What happens if the Magic lose to the Kings at home

We haven't seen free falling this hard since the late, great Tom Petty took the stage.

Fresh off a 7-game winning streak, The Orlando Magic turned around, stepped on a banana peel, and slipped backwards into losing six straight.

In their defense, they've competed hard throughout most of that stretch, staying in games and forcing comebacks to compete in many closer games than the record suggests, against some of the toughest competition in the league; but, at the end of the day, this is a results business.

If the Magic don't secure a playoff birth with a Top-6 seed in the regular season, let alone if they miss the playoffs entirely in a play-in loss, this summer could see major shakeups; missing the playoffs would result in losing their unprotected 2026 lottery pick to Memphis, the absolute worst outcome.

Orlando can't lose to Sacramento the same week they lost to Indiana

Pacers block Bitadze — Mar 23, 2026; Orlando, Florida, USA; Orlando Magic center Goga Bitadze (35) goes to the basket against Indiana Pacers center Jay Huff (32) and forward Jarace Walker (5) during the second quarter at Kia Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike Watters-Imagn Images | Mike Watters-Imagn Images

After the Pacers loss, Magic coaches and players talked about playing harder out of the gates, with Coach Mosley emphasizing the needed urgency, 'playing like you are down 10 right away'.

Great teams should be able to stop losing streaks; not that this team has Michael Jordan, but MJ's Bulls were too proud to ever lose more than 2 games in a row, when every game meant something.

Orlando is showing up in these games; no one is questioning them competing through the final whistle, giving themselves a chance, and the reality they face with 3 primary ball-handlers injured, (Jalen Suggs, Franz Wagner, Anthony Black) making the team a shell of its self.

Still, high expectations have left all parties wanting more, questioning why things aren't gelling better, despite the team missing multiple key players.

The offense has moments, and clearly has figured some things out as the year goes on in its attempt to get more threes up for Bane and its best shooters, even though it could continue increasing those 3pt volumes to an even higher rate. Orlando is finding ways to utilize Banchero's playmaking and downhill effectiveness by involving him on the move more often.

When this team is fully healthy, the players spacing the floor for these two make the offense even harder to guard, making the game easier for everyone; when it's just two or three key players available, carrying mostly bench players around them, everything becomes a little harder.

At 38-34, Orlando has the 17th Point Differential, the 15th Defense, and the 18th Offense on the season; maybe losing key offensive and defensive players all season makes you closer to average than you would be at full strength. Since the All-Star break, the Magic have been up during the win streak, down in the losing streak, averaging out to a rate slightly better on both sides, holding down the 15th Point Differential, the 14th Defense, and the 13th Offense since Feb 14th.

Orlando has won most of the close games they're in with clutch shot making, winning 23-15 in clutch situations, ranking 3rd best in the league.

Game-winners highlight the season, such as Desmond Bane's buzzer beater vs Portland to Paolo Banchero's banked-in three vs Brooklyn.

In conclusion, this year's rotation has been overall less deep and less talented than expected due to injuries, but the team is competing in and winning most of their down-to-the-wire close games. While this answer doesn't make anyone happy, it is one reality of why this team has not met outside expectations after making the big splash trade of the summer in sending four firsts for Bane.

If things go as poorly as possible the rest of the way, with Orlando losing in the play-in missing the playoffs, and sending a lottery pick out the door, this team could see a shakeup; any NBA team that goes through that sequence of events normally moves on from or trades key personnel.

Even in the worst case scenario, though, the Magic have a built-in reason for why this season didn't go as planned, and it would not be surprising if they ran this same core unit and staff back one more time next year after seeing the successful multi-year rise of this team's rebuild to get to this point.

One thing's for sure; the real wildcard in all of this is patience.

How long will the Magic's owners, front office executives, coaches, star players, veteran players, and fans stay patient when it comes to waiting for this entire team's injury luck to finally flip on its head?

Can this locker room handle the disappointment of a quick playoff exit and still come back healthy and motivated next season, fully loaded?

At the end of the day, this team is good when healthy, if not great.

The starting lineup of Jalen Suggs - Desmond Bane - Franz Wagner - Paolo Banchero - Wendell Carter Jr., along with other variations of that lineup featuring Anthony Black and Tristan da Silva, all tend to have incredibly high net ratings, with the starting five still being as lethal as any starting lineup in the NBA. This stat along with the eye test of this team's highs being insanely high when things are clicking are enough reasons for this team to stay in tact for at least one more season together.

As said before, though, this is a results business; all it takes is one crack in the chain to get fed up with the results, to lose their patience, to demand a change.

Let's see the Magic take care of business against a Kings team who prefers to lose for better lottery pick odds to end this losing streak and start treating every game like a playoff game from here on out.