Bianchi: An unfulfilled Magic season comes down to this — as it should!

Good.

This is how it should be.

This is what the Orlando Magic deserve.

A single game. Forty-eight minutes. One night where everything is on the line and nothing is guaranteed. A win-or-go-home showdown Friday night at Kia Center with their entire season — and maybe more — teetering in the balance.

This is what they’ve earned.

Because let’s be clear: this is not what it was supposed to be. The Magic weren’t supposed to be here, clinging to survival in the play-in tournament. They weren’t supposed to be fighting just to get into the playoffs. This was supposed to be a top-three seed. A breakthrough season. A young, rising contender in a wide-open Eastern Conference.

Instead? They’re coming off a 109-97 loss to a Joel Embiid-less Philadelphia 76ers team on Wednesday night; a game they had no business losing, and frankly, no business even playing on the road in the first place.

That’s the part that stings the most. This didn’t start in Philadelphia. It started Sunday in Boston, when the Magic couldn’t handle a Celtics team that was resting virtually its entire rotation. That was the game. That was the moment. Win that, and you’re hosting Wednesday night. Lose it, and you put your season on this exact path.

And of course, they lost.

Same old Magic.

Same offensive issues. Same defensive breakdowns. Same lack of urgency. Same inability to rise to the moment.

And then Wednesday night against Philadelphia, the problems were all too familiar. Orlando shot just 7-of-27 from three-point range. Their pricey homegrown core – Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs – combined to go 13-of-42 from the field and an ugly 1-of-13 from deep.

One of thirteen.

In a game that mattered.

In a game that defined your season.

That’s not bad luck. That’s your identity.

And it’s been their identity all season long.

The only saving grace – the one consistent bright spot in a year filled with injuries and inconsistency – has been Desmond Bane. He poured in 34 points Wednesday night, hit 4-of-6 from beyond the arc and once again carried an offense that too often looks stuck in mud.

At this point, Bane hasn’t just justified the hefty price the Magic paid to acquire him; he’s been the only reason this season hasn’t completely collapsed already.

While everyone else has missed time, struggled with rhythm or disappeared in key moments, Bane has shown up every night. All 82 games. Reliable. Consistent. Professional.

Everything the rest of this team hasn’t been.

And now?

Now it comes down to one game.

Friday night. At home. Against a Charlotte Hornets team that should scare the Magic far more than their record suggests.

You see, all the pressure is on the Magic while Charlotte is playing with house money. The Hornets are young, loose and energized. They’re excited to be here. They’ve already beaten Miami. They’ve beaten Orlando three out of four times this season – all by double digits.

Meanwhile, the Magic look like a team counting down the days until summer. That’s not hyperbole. That’s body language. That’s effort. That’s the same questions that have followed this team all season long: Where is the urgency? Where is the edge? Where is the fight?

And now, finally, there’s nowhere left to hide.

No more talk about potential. No more reminders about youth. No more excuses about injuries or chemistry or timing.

This is it.

One game.

You either win, or you go home.

And honestly? That’s exactly how it should be.

Because this team hasn’t earned anything more. They didn’t earn the right to ease into the playoffs. They didn’t earn the benefit of the doubt. They didn’t earn the luxury of a margin for error.

They earned this:

A pressure-packed, high-stakes, season-on-the-line game in front of their own fans – a final exam after a season full of incomplete answers.

So what is this team?

Are they the talented, ascending group we were promised back in October? The one ready to take the next step, to compete with the best teams in the East, to finally matter again?

Or are they exactly what they’ve looked like far too often this season – inconsistent, unreliable and ultimately not ready for the moment?

They have one last chance to prove something – or confirm everything people have been quietly wondering for months.

And if they lose?

Then this season will be remembered exactly as it deserves to be: a disappointment wrapped in excuses, a year defined more by what the Magic should have been than what they actually were.

But if they win?

Then at least there’s a pulse.

At least there’s a chance to keep writing a different ending.

At least they have one final chance to find their backbone amid this lost season.

Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on social media @BianchiWrites and listen to my radio show “Game On” every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen