The Orlando Magic were able keep their winning streak alive when it looked to be on life support against the Washington Wizards. After leading the way for their team, Tristan da Silva and Jalen Suggs got honest about their performance.
It took a battle that went into overtime, but the Orlando Magic were able to defeat the Washington Wizards on Thursday, 136-131, to extend their winning streak to six games.
Jalen Suggs and Tristan da Silva led the way with 28 points and 26 points respectively, and both reacted to their team’s ability to pull off the win.
“I said it earlier, the resilience that this group has and just staying with the play, staying with making the right plays down the stretch,” da Silva said. “Stepping up to the moment, not being discouraged by what the opponent does or what has happened throughout the rest of the game, earlier in the game.
“But yeah, I mean, especially with a situation with, you know, J.I. going down in that third quarter, you know, just to kind of come back and, you know, regroup ourselves and, you know, come back to a positive mindset is huge.”
Jonathan Isaac suffered a knee sprain in the third quarter that would force him to the sideline for the rest of the game. Upon losing his teammate to injury, da Silva began playing for him.
“I tried to think about what he would think and, like, just being out there and playing hard for him,” da Silva said. “And, you know, he would love to be out there, but he can't right now, so it hurts my heart, but I'm glad we got it done.”
Da Silva scored a career-high 26 points after notching a season-high 23 points the night before against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Magic looked to be cruising to a comfortable victory with a 16-point advantage with just over six minutes to play in the fourth quarter, but they allowed a run by the Wizards that dissipated their lead and ultimately led to overtime.
“I was really hoping we'd close it out in reg there,” Suggs said. “That's something we got to take back and go watch and figure out. They scored 42 in that fourth. That's tough to go from 25 to 42 down the stretch to get them back in the game and force OT.
“That ain't good enough, but, I mean, it's not no excuses at all. We came out and won and found a way.”
Suggs talked about the difficulty of finding a way to win on the second night of a back-to-back and the task of playing five games in seven nights.
“Five in seven nights is a difficult thing to do. Another back-to-back in a week is tough, especially given how hard of a game last night was, but I think it's very important in these games to recognize that we are not robots and that it's real. Fatigue is real physically and mentally, especially at the end of the year. It takes a lot to come out and play these games on top of playing a young team who's going to get it.
“It took everybody being locked in down the stretch and taking all their punches because, I mean, they were throwing haymakers and they were knocking down shots. So, I think it showed great resilience, just kind of staying with it, not getting too rattled because, to be honest with you, we could have gave them that game and we could have lost that a couple of times.”
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