Inside the highlight reel that saved the Magic’s season

The video opens with paolo bancherothen a ruler Freshman, pump-faking, driving down the left baseline and getting blown by a defender for a two-handed dunk against a monster North Carolina Into the Final Four in 2022.

Last Friday morning, before orlando magicThe biggest shootaround of the season at his team facility, head coach Jamahl Mosley showed his players a video. He played a three-minute highlight reel of some of his players’ NCAA tournament magic from back in the day.

Each player participating in the tournament had two clips each in a video created by the team’s video coordinator: jonathan isaac When throwing down a dunk Florida State, moritz wagner hitting a 3 when fouled michigan And Desmond Bain deep drilling for 3 TCU. highlight reel continued tristan da silva But colorado, franz wagner in michigan, Wendell Carter Jr.. On Duke et al.

Finally, the best highlights for last: jalen suggs‘ Unforgettable buzzer-beater from 40 feet near the half-court logo to stun UCLA in the final four in 2021 gonzaga.

“Tips for victory!” The last thing the Magic players heard was a call from CBS’s Jim Nantz just before the ball came to the bank.

Magic suffered a crushing defeat in the play-ins philadelphia 76ers Last Wednesday there was a match between the seventh and eighth ranked players. To make matters worse, travel issues prevented him from returning home until 4 a.m.

The players were focused but tired. The video provided relief from the previous two losses, including a disappointing 113–108 loss to the Boston Celtics, who rested their rotation players on the final day of the regular season. Orlando’s playoff hopes were on the line in just hours charlotte hornetswho were victorious in thrilling overtime Miami Heat.

“The Philly game was a terrible feeling,” Banchero told ESPN. “For me, for the team, we felt like we let it go.

“But we realized the season isn’t over.”

For a team that was built to win now and was expected to be a top four team in the East after the offseason blockbuster trade for banThe Magic took the burden of not letting their season end in the play-ins. It was a four-point game in Philadelphia with 3:25 left before Orlando missed six of its last seven shots and was out. Another sinking loss would send the team into a heat of uncertainty, as there is already growing talk around the league among some coaches and executives about Mosley’s future.

“I’d be lying if I said I heard any of it,” Mosley told ESPN about the outside noise surrounding the Magic before the win over Charlotte. “I’ve said it before, just wait a week and the story will always change.”

Mosley made the video to show his team that they have struggled before, made progress and created unforgettable moments. Since then, the Magic have been making every effort to create their own “One Shining Moment” this postseason. The Magic turned their season around by defeating the Hornets 121–90 to clinch the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Orlando then defeated the top seed in Game 1 112–101. piston In Detroit. The Magic hope to continue that in Game 2 on Wednesday (7pm ET, ESPN) by continuing to give Detroit a little taste of its own medicine.

After the Game 1 surprise in Detroit, Banchero yelled in the locker room, “Hey, don’t start drinking the Kool-Aid!” But it can’t be denied that the Magic got something in Friday’s win over the Hornets. What he has rediscovered is the blueprint for his success – strong defense combined with size and length, brutal physicality and a swagger that gets under the skin of opponents.

“They came out ready from the jump,” the Pistons All-Star center said. Jalen DurenWho was limited to eight points and seven rebounds. “We couldn’t really meet their intensity. They were playing with their backs against the walls, so they were already rolling.”

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Orlando Magic vs. Detroit Pistons: Game Highlights

Orlando Magic vs. Detroit Pistons: Game Highlights

Along with the inspirational video, Mosley also showed his team highlights of the bonus tournament from assistant coaches like God Shamgod at Providence and Lionel Chalmers at Xavier. The video not only set the tone, but it also had players unleashing their hearty laughter, especially at the dazzling old footage of Chalmers in 2004.

“The thing that inspired me was that they showed Lionel,” said an excited Banchero. “It was grainy, but the step he took, coming down in transition, going really fast, then slow, the Heisey pullup for the 3… It was just a neat shot. I was like damn. He got it. [everybody] going.”

Suggs said it was the perfect mood-setter for the Magic.

“It makes everybody feel a little bit better,” Suggs told ESPN about the video. “You remember where you came from. Mose is really good at that, he reminds us of who we are, our whole basketball journey, not just the disappointment or heaviness of this moment.”

The Magic looked like a completely different team on Friday night. Banchero knew things had turned around after Carter buried two early 3-pointers off an assist by Banchero and then the Magic star followed with an 8-foot turnaround jumper and a 26-foot 3-pointer. In between those shots were two frustrating shot-clock violation turnovers by Charlotte before the Hornets called a timeout up 27–10 with 3:43 to go in the first quarter.

“Our energy was different,” Banchero said of that moment. “It felt like they weren’t really prepared for that level of physicality. At that point, we were just like, ‘Look, what we’re doing right now, we need to do this s— the whole game. That’s how it should be every game.’

“In Philly, we played well. We tried hard, but it didn’t [with] We had as much swag as we could have, including myself.”

Banchero had 18 points, but shot 7 of 22 from the field, including 0 of 5 from 3 with six turnovers against the Sixers. The No. 1 seed in 2022 said he refused to settle for anything against Charlotte, believing a superstar must play aggressively in do-or-die situations. Coming out and threatening the Hornets, Banchero had 25 points, six assists and five rebounds while making 9 of 17 shots.

And in Game 1 against Detroit, Banchero scored all 23 of his points in the first three quarters, took only two shots in the fourth, but guessed largely correctly and allowed Franz Wagner to take advantage of mismatches inside. Wagner scored 11 points in the fourth.

“When Paolo plays like that, manipulates the game, that’s what separates the great players,” Wagner said after Game 1.

For Banchero, both games were different, but the result was the same. Banchero did what he had to do to lead the Magic to the win.

Help Mosley and the Magic’s video coordinator with their Magic Moment video. He hopes this trend will continue. No matter what happens in Game 2, the Magic return to Orlando with home-court advantage to create more madness in April.

“It was just us reminiscing and realizing that our season is on the line,” Banchero said of the video. “Coach’s point was just to let everybody know that we’ve all been in this situation before, whether in the pros, in college, where it’s do or die, win or go home type of game. And we all performed in that moment.”