(EDITOR’S NOTE — Orlando Magic rookie and No. 1 overall draft pick Paolo Banchero is doing a periodic diary with The Associated Press this season to chronicle his first year in the NBA. This is his third installment. The Magic had the worst record in he league through the first 25 games of his rookie campaign, then won 14 of their next 25 games. He’s averaging 20.5 points and 6.3 rebounds.)
Everything started to get better when we started to get healthy.
We were 5-20 in our first 25 games, then 14-11 in our next 25 games, and a lot of that was about health. Getting Markelle Fultz back was a huge help. And a lot of other guys have gotten healthier. But I think once we got some wins and saw how we were winning, we realized we could sustain it.
Obviously, you have to have a certain level of focus to do it. But we saw in our six-game winning streak, the teams we were beating and the way we were beating them, that it wasn’t a fluke. I think that just kind of motivated us and . . .