ORLANDO — The three safety guards posted on the southeastern tunnel of Kia Middle’s hardwood flooring aren’t waving at Magic followers soaking in one other residence win. They’re overlaying their mouths, grinning, and waving on the Knicks followers — the touring pack that exhibits up in each metropolis, each evening, rain or shine — as these followers head for the exits.

They usually’re heading out early. As a result of halfway by the fourth quarter, the Knicks fell aside once more. And the Magic crowd, lengthy compelled to abdomen a lot blue-and-orange noise on their residence court docket, lastly bought its second to let these street followers hear it.

By the ultimate buzzer, it was a 133–121 Magic win, their second in opposition to New York this season — and a reminder that if these two groups meet in April, the Knicks should repair the precise weaknesses Orlando has uncovered twice already.

They understood the project after the primary assembly, a 17-point collapse that snapped New York’s season-opening residence streak. The Knicks admitted then that Orlando’s physicality broke them. That they weren’t prepared.

“They had been bodily, they had been the extra bodily workforce that evening and I like the truth that our workforce took possession of it and didn’t use excuses as a result of there may have been 1,000,000 excuses that evening that we may have used. However we’re a no-excuse workforce,” head coach Mike Brown mentioned after apply on Friday. “It doesn’t matter what our schedule is, doesn’t matter in regards to the officers. It doesn’t matter about any of that. We’ve gotta go play the fitting means when our quantity’s referred to as and we didn’t do a great job of it that sport, and it began with how bodily they had been coming in and punching us within the mouth first.”

On Saturday, they had been prepared for the bruises. However physicality wasn’t the issue this time.

Protection — or the absence of it — is the difficulty.

The Knicks gave up dunk after dunk, layup after layup, and a parade of frustration shrugs as the sport unraveled. Mike Brown waved the white flag with beneath three minutes to go, emptying his bench in what seemed much less like technique and extra like a necessity to start out looking out.

As a result of after Saturday, Brown could don’t have any selection however to dig deeper into his rotation.

OG Anunoby stays out with a left hamstring pressure. Miles McBride missed the sport with an sickness. And worse, Landry Shamet appeared to re-dislocate the identical shoulder that price him the complete entrance half of final season — a first-quarter collision with Jalen Suggs and Wendell Carter Jr. sending him straight to the locker room.

All of a sudden, the Knicks’ provide of three-and-D wings evaporated. And with out them?

You get a defensive catastrophe.

The Magic scored 64 factors within the paint. New York supplied little point-of-attack resistance. When Brown turned to Mitchell Robinson, Orlando merely dragged him out of the paint, then blew by the following line of protection.

Jalen Brunson (33 factors, 12-of-21 taking pictures) held up his finish on offense. Karl-Anthony Cities (24 factors, 10-of-11 FT, 6-of-14 FG) did what he may in a shaky taking pictures evening. Jordan Clarkson added 15, Mikal Bridges 18 — 9 of them within the first quarter.

However offense isn’t the Knicks’ downside — not this season, not with this roster.

Protection stays the evident, neon-lit difficulty.

Franz Wagner went for 37 factors on 13-of-19. Desmond Bane: 27 on 10-of-20. Jalen Suggs: 26 on 9-of-18.

All three shot 50% or higher. All three seemed comfy.

And Bane — the identical Bane traded for a five-first-round-pick haul — was proof of a broader narrative working beneath the floor.

Each the Knicks and Magic have gone all-in over the past two summers, pushing 5 first-round picks to amass the precise kind of “ending piece” groups normally chase solely when a championship is inside attain.

The Knicks surrendered unprotected picks in 2025, 2027, 2029, 2031 plus Milwaukee’s 2025 first for Mikal Bridges, earlier than touchdown Cities.

The Magic pushed 4 firsts plus a swap for Bane.

And proper now? The Magic are forward in that race.

Up 2–0 within the season sequence. Taking part in the Knicks like a workforce that is aware of it would see them once more.

Because the Knicks walked off, they endured yet one more loss — worse than the followers being waved away.

That ridiculous, addictive, unavoidable Magic theme tune blasted by the audio system.

And the Knicks will hear it — time and again — till they discover a solution for a workforce they’re certain to face once more.