The last time they met, the Orlando Magic and New York Knicks both had a clear short-term goal.
That long-term goal will be even more evident on Sunday night, when the Magic host the Knicks in the first game for both teams since the NBA Cup.
The second Magic-Knicks matchup in 12 days came when the teams were eliminated from the NBA Cup on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Orlando fell to the host Milwaukee Bucks 114-109 on Tuesday while New York lost to the visiting Atlanta Hawks 108-100 the following night.
The Magic and Knicks will meet four times this season, all between Dec. 3 and Jan. 6. With third-place Orlando and fourth-place New York separated by just one game in the Eastern Conference, the extra game could be decisive in a tiebreaker to determine the playoff seeding.
Both teams will likely look very different on Sunday than in a potential playoff rematch. The Magic, already accustomed to playing without star forward Paolo Banchero because of a torn right oblique, lost another key player to a right oblique injury on Dec. 6 when forward Franz Wagner suffered the injury against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Wagner is expected to miss a month. Banchero, who was given a four- to six-week schedule when he suffered the injury on Oct. 30, has yet to return to practice and is participating in limited basketball activities.
“He’s doing the same dribbling, some light movement on the floor and then just trying to find ways to get his cardio up without putting too much pressure on it,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said after Friday’s practice.
The Magic could return forward Jonathan Isaac, who practiced Friday after missing the previous three games with a pulled right hamstring.
The Knicks’ starting lineup has been remarkably static. The quartet of OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart have started all 25 games, while Karl-Anthony Towns has started 23 times.
But the adjustment process, particularly on defense, has taken longer than expected for the Knicks, who added Bridges and Towns in offseason trades.
The Knicks are averaging 117.0 points per game, up from 112.8 points per game last season. But New York is fifth in the East and 10th overall with 110.9 points allowed per game after allowing 108.2 per game last season, the lowest in the East and second-lowest in the NBA.
The Knicks never trailed in the first half on Wednesday, but they fell behind for good in the third quarter, when the Hawks outscored New York 34-18, shooting a solid 54.2 percent (13-of-24), including 66.7 percent (4-of-6) from three-point range.
“It’s true what they say and I’ve seen it; they say offense wins games and defense wins championships,” Towns said. “So it’s important that we go back and focus on the other end of the floor and be the best version of ourselves that we can be. Obviously, it’s great that we have an advantage for us right now, statistically, where we need to be on offense to be that team. But defense has to catch up and get to that standard.”