Jamal Cain’s athletic putback with 1.5 seconds left gave Orlando five more minutes. It did not give the Magic enough answers.
With Golden State leading 110-108, Charles Bassey blocked Wendell Carter Jr.’s layup with 6.7 seconds remaining. Anthony Black grabbed the offensive rebound, Carter missed another layup at 2.0, and Cain secured the next rebound before tipping the ball in. That was Orlando’s third attempt of the possession, and it tied the game 110-110.
The Magic had bullied their way to another chance. They could not finish enough of them.
Golden State won 126-119 Saturday in San Francisco, sending Orlando to its fourth straight loss. The Magic collected 24 offensive rebounds, outrebounded the Warriors 57-42 and took 113 field-goal attempts to Golden State’s 80. Thirty-three additional shots usually give a team a sturdy path to victory. Orlando instead made 43 of 113, while the Warriors made the same number of field goals on 80 attempts.
That is the strange shape of this loss: Orlando won the possession battle by a landslide and lost the conversion battle by an even wider margin. Golden State shot 54 percent from the floor to Orlando’s 38 percent and made 25 of 31 free throws. The Magic made 15 of 21. Extra chances can keep a team alive; they cannot make a missed shot count.
Cain gave Orlando precisely the kind of work a bench player is supposed to provide when the offense is sputtering. He scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in 36 minutes, including four offensive rebounds. His finish at the end of regulation was the night’s most vivid example of persistence, but his overall line mattered just as much.
Orlando needed those second chances because too many first chances were falling short.
The comeback itself had substance. Golden State led 57-41 at halftime, then Orlando moved ahead 78-77 after the third quarter. Franz Wagner powered that response with 30 points, 11 assists and six rebounds.
Tristan da Silva added 19 points and seven rebounds, and Black contributed 18 points, eight rebounds, six assists, four steals and three blocks. The Magic did not simply hang around; they reversed a 16-point deficit.
Still, the recovery came with costly cracks. Wagner had six turnovers, Black shot 7 of 19, and Jase Richardson scored two points on 1-of-13 shooting, including 0 of 6 from 3-point range. Carter supplied 19 points and 11 rebounds, but he was 6 of 12 from the floor and 4 of 9 at the line.
A team can survive one cold shooter when the rest of the offense is clean. Orlando had too many possessions ending with the wrong kind of drama.
