The Orlando Magic were riding high a week ago. Then last week happened and things began to crater again. The biggest teases in the league fell again.
The Orlando Magic were riding high last week. They had won three of four games on their five-game road trip and had risen to third in the league in defensive rating.
This was a team building its identity and preparing for a Playoff push — all while during the most brutal stretch of their schedule.
Then, they dropped the ball. Or they let go of the rope. Or something happened — be it fatigue or overconfidence or whatever — that caused the Magic to fall once again.
Orlando lost three of the four games they played this week in a brutal four-games-in-five-nights stretch that concluded a string of eight games in 12 days. It was not just that they lost, it was the way they lost.
The Magic gave up 100 points in each of the four games they played last week, the first such stretch since the first four games of the season when they looked completely lost. The defense did not look completely lost, but it looked very ineffective.
Orlando fell from third in defensive rating out of the top 10 to 12th. Before anything else, the Magic will have to spend this week getting their defense back under control. And even that process will not be easy.
Orlando’s schedule refuses to lighten up. The Magic had a light practice Monday, their first practice in nearly two weeks, before they headed to Atlanta to play the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday. They get a back to back against the L.A. Clippers, as they start an East Coast road trip. And then they get the Brooklyn Nets on Friday and the Toronto Raptors on Sunday.
It is another busy and difficult week for the Magic. But Orlando has always responded from bad weeks with good weeks. That has been the process the entire season. They will need another good week and to build some momentum for the rest of the month to make a Playoff push.
For now, they remain a mystery in this week’s Power Rankings Roundup.