Mosley praises his team's resilience and Jamal Cain's clutch performance after a hard-fought victory, highlighting their "one game at a time" mindset.
On the difficulty of beating a team multiple times and the team's resiliency in the final 60 seconds despite poor execution:
"I was extremely proud of these guys for staying with it because we didn't execute down the stretch. You got to give them a ton of credit. The zone, throwing out different coverages, picking up full court, attacking the basket. We've been in this situation before where we've been up and they come storming back. But our guys, the resiliency and I think that's a mindset piece for our guys—understanding that we've been here before, been in the situation before. So now what do we need to do? And that was a mentality of our guys from this morning until the end of the game."
On the focus and intensity required to win seven in a row and handle ups and downs:
"Honestly, it takes focusing on one game at a time. You don't focus on streaks. You focus on the one game in front of you. And every time you focus on the thing in front of you, that's how you get the job done. If you're taking care of the things that you need to in the one game at a time, that's all that matters. You don't look back. You don't look forward. Win this game tonight, enjoy it 24 hours. We've got Atlanta next. So now you've got to focus on that being the one game that we're going to play."
On whether there's a psychological benefit to getting to 10 wins over an opponent for the first time in a while:
"I don't look at it as such. We really just it's one game at a time, but the standings are going to take care of themselves. If you take care of what you're supposed to do, that's all we can do. You can't control what other teams do. We just have to continue to focus on us. It's going to keep going up, keep going down, changing the records. That's us to focus on one game at a time, playing our best basketball this month and next month."
On Jamal Cain stepping in as a late scratch for Jett Howard and his performance:
"I thought Jamal was excellent. I really do. I think he played with a level of poise, a toughness about him, and you see those guys celebrate him because they know how hard he works as a two-way being able to come in and step up in the moment no matter what's happening within a game. In the locker room, he brought the huddle in tonight because of that and because of the belief that these guys have in him. Just by committee, whoever is called on, they've got to be ready to go. And he was."
On Paolo Banchero passing Penny Hardaway for most games with 20+ points, 5+ assists, 5+ rebounds and watching his growth:
"10 for 10 from the free throw line, 27, eight rebounds, seven assists, just getting guys involved. That's a heck of a milestone. He's talking about all the greats of Magic history. And I think him being able to grow and continue to lead this group has been fantastic. He and I's communication on the floor was excellent. The things he's seeing, the way he's breaking the game down, and we're talking it through the whole time. I just think that it's only going to get better from here because of how much he cares, how much he wants to study, and how bad he wants to put this team on his back to continue to win games."
On the team blowing 15-point leads entering the fourth in back-to-back games against Miami and what needs to change to finish games:
"When you play teams like this, they're never going to go away. There's teams that are always going to make a run at certain times and it's whether they're picking up, they're trapping, they're playing a lot faster. That's what happened. It happened the last time we played them as well. But what we do need to do is learn to take care of the basketball down the stretch when teams do heat you up. I think we just got to be smarter there. That's been a big portion when teams start to play with a faster pace at the end of the game. We don't want to relax either. We want to stay just as aggressive, but be smart with the aggression, knowing our spots on the floor. And again, you got to give Miami so much credit for how they continue to do it for 48 minutes."
On whether Adebayo’s 83-point game changes how opponents scout him moving forward:
"Yeah, cuz you know what he's capable of doing. He's able to knock shots down, so you got to guard him respectfully. He knows how to get to the free throw line. You saw a little bit of that tonight early on—he got 10 tonight—but his ability to bump you and still keep his balance and then get the shot off. You have to pay a lot more attention to what he's capable of doing. Listen, 83 is hard to do. And he did it. And so I think that's what you know he's capable of doing on any given night. If it's not 83, you don't want it to be 50. You don't want it to be 30. You don't want it to be 40. So you've got to guard him a certain way each time. And I thought when Dell Carter Jr. did an unbelievable job guarding him in those minutes because he's willing and wanting to take on all challenges there."
On how playing in these tight late-season games helps prepare for the playoffs:
"Yeah, I think it does. We talked about it this morning—the scenarios that you're going to be in: you're up three, do you foul? Do you not foul? You go up four, how do you play it out? All of these scenarios are things that you can always look back at and show on film and walk through in our shootarounds and practices to get you prepared for what these games are going to be. You're going to be in tight games, especially with this playoff race and playing very good basketball teams. So you want to be prepared for every scenario and we've been pretty much in every scenario coming down the stretch."
On the importance of continuing the strong rebounding effort down the stretch:
"I think it's huge for us because we have to be who we are and us being a physically bigger dominant team, we have to use that to our advantage. And part of that is keeping guys off the glass, but then on the other end, making sure we crash the glass. And so all those pieces are big, especially down the stretch knowing we're playing teams that are playing similar style of basketball, but that's where the details matter in everything that we do."
Join the Community
Don't miss out on our ROUNDTABLE community and the latest news!
It's completely free to join. Share your thoughts, engage with our Roundtable writers, and chat with fellow members.
Download the free Roundtable APP, and stay even more connected!
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast
For additional coverage, subscribe to our Full Court Magic Podcast!