The Magic were playing confidently in a large portion of the first two quarters of play battling the Oklahoma City Thunder in their 105-99 loss Thursday night at the KIA Center.

Heading into the contest after falling in a valiant effort against the New York Knicks on Sunday night 100-91 for their first home loss of the year, Magic found a way to hang tough in a world without franchise forward Paolo Banchero and backcourt ace Franz Wagner. While both are missing months worth of basketball with similar right oblique injuries, the Magic are finding ways to be dangerous to stay in the Eastern Conference race to host playoff games.

However, the Magic were dealt another blow when the third of their “big 3” Jalen Suggs went down grabbing his left foot and ankle with close to a minute left in the half. The Magic were already facing a daunting deficit of 65-46 heading into the locker room at halftime.

Suggs had nine points in 13 minutes of play and four assists hitting only one of his five three-point attempts. Suggs was limping throughout the early portion of the contest and seemed to aggravate it during play. Suggs returned to action but was scoreless the rest of the contest.

With the starting point guard down, Anthony Black stepped in and finished the game leading the Magic in scoring in 23.

The Magic got it as close as two in the 4th quarter, but the Thunder and league MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander held off Orlando’s late advance. SGA turned in 35 points on the night while his team only missed one of their 16 free throws. OKC also turned 20 total Magic turnovers into 26 points of production.

Currently sitting at 4th in the standings for the NBA Eastern Conference, the Magic are in danger of falling out of position to host a playoff game if they don’t make a huge run to catch back up after the All-Star break.

While that possibility exists, Orlando head coach Jamahl Mosley cited the silver lining that the experience of going through this stretch of injuries against tough teams is invaluable experience for building up to a postseason run.

While the smart money is that Black would start in lieu of Suggs in the event he misses time, the Miami Heat are coming to Orlando on Saturday and Thursday bookending a Monday game with the visiting Boston Celtics. That’s limited rest with all three of the Magic’s top talents impacted by some kind of injury with the 6th and 2nd seeds in the conference next on the docket.  Then the Knights as the current 3rd see are in town on Friday the second of a back-to-back.

The Magic don’t need Christmas cards, they need notes saying “get well soon”.