Orlando Magic find a way with GRIT to win season opener | The Jalen Suggs DIFFERENCE

Orlando Magic find a way with GRIT to win season opener | The Jalen Suggs DIFFERENCE

Life finds a way. Championship teams find a way. And on opening night, the Orlando Magic found a way. Today on Locked on Magic, you are Locked on Magic. Your daily Orlando Magic podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. And you are indeed locked on Magic. Today is October 22nd. It will be October 23rd, 2025. My name is Philip Rosnik. I’m the senior writer over at Orlando Magicaily.com. I’m credentialed member of the Orlando Magic media broadcasting today from the media loge here at Kia Center as the Orlando Magic defeat the Miami Heat 125 to 121 in their season opener. On today’s episode of Lockdown Match, we’ll break down that game, how the Magic didn’t play a great game, but found a way to win and what that means for the team. Plus, Jaylen Suggs is back. It’s so good to have Jaylen back, the difference he made in this game. We’ll get to that coming up here in just a moment. But first, we want to thank you again for making lockdown magic part of your day every day. No matter when you listen to us, whether it’s first thing in the morning, whether it’s right when we upload, we truly appreciate you making lockdown magic part of your day every day. You can make lockdown magic even bigger part of your day by being one of our Orlando Magic dailies. That means you listen to us first thing in the morning. Do it. Be our first listen and you’re listening Monday through Friday, plus on weekends when we do our weekend recap episodes. It’s all part of Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I think we all had big expectations for this game. like like we talked about it with with our friends from Locked on Heat. There’s big expectations for the season. Everybody can feel it. You can you can feel it in the energy in the building for opening night. You can feel it with every every time you talk about this team. I can feel it when I look at the traffic and I look at how many people are watching and commenting on these videos, which thank you guys for doing by the way. I do read them. I know you shouldn’t always read the comments, but but I do read them. This is a big season. There’s a lot of pressure and there’s a lot of expectation and hope for this team. Let game one remind you that this is still a process that there are still a lot of moving parts and a lot of new pieces. Whether it’s learning a new offense and learning kind of a new style and mindset, whether it’s learning new teammates and figuring out where there’s going to be on the floor, there’s still a lot of moving parts of this thing. And it’s not going to look pretty. And it doesn’t have to look perfect right now for the Orlando Magic because we’ve got how many like six months before the playoffs. We got a long way to go. 81 more games. It’s a lot. There’s a long long way to go. But you still want to learn things in these games. You first learn what you still need to work on. Magic still need to work on their defense a lot. Defense was nowhere near what we’re expecting from the Magic. Certainly not consistently. The Magics still need to work on their half court offense specifically. A lot of stagnant basketball, the kind of basketball that we’ve been used to seeing here for the last decade and certainly from last year where the Magic just kind of fell back into that stagnant bad habit. But this is where things are different or this is where the Magic begin to differentiate themselves. They found a way to win. And and I don’t mean that like kind of small lowercase way. They found a way to win. When it looked like the Heat were going to run away with this, we were making too many big shots, too many big plays. When it looked like they were the ones in charge, the Magic answered back. The Magic made that next play. They won those 5050 balls. whether it was Wendell Carter pulling down two humongous offensive rebounds, one for a putback and one that tied the game uh midway through the fourth quarter. Uh another one that gave the Magic a four-point lead after he hit a pair of free throws. Whether it was Jaylen Suggs hitting this impossible just getting stuck and hitting this impossible turnaround jumper that gave the Magic a two-point lead at the time. Whether it was Desmond Bane diving on the floor to get a loose ball after the Magic had given up two offensive rebounds, diving on the floor to get a loose ball to make sure the Magic got possession and the opportunity to score and the opportunity to take that four-point lead which became the final margin. These are the plays. These are the little plays. These are the moments. And despite giving up 121 points, giving up 30 points in the fourth quarter, 39 in the first quarter, 52 in the middle two quarters, things that are not magic defense. I don’t have the offensive rating in front of me, the offensive defense rating in front of me, but this isn’t magic basketball. At the critical juncture, when the Magic needed stops, when the Magic needed baskets, when the Magic needed to make plays, they found a way. It starts with the defense, undoubtedly. It obviously starts with the defense being able to get key stops, making humongous plays, whether it was that Jaylen Suggs charge, the Desmond Bane rebound, um, you know, just defensive rotations that look like Magic basketball. It might still be a process to make that consistent. It might still be a process to make that the full range of what the Magic are going to do, but when the Magic needed it most tonight, they found it. And that’s why you have to come away saying this team’s going to be fine. This team has the talent. They have the ability. They have the will to find a way to win. Look, I I say this all the time. There are 82 of these things. There are wild swings. So, you can’t make judgments off of one game. If the Magic lost this game, like I said on yesterday’s pod, first games are kind of random. You don’t always know what to expect, especially with a lot of new players on the team. you know, we’ll see the Atlanta Hawks here on Friday. Look at the Atlanta Hawks against the Toronto Raptors. That’s not the final product. Look at the back and forth of the Cavs and the Knicks game today. This is not the final product, but it is a step on the road. It is a step in the direction of where the Magic are going to go. And I think if you watch this game and if you take my word for it, you can see the potential. You can see how everything can come together for this team. You can see why everyone believes so much on this team. Why the why there’s so much buzz in the building, why there’s so much energy in the building. Because even on a day when the Magic did not play their best, even on a day when the offense looked sluggish at at for long stretches, where the Magic had to play from behind and catch up in the fourth quarter, where their defense did not get stops consistent, they got beat in transition, they got beat in fast breaks, they fouled too much. The Magic at the critical moments when the game was on the line, a they did not quit. They did not believe they were going to lose this game. They stayed calm. They stayed composed. And when everything called for it, they made the plays. We’re gonna say this a bunch this year. Uh I am not a big believer in clutch stats mattering in clutch being anything special. I’m lying to myself when I say that because the good teams do stuff like they did tonight. The good teams go watch that Oklahoma City Thunder game against the Rockets um la on Tuesday night or really any Oklahoma City game over the last few years. You find ways to win. When the game is in the balance, you get that loose ball. You get that stop. You make that shot. And so, look, it’s one game. Let’s not overreact. Let’s not go crazy. There is a lot to clean up. There’s a lot the Magic have to do better. They can’t turn the ball over as much as they did. 15 turnovers. They’ve got to do better converting off of turnovers. 19 turnovers or 25 points is pretty good. 23 fast break points. They got to figure out how to control their speed and control their tempo so that they’re not getting beat on defense by offensive mistakes. They got to understand what a good shot is. They got to learn where to be on the floor around each other. Most of the mistakes the Magic made tonight or most of the mistakes the Magic made in this game, they are mistakes that come from not playing together very much. Jaylen Suggs has been out since late January, almost eight months or almost nine months to the day. He looked at times a little lost. Desmond Bane and Palo Ben Carroll, there’s a play in the fourth quarter where they literally ran into each other and were sitting and standing in the same spot. That’s not good offense. There was a lot of moments where the offense looked like it did last year, just too stagnant. And we’ll talk a little bit about that here when we go through the box school. But what’s important today, the big takeaway today is that you find a way to win. At the end of the day, nobody cares about all this other stuff. got stuff to work on in in practice and in film review and and in and in the next game. All that anybody’s going to care about. All that the numbers and the stats are going to say at the end of the day is did you win? The Magic won tonight. A game maybe they don’t win. Certainly not toward the end of last season. Certainly not when they weren’t at full health. They win. They beat a game Heat team playing out of their minds. playing really really well enough that I you know if you go listen to locked on heat I am sure they are more encouraged than discouraged. This is the kind of game where a championship level team which the Magic aspire to be. Maybe they are maybe they aren’t. This is the kind of game that a championship level team is not thrilled about even when they win. I’m warning you I’m going to get prickly about wins. It’s about winning the right way. But ultimately, what’s the difference between the winning teams, the championship level teams, and other teams is finding ways to win games like this, stealing a game that you probably should have lost. The Magic made the plays down the stretch. They look like the together team. They look like the grittier team. They look like the team that believed they were going to pull this out and win it. And that’s exactly what they did. A big piece of that puzzle was, of course, the return of Jaylen Suggs. We’ll chat a little bit about what difference Jaylen Suggs made beyond just making that one shot. That was huge. We’ll get to that coming up here in just a moment. But first, today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to you by our friends over at Mint Mobile. If you’re still overpaying for wireless, it’s time to say yes to saying no. At Mint Mobile, their favorite word is no. No contracts, no monthly bills, no overages, no hidden fees, no BS. I said yes to making the switch and getting Premium Wireless for just $15 a month. Mint makes it simple. All plants come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation’s largest 5G network. You can even bring your own phone and keep your same number and contacts. With Mint, setup is super easy. You keep your number and you’re running in minutes. You get the same quality service you had before, but for a fraction of the price. 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Two quick fouls, both fouling three-point shooters on the first two possessions of the game. Uh we know Jaylen Suggs is eager. We know he’s full of energy, but I was a little much little little little overzealous there. A little little too excited uh to to be back. But make no mistake about it, this was Jaylen Suggs’s game. Um, this is if the Magic don’t have Jaylen Suggs in this game. He obviously hit like the go-ahead basket that won the game technically the game-winning basket. Um, he made a ton of crazy defensive plays. Once he got settled, once he found his footing, he took over this game. He made the plays the Magic need to win this kind of game. It was it was an impressive showing. It was an impressive performance. It was the Jaylen Suggs experience. It’s the Jaylen Suggs difference. Stats obviously don’t do it, but we’ll we’ll get let’s do the stats just just to get them out there. 14 points, six or seven shooting, two for three from three, four rebounds, two assists, two steals, two turnovers, no blocks, plus 15 game high plus 15. That doesn’t quite describe, sorry, that doesn’t quite describe everything that Jaylen Suggs did. It doesn’t quite describe the impact that Jaylen Suggs had in this game because again he is the difference. Even Desmond Bane playing his first game with Jaylen Suggs said he is the heart and soul of this team. He is the player that puts us over the top into being something truly truly truly special. And look, it it took Suggs a while to get in this game. Obviously, he had the two fouls early. He’s playing in two three minutes since he finished playing only 16 and a half minutes. He’ll get more time. it’ll start ramping up like I would expect him to play Friday but not Saturday against Chicago. Um and we’ll talk why that’s a little dangerous here in a minute. But Suggs is just able to turn the game on a dime with his energy. Once they found the foul footing and fouling was a thing in this game. Once he found the foul footing, he was able to begin to to find that comfort that comfort zone and unleash his defense on people. And let me tell you this, this this was not a good defensive game for Orlando. There was a lot they need to clean up. Just the point of attack was bad. Some of the rotations were bad. But when the Magic were finally kind of dialed in defensively and started making their rotations well and communicating a whole lot better, everything changed. A and it started as it always does with Jaylen Suggs. It started with him ripping the ball from DaVon Mitchell to get a breakaway layup. It started with him switching on to Norman Powell and locking him down and making every inch of ground that he was trying to get so difficult. And you could just kind of see that that light flip switch and him just getting into his defender and it was and and you know, credit to this crowd like this is not something I think you would see in a lot of buildings. They recognized when Suggs was turning it up. They recognized when Suggs was making those defensive stands and they got lit like no other way to say it like like they applauded the defensive intensity and effort from him. And obviously like I was telling some people in the locker room who some new some new media members who were in the locker room I said like yeah that was Jaylen at like half speed like that was not full full experience Jaylen Suggs but obviously he made a huge difference. It’s not again, not just that he made the go-ahead basket that won the game. Not just that he made this a crazy shot. Go watch the tape on this. Made this crazy shot that delivered victory on a night that that could have I mean a loss would have deflated a lot of things. Not panic obviously like I don’t believe in that at this early stage, but would have been a deflating loss. It would have been a little bit of air out of the balloon like okay maybe this isn’t as great as we thought it was going to be. Jaylen Suggs made it that way. Jaylen Suggs made this night a celebratory night, a night to feel really good because Jaylen Suggs is that kind of player, that kind of difference maker whose just presence and energy changes everything. And all of his teammates recognize it. All of his teammates feel it. All of his teammates know it. And he just delivered. He delivered exactly what the Magic needed when they needed it. It’s it’s we’ve had a lot of extended absences for Jaylen Suggs in his career. And every time he steps back on the court, every time you see him play for that first time, you feel it. You understand. You’re like, “Oh, this is why Jaylen Suggs is such a differencemaker. This is why he’s so important to everything the Magic are trying to do.” It was his comeback. His first game back couldn’t have gone any better. He was confident shooting the ball, confident getting to his spots, and once he found his confidence on defense, it it just elevated this team. And that’s exactly what we expect from Jaylen Suggs. It it goes again, it goes without saying. The Magic were plus 15 with Jaylen Suggs on the floor. Game high, team high, plus 15. He made his teammates better, not because he’s passing the ball or anything like that, because of the energy he brings, because of the spirit that he brings, the the enthusiasm that brings, the way he pumps the crowd up and gets them into the game. He delivers plays when this team needs it. And that’s that’s all you can ask for. Obviously, it’s just the first step. There’s still a lot more to do, but it’s a pretty big step for Jaylen Sucks. As we always do after games, let’s go over the box. We’ll talk a little bit about what we saw and where the Magic need to improve. We’ll get to that coming up here in just a moment. But first, today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to our friends over at Skins. When I found out Ski was making underwear for men, I was intrigued. I’ve always been a boxer guy, and switching to briefs was scary. I’ve heard so much about Skim’s quality from friends and family. So, I had to give it a try. Help that they sent me some free samples because I’m doing these ad reads. And let me tell you, it lives up to the hype. That’s not just because it says that in the ad copy that I’m reading. It’s true. I’m actually wearing skims right now. Not that you want to know that, but I’m telling you, I’ve always had issues with underwear, fit, comfort, just finding the right style for me, something that’s comfortable because I sit a lot. I’m in a chair right now. I’ve been in a chair for two and a half hours. It’s just a lot. Skims change all of that. 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Plus, the lightweight material feels amazing, almost like you’re wearing nothing at all. So, shop SkiMens atKIMS.com. Let them know we sent you. After you place your order, select podcast in the survey and select my show Lockdown Magic in the dropown menu that follows. Again, check it out today at skims.com. Let’s run through the box scores. The Orlando Magic defeat the Miami Heat 125 to 121. Get to 1 and0. It’s all that matters. That’s all anyone cares about. But a a lot of really encouraging performances and a lot of things that still need to be worked on. Fron Vagner was the hero of the day. 19 of his 24 points in the first half. Very similar to what we saw at Eurob Bask to be honest. Nine for 17 from the floor. Two for five from three. Made his first two threes. Missed the last three, but made the first two. He’s shooting 40% from three. Let’s put that in a box and hold on to it. Um four for six from the foul line, four rebounds, six assists, two steals as well. Um Fron Fron, this this new offense fits Fron a lot better than Paulo. I I’ll say that Paulo’s the one that’s going to have to kind of figure things out and change his mindset a little bit more to to make this work better for him, but this works really well for Fron. Like Fran is built for the motion and speed that this that this offense is trying to play with. Um he was he was dynamite throughout the game, even when he was struggling to score a little bit more in the second half. um just the way that he gets in motion, the way that he moves, it it just he finds space and and that’s that’s the big difference right now between Paulo and Fron is Paulo is much more of a get me the ball in my spot, let me go to work guy. Fran is a I’m going to stand in my spot and I’m going to read where the defense is and cut to open space. Just get me the ball in the open space. And so that little element of motion and look, Paulo is really good in motion. You get Paulo going downhill, get him the ball in movement, no one can stop him. Honestly, the way to stop Paulo is get him in a stationary place where you can get under him a little bit, get into him as a ball handler. He’s not the cleanest ball handler. Kind of get him, you know, kind of rocking and trying to find a way. When Paulo’s downhill, he’s unstoppable. And and look, Paulo, let’s talk about Paulo’s game. Paulo 24 points. So, he matched Tron’s 24 points, 7 for 17 shooting, nine for 12 from the foul line, 11 rebounds. There’s a lot to like about what Paulo did. But because Paulo is a little bit more of a uh I don’t want to say passive, but a little bit more of a let me watch and isolate type player, he he struggled to read double teams today. Like, plain and simple. Like, he just struggled to read double teams. He he wasn’t sure where it was coming from. And some of it was he didn’t know where his teammates were going to be to pass out of those double teams. So, I think a lot of where Paulo struggled today was a get him the ball in motion a little bit more. You know, be a little bit more creative of how you get him to his spots. There’s just a lot of kind of straight post ups, which I’m never a big fan of. I always think if you’re going to post up, get him in motion. That’s an easier way to pin someone deeper and deeper post position. If you’re just kind of standing there calling for the ball, they can get under you, push you off your spot a little bit, get you a little bit off balance and off rhythm. So, I I’m usually more of a fan of getting guys the ball in motion. Catch the ball in motion and then survey. just don’t, you know, don’t let him get under you like that. Um, but Paulo found ways to still impact this game, whether it was his, whether it was his rebounding, he had some bad defensive moments, he had some good defensive moments, but when he got downhill and he took over a good chunk of that fourth quarter, he made some good plays. The isolation plays weren’t great. Um, I I’ll check the synergy numbers later, but um, the isolation plays weren’t great, but a lot of other things Paulo did were good. And again, I think I think they’ll find a way. Like I honestly I would say most of the mistakes the Magic made in this game were just about getting their legs back under them. They’re playing a lot faster. I don’t have the pace numbers in front of me, but Magic have 23 fast break points. Um 18 second chance points. They’re playing faster. Like that’s a good thing. A big reason why they scored more than 30 points in three of the four quarters tonight is they’re playing faster. That is a real thing that they are doing. It’s working. Um the offense looks a lot better. There’s still some hiccups in the half court and again a lot of it’s just kind of like standing still being a little sedentary being a little not sedentary but being a little stagnant. That’s a big part of this but I really think that um I really think that all this stuff is solvable and we’ll see it get better as we move deeper in the season. It’s just about reps at this point. It’s just it’s really just about reps. Um Desmond Bane in his debut, he was eager. I want to give him that. He was eager but a really solid game nonetheless. 23 points, 7 for 18 shooting, three for seven from three, six for six from the foul line, again made those two big free throws at the end, four rebounds, again made that big rebound at the end, three assists, did have four turnovers. So Desmond certainly, I think, feeling his way around, but let’s let’s be very, very clear. Desmond Bane made Desmond Bane shots. He made pull-up threes. He made pull-up jumpers. He’s another guy who can attack off the dribble very comfortably. a little bit all over the place a little at times, but this this guy is exactly what the Magic need. Just another guy who can make shots at at a high level. The fact that the Magic had three 20 point scores was just the second time in franchise history the Magic had three 20 point scores in an opening game. That’s going to be normal that the Magic have three 20 point scores and Jayen Suggs will jump in there too at times but uh a really you know again just for feeling his way out still like you could still tell like they’re getting used to each other and I want to really stress there’s still going to be a little bit of a of a adjustment period. There’s still going to be a little bit of an acclamation period. So there’s going to be rough moments and that’s okay. We want to see them diminish as we get deeper and deeper into the season obviously. But very very clearly this was like their first real game together. First time playing major minutes and like I said I think the pace did tire this team out. There’s still some conditioning they need to get uh they need to get used to playing at this tempo and make sure teams aren’t running back at them at the way that they are. So there’s some shot selection issues. Desmond was guilty of it. Paulo was certainly guilty of it. Fron was guilty of it. There’s some shot selection issues that I’d like to see clean up. But again, that’s what tape is for. They got this first game down. they can kind of see where they need to grow and develop from here. Oh, we talked about Jaylen Suggs’s game already, so I won’t bel that. Uh Wendo Carter, not the biggest game. I had some people say like, “Oh, it’s the old Wendo Carter again.” But like Wendo Carter had the biggest plays of the game. Nine points, eight rebounds, five offensive rebounds. He was two for five from the floor, five for five from the foul line. Um did have a block, did have a steal. Um look, Wendell Carter is going to do whatever the team needs him to do. And I thought that he played pretty well. Like obviously like he made he made big shot. He made the the two he made two humongous shots off offensive rebounds. He made big plays. Sorry for the flashing green light there. Testing something here in the KIA center. Um they made big plays and he made big plays and and was a differencemaker in this game. The defense will be there. like I’m confident that he’s going to be in the right spots and it was a a solid solid effort from Wendell Carter at the end of the day. The Magic frankly really won this game because and I don’t want to say completely but the Magic’s bench played very very well. The Magic’s bench won their minutes. Starts with Tristan Dilva. Tristan Dilva looked like he did at Eurobasket. 16 points, five for eight shooting, three for five from three. Just very confident shooting the ball. Found his spots. didn’t try to do too much. If this is the Tristan to Silva we’re going to get, I’m not expecting 16 points per game, but if this is the Tristan to Silva we’re going to get, the Magic have a very dangerous player coming off their bench and and so you hope that that’s something that’s going to last. Again, I think he’ll be fine. Gogat eight points, three for four shooting, just eight rebounds, very four assists. Very typical Goa game. Got a little overeager on a few plays. Kill bested him on a few lobs, but uh generally uh you know, Goa did what Goa does. Anthony Black, you he scored seven points on three for9 shooting, but I thought he played really well. Made a couple big defensive plays down the stretch as well. Um I I I know I was a little lower on him coming into the season and and what we saw in preseason, but the confidence is up. He’s a very confident player now, and I think there’s still a lot of time to kind of build on it and grow with it. So, I’m very very eager to see how AB develops. The one negative player we got to talk about is Taius Jones. Taius Jones, no points, 0 for four shooting, 0 for three from three. Obviously, like a big part of his his his appeal is that he’s an excellent three-point shooter. So, numbers will even out there eventually. Did have three assists against two turnovers. So, turnovers real high and we’re not expecting a lot of two turnover games from Taius Jones, but Taius Jones looked like he was the player who was most struggling to find his comfort and struggling to find his fit. um he was the player who was it seemed like trying to figure out where everybody is. And look, it’s a point guard, new system, new teammates. It it it’s going to take a little while to figure all that out. And so I don’t want to panic and go crazy, but Tus Jones has always been a little bit of an odd man out. Um he is not known as a good defender. He was not a good defender in this game. And so it not not for lack of effort or anything, but just it’s it’s going to be a struggle for him. And I definitely think that part of the reason why Jaylen Suggs is playing is the Magic know they can’t go very long with Tyus Jones as their starting point guard. Like I I was all in like Tyus is going to start. It’s gonna be what what it is. I kind of think they’re going to either go Tristan Dilvin in the starting lineup or Anthony Black in the starting lineup when Jaylen Suggs has to miss games. And again, I think I think Jaylen will sit out Saturday against Chicago. Obviously, it’s just one game. So, I don’t want to like pull the plug and say, “Oh, this doesn’t work.” Um, you know, it’s a little too early to call for Jace, but Jace Richardson should get his opportunity at some point. And obviously, you can’t play Jace and Ty together because of their size. And Tyus is a veteran. He’ll figure it out. But this was not a good it was a good fine debut for Desmond Bane. Like we saw, oh, this is what the Desmond Bane experience is going to be like. It’s going to be good. Like their their magical get something out of this. Taius Jones did not have a good day debut. And so there’s a lot to continue building on, a lot to continue growing with on that front. And we’ll see uh what he does in game two. Obviously, it’s 80 there’s 81 more games to go. So I don’t want to make too draw too many conclusions, but not a strong start for him. Orlando shoots 46.7% from the floor. They get 90 field goal attempts, so that’s a good thing. 29 for 35 from the foul line. So they get to the foul line a lot. 12 for 31 from three. Not a huge raw number of threes. Didn’t take a ton of threes. They they pulled the threes down. They took 18 in the first half. They shoot 38.7% from three considering where this Magic team is at. Like, yeah, get the volume up a little bit, get the ball moving a little bit more. They only had 23 assists on their 42 makes, but we’ll take the percentage. That percentage is fine. The real struggle is on defense. Miami did make tough shots. I want to make that clear. I thought Miami did beat good defense, but they also beat some lax defense. Orlando’s defense was not dialed in. It came in in that fourth quarter. the Magic were able to kind of get what they wanted and do what they wanted in that fourth quarter, but um generally uh the defense was was not good. It was just not magic defense. It was not at the quality the Magic are used to having. They shoot 48.4%, 12 for 35 from three. They’re 21 for 27 from the foul line. They score 16 points off 15 Magic turnovers. They get 22 fast break points. Just there’s a lot of moving parts in this Magic offense. I think a lot of the defensive problems were caused by either offensive struggles or playing faster than they need to play or taking a bad shot and leading to a long rebound and a little bit of a runout and getting not getting organized. But there’s a lot of problems at the point of attack, too. It’ll get better. It got better as this game went on. It got a lot better toward the end of the fourth quarter, so like I’m not worried about it. But not a good defensive game for Orlando in the end. But at the end of the day, all anyone cares about is that final score. That final score reads Magic 125, Heat 121. Those standings say the Magic are 1 and0. They say the Heat are 0 and1. And that’s all you want out of opening night. So, the Orlando Magic get a huge win. They’ll be back in action Friday against the Atlanta Hawks after their surprising blowout loss at home to the Toronto Raptors. But that’s going to do it for me today. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Lockdown Magic. You can of course find me on Twitter, Philip RR_MD, and on Blue Sky, Philip RR. You can subscribe to the podcast now podcast. Search your tune in Hamilton, Google Play, Spotify, Odyssey, and all the film season podcast to your podcast enabled listening device. You can also check us out on YouTube. Just search for Locked on Magic. For the latest on the Orlando Magic, be sure to check out Orlando Magicaily.com. You can find us on Twitter, omagic Daily. And for even more Orlando Magic content, be sure to check out my Patreon page, the Orlando Magic Hub, at patreon.com/orlandomagicub. As always, thank you for your support. Now that you’re done making locked on Magic your first listen of the day, go make your second listen locked on fantasy basketball. Josh Lloyd will host the number one fantasy basketball podcast, giving you daily tips and helping you win your league. All while making you a smarter NBA fan. Fantasy is just another perspective at looking at the league. You learn a lot. You can learn a lot from the league from that perspective. Josh does a great job covering the league from the fantasy perspective and giving you insight that helps you understand your teams better. Find Locked on Fantasy Basketball on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast. part of Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. That’s going to do it for me today, though. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Lockdown Magic. I’m still experimenting on where to record after games or setting up for the Solar Bears game, so I was not able to record from my usual spot. So, I’m trying this spot. Tell me if you like it. Tell me if you don’t. I’m going to find better lighting somewhere. But, I want to thank you all for sticking with me here at the Kia Center as the Orlando Magic improved to 1 and0 with a 125 121 win over the Miami Heat. We’ll be back tomorrow to get more to get a second impression of this game. Let’s do second impressions of the first game on tomorrow’s episode of Lockdown Magic. But until then, for Orlando Magic Daily and Lockdown Magic, this has been Philip Rossman Reich. We’ll see you all again next time for another episode of Locked On Magic.

The Orlando Magic were on the ropes in their season opener against the Miami Heat. But in every critical moment, the team passed the test and found a way to make the play to win the game.

The Magic were not themselves as they struggled on defense in a 125-121 victory to open their season. But they did enough to get the win.

A big thanks goes to the return of Jalen Suggs. He delivered several big plays, including the go-ahead basket in the fourth quarter, that pushed the Magic to the victory. His presence was felt even in his limited minutes.

0:00 Intro: Magic find a way to win opener
5:14 Jalen Suggs returns, makes game-winning impact
16:58 Jalen Suggs elevates team energy and defense
21:32 Franz Wagner thrives in new offensive system
26:36 Bench players step up, especially Tristan Da Silva
31:10 Defensive struggles but clutch plays seal win

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