During New York‘s third offensive possession of last Saturday’s NBA Cup semifinal, Jalen Suggs turned his head to double check the location of Knicks wing Josh Hart in the right corner of the court.

As All-NBA guard Jalen Brunson stepped into a 3-point shot near the top of the key, the Magic guard flipped his focus from Hart to the ball. Brunson’s shot missed long and bounced off the back of the rim.

Instead of Suggs, however, it was Hart who jumped toward the ball to grab the offensive rebound. In a split second, Suggs had lost sight of Hart and missed the loose ball.

Moments later, New York’s Karl-Anthony Towns hit a jumpshot that wouldn’t have been made possible without the offensive rebound.

It was the type of sequence that Magic coach Jamahl Mosley would like Orlando to avoid moving forward.

“There’s been moments where we’ve been beaten on the glass a few times and that’s the small details, which we’ve worked on,” Mosley said after practice Wednesday before Orlando traveled to Denver to face the Nuggets on Thursday night. “You’ve got to find and hit guys first, and then you go pursue the rebound.

“We’ve gotten hit at times where we’ll just try to leak out and get out on an offensive break, but our ability to finish out possessions defensively is the key for us being successful,” he added.

Orlando actually did a decent job against the Knicks on the glass. New York entered the contest averaging 13.8 offensive rebounds (the third-most in the league according to NBA.com) and only grabbed 8 against the Magic.

But there were still stretches where Orlando let its guard down, including in the first quarter when New York scored 9 of its 13 second-chance points.

Through the first 26 games of the season, the Magic grabbed 52.1% of available rebounds per contest, a rebounding percentage that sat sixth-best league-wide, just one spot behind New York (52.2%), entering Thursday’s slate of games.

More specifically, Orlando had brought down 71.9% of defensive rebounds available and 32.7% of offensive rebounds available per game. Despite the team’s offensive rebounding rate improving from last year’s mark (30.2%), it’s defensive rebounding percentage is slightly down (from 72%).

And while the Magic were allowing the fourth-fewest opponent offensive rebounds per night ahead of Thursday (10.3), that mark was also slightly up from last season (when they allowed the fewest at 9.2 per contest).

Although these rebounding numbers year-over-year are near each other, the difference can go a long way for the Magic, who rely on getting out in transition off defensive rebounds and limiting opposing team’s second-chance scoring opportunities on a nightly basis.

Before facing the Nuggets, the Magic were giving up 12.2 second-chance points per game, which was the second-fewest. Last season, that mark sat top of league at 11.9 per night.

“It can be better,” Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. said about his team’s rebounding more than a quarter of the way through the season. “Just starting from my aspect, I’ve got to do a better job of keeping guys off the glass, especially guys who live on the O-boards and kind of get their money off the O-boards. We’ve just got to (give) more attention to detail. All five (players have) got to know that they have to come in knowing that certain teams, they crash all five. Even with me boxing out, their other guys are flying in, so it’s tough.

“I’m saying all of this not as excuses but just the reality of it,” he added. “At the end of the day, we’ve just got to find ways to get more rebounds. However that looks, we’ve just got to figure it out.”

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com

Up next …

Magic at Jazz

When: 9:30 p.m., Thursday, Delta Center

TV: FanDuel Sports Network Florida