CHARLOTTE – Drenched with water but still beaming with pride over what his Orlando Magic had accomplished late Sunday night, head coach Steve Clifford offered a peek into the unbreakable will and determinable drive that pushed his team all season in an emotion-laden postgame speech.

``Phenomenal job, phenomenal job,’’ Clifford said to his players after the Magic gutted out a 116-108 victory in Boston that clinched the franchise’s first playoff berth in seven seasons. ``I want to say two things. First of all, from Day 1, whatever we were, 11 under (.500), but you guys kept working and kept fighting and we did it the right way. We’re getting better and better. The best can be yet to come.

``Secondly, listen to me, this is great and no matter what (happens in the playoffs), you’ve done a great job, but let’s want more,’’ Clifford said in behind-the-scenes locker room footage. ``If we can come in (Boston) and play that kind of game – back against the wall, bad breaks and you made play after play – if we use these next few days, we can beat anybody. That’s the way we need to be thinking. This is great, but that (celebrating) has got to be over (Sunday) night. You do what you’ve got to do (to celebrate), but we’ve got to be thinking bigger. We’re that good. Think bigger.’’

Clifford’s message in the glow of Sunday’s Southeast Division-clinching victory wasn’t all that different than it’s been since he was hired last May. For months, he’s told his team, told the media and told anyone who would listen that the Magic (41-40) have the talent, toughness and togetherness to do special things this season. He brazenly said that in the face of oddsmakers projecting the Magic as a 31-win team and with prognosticators picking Orlando to be depressingly back in the draft lottery for a seventh straight year.

Clifford was an assistant coach on the last Magic team to make the playoffs in 2012, but even he probably underestimated the scar tissue present and the demons the franchise had been haunted by over the previous six seasons of frustration. The ruins he assumed were a franchise that had lost 50-plus games five times and one that had cycled through four coaches and two front-office regimes.

Still, Clifford and his players remained resolute and kept pushing through a season filled with potholes and pockmarks. Four times the squad lost four games in a row and each skid was ended with a defeat of a playoff power team (San Antonio, Toronto, Boston and Indiana).

That defeat of the Pacers on Jan. 31 – one made possible by a stirring fourth-quarter rally – seems to have been the line of demarcation for the Magic considering that they were a season-worst 20-31 coming into the night and have gone 21-9 since. What followed were winning streaks of five and six games and a dominant home spree that reached nine. Also, their defensive rating (104.3 points per 100 possessions) and defensive rebounding percentage (76.9 percent) rank first in the league.

The stirring, late-season run, the fourth-best mark in the NBA since Jan. 31, seems to have emboldened a Magic team that now fully believes in itself.

``We had a lot of doubters at the beginning of the season – people doubted me and doubted the team,’’ said 11-year veteran D.J. Augustin, whose steadiness and durability at the point guard position has been undeniably invaluable. ``I’ve been proving people wrong my whole life, and I know it feels good for this team to prove the whole (basketball) world wrong. Coach (Clifford) has been saying from the beginning that we could be one of the stories of the league. We believed it when he said it, he set the example and we just followed his lead.’’

Added forward Aaron Gordon, who is finally a part of a winner following four years of struggles in Orlando: ``It feels like the culture around here has shifted to a winning culture. We really feel like we have a way that we can play now that’s going to get us a win every night. It’s a different feeling and it’s a beautiful thing.’’

Before the Magic shift their full focus to the postseason, there’s plenty of work left to do in Wednesday night’s regular-season finale in Charlotte (38-42). Orlando has the same record as Brooklyn (41-40), but the Nets win the head-to-head tiebreaker by virtue of their 2-1 advantage in the season series, dropping the Magic to the No. 7 seed.

However, there is still a potential path to the No. 6 seed for Orlando. If the Magic win on Wednesday (at Hornets) and Brooklyn loses (home against Miami), Orlando will earn the No. 6 spot. If the Magic and Nets lose and Detroit wins its final two games (vs. Memphis on Tuesday and at New York on Wednesday), that would create a three-way tie among Orlando, Brooklyn and Detroit at 41 wins. The Magic would nab the highest seed (No. 6) by virtue of them being champions of the Southeast Division.

The only scenario where the Magic would fall to No. 8 involves them losing on Wednesday, Brooklyn winning on Wednesday and Detroit capturing victories in its final two games.

Milwaukee (60-21), Toronto (57-24) and Philadelphia (50-30) have strongholds on the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 seeds. Orlando has beaten all three at some point this season, going 2-2 against Philadelphia and Toronto and 1-2 versus Milwaukee.

``We are aware that this is good, and it feels good, but we all want more,’’ said Evan Fournier, whose dunk in traffic broke a 106-all tie late Sunday night and sent the Magic on their way to the playoff-clinching victory. ``Just being in the playoffs isn’t enough for us and we want more and more. We can’t wait to go back to Amway (Center) and see the fans. It’s just going to be fun from now on and we’ve got to keep going.’’

Like so many of his teammates, Fournier pointed out that Sunday’s victory felt like a microcosm of the season. Orlando fell behind by 13 in the early going and then put forth a furious rally over the final minutes of the second quarter to the opening minutes of the fourth to surge ahead by 14. Then, like the yo-yoing in and out of playoff contention in recent weeks, the Magic looked on as Boston tied the game on a series of long 3-pointers by Jaylen Brown and superstar guard Kyrie Irving. But, like during the season, that challenge only brought out the best in the Magic and they closed with a series of clutch plays to secure the victory, the playoff spot and the division title.

``We wanted to play our way in (to the playoffs) and that’s what we did,’’ said Gordon, whose cutting layup off a feed from all-star Nikola Vucevic put Orlando up four with 1:28 to play.

For players like standout sub Terrence Ross (26 points, five 3-pointers and 14 fourth-quarter points), Vucevic (25 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and two blocks), Fournier (24 points, three 3-pointers and three assists), Gordon (14 points, seven rebounds and two blocks) and Augustin (11 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds), they spent as much time reflecting on the arduous journey the playoffs as they did savoring the actual moment.

Vucevic, 28, has been around the longest, enduring six years of rebuilding prior to this season of success. Fournier and Gordon were both acquired on draft night in 2014, giving them five years of sweat equity in Orlando. Augustin, a three-year member of the Magic, endured questions about his abilities to lead a team before the squad even opened training camp in September. As for Ross, he’s had his own trials and tribulations in his 2½ seasons in Orlando, making this triumph even sweeter.

``Nobody knows what I’ve been through these last six years with the losing and the struggling and doubting and it’s been very difficult for me at times, but it paid off in a great way,’’ Vucevic said. ``It’s an amazing feeling and I’m so proud of these guys. We fought all year long, it was a tough season and we were down a few weeks ago and it was a very difficult situation after that Washington loss (on March 13), but we just found a way. I’m just so proud of these guys and the coaching staff.’’

Added Ross: ``My first year was pretty much over (when he was traded to Orlando in February of 2017) and my second year I got hurt and had to watch the season go by, so it was just a long season. It was all worth it, though. It kind of helps you build character going through something like that.’’

Reflections aside, the Magic are now eager to push for more than simply just qualifying for the playoffs. Clifford, a veteran of 19 NBA seasons, was one of the driving forces behind a Magic team that reached the 2009 NBA Finals and the 2010 Eastern Conference Finals, and he feels the current Orlando outfit has the makings of one that can have success in the playoffs.

That’s why he paused the Magic’s postgame celebration in a drenched locker room on Sunday night to insist that the squad continue to push for more – both in Wednesday’s regular-season finale and in the playoffs ahead. He never let the Magic wallow when they were down or grow satisfied when they were up, and he wants the team to continue to demand more of itself going forward.

``This is the first step. And I’m not talking about the future; I’m talking about this year,’’ Clifford said confidently. ``Once you get in (to the playoffs), we have a few days here to try and get ready to play well in a playoff series and be competitive. … This can be the beginning.’’

Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Orlando Magic. All opinions expressed by John Denton are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Orlando Magic or their Basketball Operations staff, partners or sponsors.