During the inaugural year of the league’s in-season tournament in 2023-24, the Magic went 3-1 in group play, but missed out on a chance to advance to the knockout rounds due to the tiebreaking point differential.

Last season, Orlando earned the wild-card spot in the NBA Cup but fell on the road at Milwaukee, the eventual tournament champions.

This season?

Jamahl Mosley‘s squad not only went undefeated in group action, but also hosted a quarterfinal, completed a thrilling comeback against its rival Heat at Kia Center on Tuesday and advanced to the semifinals to take on the Knicks this weekend in Las Vegas.

It’s an opportunity the Magic aren’t taking for granted.

“We’ve gotten to watch the past couple of years, the games in Vegas, but to actually be there, playing in it, having a chance to go win it, it’s exciting,” Orlando guard Jalen Suggs said Thursday inside the AdventHealth Training Center before the team traveled west. “We’re all looking forward to the trip, all of the bonding and time spent out there, so it’ll be fun.”

Added Mosley: “Our guys, they take a ton of pride in that. We talked about it after practice, just the resiliency and focus level that they have in these Cup games, understanding and knowing the stakes at hand and the result on the back end of it and the reward from it, our guys are really taking a lot of pride in that.”

The reward for winning the Cup is, in addition to a trophy, $530,933 per player via the prize pool. Each player on a team that loses in the semifinals takes home $106,187. That number increases to $212,373 for the players on the team that loses in the championship.

But Orlando isn’t traveling all the way to Vegas to come up short of its goal.

“We’re just a competitive group,” Suggs said. “We had our minds made up that we wanted to go get this Cup early in the year. This was one of our goals and all we’re on is a journey to accomplish it, and scratching that off our list.

“It’s been great how everyone’s been locked in,” he added. “We’ve had a certain level of intensity coming into the Cup games.”

The Magic will have to accomplish their goal without rising star forward Franz Wagner, who’s expected to miss two to four weeks because of a left high ankle sprain suffered last Sunday at New York. Wagner is expected to remain at home to focus on his recovery instead of traveling with the team to Vegas.

Magic brothers Franz and Moe Wagner surprise local kids with holiday event

Orlando (15-10) will be facing that same New York squad (17-7) for the fourth time already this season. The Magic hold a 2-1 regular-season series edge over the Knicks heading into the Cup semifinal, which counts toward the standings.

“All of our games have been competitive, they’ve all been really fun,” Suggs said about the Knicks. “We’ve had stretches where we’ve been up, they’ve been up, and we’ve come out on top of a couple. And obviously they have theirs.

“They’re playing good basketball so it’s a good challenge for us to keep growing, and that’s how I’m looking at the matchup.”

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com

Up next …

Magic vs. Knicks, NBA Cup semifinals

When: 5:30 p.m., Saturday, T-Mobile Arena (Las Vegas)

TV: Prime Video