The game started with a tip-off as it always did. Except from the very beginning, the Orlando Magic seemingly had a different posture about them.
Aaron Gordon, Nikola Vucevic and Jonathan Isaac were all out with injuries of varying degrees. It is clear that if the games mattered not only would all three of those players be playing, but Evan Fournier, Terrence Ross and Jonathon Simmons might be too. But the games have not mattered for a long time.
The absences in this game were the equivalent to how Bismack Biyombo treated the opening tip.