahl [Mosley] deserves a ton of credit.
And after their 119-109 comeback win over the Philadelphia 76ers (32-17) on Monday at Wells Fargo Center after trailing by 21, the attention of coaches and opposing coaches.
“Teams got to take us [seriously],” Paolo Banchero said on ESPN’s NBA Today after having 29 points in the win over the 76ers. “We’re really talented. We’re a tough matchup for a lot of teams. They’re going to have to keep taking us [seriously].”
Although the comeback was mathematically improbable, it wasn’t an aberration despite the Magic’s 20-31 record.
They’ve played up to the competition for most of the season, especially recently.
The Magic are 15-15 over the last two months — when Markelle Fultz and Cole Anthony returned to the lineup in the Nov. 30 loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
They’re 15-12 in their last 27 games, when Anthony and Fultz were no longer playing on minutes restrictions.
Within that stretch, the Magic are 10-6 against teams with a record of .500 and above at the time of the matchup.
This includes three wins over the league-best Boston Celtics (Dec. 16 and 18 and Jan. 23), including two on the road, and the win over the 76ers. They’ve also had close losses to the West-leading Denver Nuggets and the East contending Milwaukee Bucks.
“We can play with anybody,” Banchero said. “We can beat anybody. We’re a very good team. We just have to learn to put this effort out every single night.
“We beat all the good teams. We’ve got to be able to take this game and apply it to the next game, no matter who it is. That’s what I think we struggle with a little bit.”
Even in wins or moments of growth, the Magic show their inexperience and lack of consistency.
They had a slow start against the 76ers as their defensive intensity cratered before they picked it back up in the second quarter. A slow start was part of why they lost Saturday’s home game to the Chicago Bulls.
Greater consistency is needed to “level up” even more — the team’s mantra since the preseason.
In that same aforementioned 27-game stretch, the Magic are 5-6 against teams who had a record of below .500 at the time of the matchup. They’ve had season-long struggles with back-to-backs.
Fultz maintains a greater self-belief and focus will lead to more consistent play.
“We’re not competing against other teams, even though we are, we’re competing against ourselves,” he said. “We got to all come with the right mindset and just continue to buy into doing it together and having togethernesses on both ends of the floor.
“But more importantly, on the defensive end not giving away silly fouls, really locking into the gameplan and playing our game. That’s our biggest thing. As we continue to move forward, we’ve got to try to do that from the beginning of the game.”
The Magic will play the 76ers again in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
Starting big man Wendell Carter Jr. was listed as questionable on Tuesday’s injury report because of strained right plantar fascia — the soft tissue under the foot.
Carter missed 18 of 19 games from mid-November through late December with the injury.
