MINNEAPOLIS, MN - NOVEMBER 22: Aaron Gordon #00 of the Orlando Magic goes for a lay up against the Minnesota Timberwolves on November 22, 2017 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Orlando Magic struggled to find defensive energy as they fell behind by as much as 26 points. And this is at the heart of the Magic’s problems.

Minnesota Timberwolves 124 Orlando Magic 118

The Orlando Magic offense was raring to go.

The ball was starting to move and the urgency and attention was picking up as the team faced a 26-point deficit it had buried itself in. The Orlando Magic remembered the loss to the Utah Jazz from over the weekend and knew they could not let the deficit balloon out again. They had to show some fight.

A shot went in. Then another one. Then another one.

Midway through the fourth quarter, the deficit was more than cut in half. Tom Thibodeau brought his starters in with nine minutes left hoping to stem the tide. But the Magic were coming.

Orlando has established it can play a devastating offensive style. Even early in this game, the ball was moving and the Magic were cutting aggressively to warp and tear apart the Minnesota Timberwolves’ defense. The Magic were ready to play in this game.

Except for one or two stretches. A late second quarter when the team turned the ball over far too much and allowed Minnesota to get easy baskets. And a devastating third quarter. A 41-18 third quarter for Minnesota that gave the team complete control of the game.

Scenes like that third quarter have become far too commonplace for the Magic these days. Orlando has seen its offense go in the tank and its defense follow with it.

What has become clear as the Magic lost their sixth straight game and now their eight of their last 10 is where this team gets its energy. Shooting is the catalyst for the Magic at their best and at their worst.

At their best, it feeds the teams intensity, physicality and chemistry on the defensive end. At its worst, it sinks the team into frustration.

That was the case Wednesday in a 124-118 loss to the Timberwolves. You could tell how the Magic were playing simply by whether they were making shots.

In the third quarter, Orlando made just 7 of 20 shots and turned the ball over five times. It was clear how frustrated the Magic were getting from their body language. Heads drooped and the frustration was oozing off the screen.

Like it has when the offense has stagnated, the ball stuck too much and there was too much isolation play.

Minnesota deserves plenty of credit for disrupting Orlando’s rhythm. The Timberwolves brought pressure and trapped pick and rolls better. It forced the Magic to make riskier cross-court passes and they struggled to handle the new pressure.

But Orlando also missed plenty of makeable shots. It seemed the team was not encouraged by the few times it executed well. It just fed the team’s frustration.

Entering the half trailing by only three points, that alone should not have been enough to dig too deep a hole. As Jonathon Simmons said the day before, the team had to focus more on its defense. The defense was really its problem.

And that was far more evident in the third quarter.

Minnesota scored 41 points on 12 for 19 shooting. The Timberwolves made 13 of 15 free throws. The Magic might have ben able to survive the offensive onslaught, but not that and the fouls and the turnovers. The Magic’s poor offense was feeidng into the defense.

Whatever defensive connectivity the team showed in the first half — and despite the high scoring there were enough good defensive stretches to give the Magic the lead for much of the game to that point — was lost.

Orlando was late on rotations, fouling to make up for it. The team was giving up easy penetration on drives. There was little resistance. Orlando let frustration build.

How the script changed in the fourth quarter is a question the Magic have to ask themselves as they prepare for their next game adn the rest of this road trip.

Orlando outscored Minnesota 38-18 in the quarter. The team made 15 of 25 shots and held Minnesota to 4-for-23 shooting. The Timberwolves still got 13 free throws, but late-game fouling played a role in that. It was a completely different team.

Coach Frank Vogel said after the game the Magic played angry in the fourth quarter. Again, determined not to get embarassed as they had against the Jazz earlier in the week. But that anger manifested itself on offense first. The Magic made some shots and their energy level picked up.

That put their defense on notice. The shot making got Orlando’s attention up.

The Magic played some very strong defense in the fourth quarter. It might have been a combination of a large lead and Minnesota easing off the throttle. But there were more contested shots and more connected rotation. Minnesota found it difficult to score, even when the team brought its starters back in with nine minutes to play.

Orlando’s urgency was up. The team was playing with the desperation they needed to win the game. Play with that kind of attention and urgency all 48 minutes and the team probably wins their share of games.

The Magic showed full well they can compete with this kind of team. They showed that in the first quarter. But their third quarter was so abysmally bad, it proved to be too big of a hole to dig out of.

And that is where the Magic are at right now it seems — incapable of playing a 48-minute game.

The Magic’s offense and shooting has come back to earth. The team is not the hot-shooting team it was at the beginning of the season. The offense is not a backstop.

And offense is rarely such a reliable backstop. The good teams do not rely on their offense for their energy. Offense is about mere execution. Shots falling or not is a matter of percentages. The aim is to get good looks.

What is the bedrock for the good teams is their defense. That is the ultimate backstop for teams aiming to win. That was the bedrock for Frank Vogel-led teams in the past.

It has become clear the Magic can put up a lot of points. Their offense may not be the most consistent in the league at all. The team may end up finishing slightly above the league median in that categroy. That is still a long way from last year.

But what has been extremely variable this year is the defensive effort. Usually the Magic can get things rolling on both ends when they hit shots. When they are not hitting shots, the Magic play like one of the worst teams in the league.

And even when the shots are falling, the defense may not be enough for this team to win on some nights.

That is exactly the problem for the Magic. Too much of their attitude and energy is built on their shooting. That is not a formula for success.

For Orlando to turn the season around, it has to find the energy on defense even when the shots are not falling.