Unrelenting hustle and defensive intensity fuel the Magic's surge, overwhelming opponents with sheer effort they simply cannot outmaneuver.
The Orlando Magic are one of the hottest teams in the league, and it’s no coincidence their surge has arrived at the perfect time during the NBA Cup tournament. Their latest win over the No. 1-seeded Detroit Pistons didn’t come from shooting the lights out—it came from pure hustle.
The Magic aren’t known for elite shooting, but their identity is carved into defense and relentless effort on every possession, a philosophy head coach Jamahl Mosley has drilled into this roster.
Despite struggling from three-point range, Orlando pulled out the victory on the back of effort plays from leaders Jalen Suggs, Anthony Black and Desmond Bane. The moment of the night belonged to Black, whose game-saving block sealed the win in the final seconds.
"I really don’t know,” Black said post-game. “I didn’t see it till I went in the locker room. That was crazy. Ball came off the rim so smooth, but I was just face-guarding him. I felt him get the ball, just tried to get a hand up and impact it."
"That’s what he does,” Bane added about Black. “He’s a game-changer, man. What he can do on the defensive end, his spark getting downhill, playing in transition on offense — really, really, really good young player. Glad that he’s on our team."
For coach Mosley he said his team’s winning edge came down to the hustle plays they made down the stretch.
“I thought our guys were great,” Mosley said. “They did an excellent job communicating in the huddle what we needed to do – fouling up three at that moment, coming up with the rebound. Anthony Black making a heck of a play, but those offensive rebounds down the stretch for Dell were gigantic. Those aren’t calls, that’s not an X&O – that’s just making a hustle, hard-nosed ‘I want it more than you’ play.”
Bane noted that Mosley delivered an emphasized message during the four-minute timeout, urging the team to play their hearts out in the final stretch — the kind of push that wins tough matchups.
"Coach was saying there’s four minutes left," Bane said. "Give everything we got, regardless of what it’s going to take to win the game. There was a bunch of big plays on that last offensive possession we had. We had three different offensive rebounds. Loose balls on the other end, rebounding, deflections, all the way up and down the board guys were locked in and playing extremely hard."
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