ORLANDO, Fla. — Among his new teammates, the Desmond Bane stories continue to pile up, and many of them revolve around the same theme.

Like the time during training camp two months ago when Bane, upset by the lack of intensity in a practice, called out a fellow Orlando Magic player, telling that person, in full earshot of everyone else, that he was playing “soft.”

Or the time on Nov. 4, while the Atlanta Hawks humiliated the Magic on a nationally televised NBC broadcast, when Bane delivered a hard foul on Onyeka Okongwu and, with Okongwu lying on the court, slapped the basketball onto him. That sequence resulted in Bane’s ejection, but it also made an impression on his teammates.

Or the time Sunday, with his team still stunned by what had looked like a catastrophic knee injury to leading scorer Franz Wagner, when he fired a basketball at OG Anunoby, leading to a technical foul for Bane and a $35,000 fine.

Now they can add Bane’s NBA Cup quarterfinal performance Tuesday night to the list of anecdotes. Just like the others, this one reveals a certain fierceness, stubbornness and grit.

“That dawg mentality,” Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. said. “We’ve got a lot of dawgs in this room, from top to bottom. Having a guy as gifted as he is offensively, he brings that swagger, that dawg mentality that we have, and he just adds to it. And when the ball is in his hand, he always makes the right decisions, and that’s something that’s rare to find.”

Years from now, the final score — Orlando Magic 117, Miami Heat 108 — will mislead those who didn’t watch the weird game unfold from inside the Kia Center or on Prime Video. Throughout the first quarter and the opening minutes of the second quarter, the Heat threatened to run the Magic out of their own building. Miami took a 15-0 lead within the first three minutes and led 30-17 at the end of the first quarter.

Then, in a sequence of three consecutive possessions, Bane supplied the swagger and the skill that his team needed. Stationed in the right corner, he caught a baseline inbounds pass, unleashed a shot-fake that prompted Jaime Jaquez Jr. to fly by on a closeout and then swished an effortless trey.

Within five seconds, the Heat had already streaked down the floor, with Pelle Larsson barreling through the lane, appearing like he had a clear path for a layup. Bane trailed him and stripped the ball. Orlando’s Tristan da Silva scooped up the loose ball, dribbled coast-to-coast and scored on a runner as he absorbed a foul.

In 11 seconds, what had been a 34-20 Miami lead before Bane’s 3 had shrunk to 34-26 after da Silva’s and-1 free throw.

Bane changed the game.

“Once he got going, then he became a handful,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

Spoelstra employed a bit of understatement there. Bane hadn’t just been a “handful.” He had been a star who scored 37 points on 14-of-24 shooting — his third 37-point performance in Orlando’s last six games. Bane also collected six rebounds and dished out five assists.

“I just thought our spirit was in the right spot,” Bane said. “I don’t think anybody really hung their head. (We) understood that we had to get back to our identity: smash-mouth basketball on both sides of the floor. Once we started playing that way, everything started turning for us. We just rode that trend all the way through.”

Coach Jamahl Mosley and Bane emphasized that the Magic had to win games “by committee” when former All-Star forward Paolo Banchero missed 10 consecutive games because of a groin strain and will have to continue to win games collectively now that a high-ankle sprain has sidelined Wagner, while Banchero, still knocking off rust, remains on a minutes restriction.

All true, but let’s also tell it like it is. Despite contributions up and down the roster — Jalen Suggs’ 20 points, Banchero’s 18 points and four assists, Carter’s interior defense and key corner 3s, and Jonathan Isaac and Goga Bitadze providing solid defense off the bench — no one provided a bigger impact than Bane did.

Desmond Bane scored 15 of his 37 points Tuesday in the fourth quarter. (Fernando Medina / NBAE via Getty Images)

It would be fair to fixate on Bane hurling the ball at Okongwu and Anunoby (to be certain, those were unsportsmanlike plays). But the most impressive toughness Bane has shown all season occurred weeks ago. He struggled for most of his first 10 regular-season games with the Magic, averaging a modest 14.2 points on an inefficient 43 percent shooting from the field and 29 percent shooting from beyond the arc.

Few players entered the 2025-26 season with greater increased outside expectations than Bane did. Looking to improve their horrid perimeter shooting and add a secondary playmaker, the Magic traded the 16th pick in last June’s NBA Draft, three future unprotected first-round picks, a first-round pick swap in 2029 (top-two protected), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Cole Anthony to the Memphis Grizzlies for Bane.

Team officials acknowledge they paid a hefty price, but they also viewed Bane — along with health from Banchero, Wagner and Suggs and the growth from Anthony Black — as an essential upgrade who would elevate the Magic and, as a result, make the outgoing first-round picks less valuable. A calculated risk, but still a risk.

“It’s a great feeling that an organization values me the way that they did to go out and spend what they did to get me,” Bane said. “But from the second I got here, they just told me to be myself. Once they kind of told me that, then it takes all the pressure off because I know who I am, and I know what I can bring to a team. I’ll just continue to do that.”

Amid all of those expectations, no one on the Magic roster can recall a moment during Bane’s slow start when Bane appeared down.

“I’m so impressed with him as a basketball player, obviously, but (also) as a person,” Isaac said. “To be able to endure the beginning, the early struggles and obviously what people have to say, it’s so obvious that he has such a strong inner spirit and belief about himself and just poise and confidence.”

Bane’s intangibles continue to rub off on his new teammates. Orlando was a tough team before, with perhaps the most physical defense in the league, but it’s tougher now in ways it wasn’t before.

The Magic did not wilt after they started the season 1-4. They managed to go 7-3 in the games that Banchero missed. And Tuesday, they recovered after Miami took its 15-0 lead.

In Orlando’s postgame locker room, Black relayed that story of Bane calling out a teammate — a teammate whom Black would not identify — during training camp. In that instance, Bane told a teammate, “That’s some soft s—.”

“I think that set the tone for the whole season,” Black said. “It just set the tone for the intensity and the seriousness that we need. I think he plays with that every game.”

Perhaps never more so than in the NBA Cup quarterfinal. The Magic will leave for Las Vegas on Thursday, and they will face the Knicks again Saturday in the tournament semifinals.

Those outgoing first-round picks, the pick swap and the two players the Magic traded to the Grizzlies did not seem like such a high price Tuesday night, did they?