Orlando Magic find inspiration, confidence facing Philadelphia 76ers
The Orlando Magic are still fighting to right their season and make a Playoff push. It starts with taking inspiration and confidence from Thursday’s foe.
Orlando Magic coach Frank Vogel continues to preach to his team that one long win streak can get the team back into the Playoff race. Things do seem bleak with Orlando trailing the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference by 5.5 games with 28 games to play. If the Detroit Pistons’ 38-win pace continues, the Magic would have to go 18-10 the rest of the season.
That seems to be a tall order considering the Magic have not won consecutive games since Dec. 23 and 26. Orlando has struggled to build some momentum and pick up the wins they need to remain in the Playoff race.
And with just four games remaining before the All-Star Break and the trade deadline, the time to build some momentum is running short. And injuries now too are beginning to take their toll with Aaron Gordon out for Thursday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers and listed as day to day with a bone bruise in his right foot.
That might be why Thursday’s opponent might be a cure for the team’s ailments this season. It might be why playing the Joel Embiid-less Sixers presents an opportunity to gain some confidence.
It will not be easy still, but there is a sense of confidence even against an improved Sixers team the Magic have already defeated twice.
“A little bit of extra confidence,” Elfrid Payton said. “But every game is different. We have to come in with the right approach and be ready to go.”
The Magic have defeated two teams this year twice — the Philadelphia 76ers and Washington Wizards. Both those games went different ways too.
In Orlando’s first meeting with Philadelphia, the team fell behind big early and rallied for a 103-101 victory, winning the game on a Serge Ibaka flagrant foul and his subsequent free throws.
The second meeting came in the midst of the Magic’s East Coast road trip and was perhaps their most complete and best performance of the season. Orlando routed Philadelphia 105-88, holding to Philadelphia to 37.9 percent shooting.
Both games, the Magic dug down and had to find some resolve before turning the jets on and securing the win. The Magic have a +9.1 net rating (107.8 offensive rating and 98.7 defensive rating) against the 76ers this year. Joel Embiid played — and dominated — in both games, but Orlando still proved to be the better team.
That should provide some confidence. But also a warning.
The Sixers are a team that knows they have a talent deficit and play hard to make that up. It is a big reason why this Sixers’ team is different than teams of the past.
And the Magic know the Sixers can surprise and bite a team that is not prepared. Philadelphia has won at least one game in Orlando the last two years and has beaten Orlando at least once in every season of “The Process.”
“Philly is a team that plays really hard,” Evan Fournier said. “It’s never easy and fun to play against the Sixers. They play really hard. They’ve got a lot of veterans now. I thought Ersan [Ilyasova] did a lot of good things for them. It’s another game that we have to defend to win and protect the home court.”
The Magic will not be able to rest on their laurels. They are a different team than those first meeting.
And so are the 76ers. A lot has changed since Orlando last saw Philadelphia. The Sixers had a stellar January where they won 10 of 15 games. They were the story of January and even passed the Magic in the standings.
The Sixers have fallen back to earth some since then, losing the first five games of February. Embiid’s injury has played a role in that.
Still, the Sixers’ surprise January and run up the standings to the point there were some Playoff whispers, along with the Miami Heat’s 12-game win streak, creates some inspiration for the Magic that they can pull things together.
“We’re going to stay in this fight,” Vogel said. “There is still a lot of basketball to be played. We’re going to take it one game at a time and try to get back into this thing.”
Orlando Magic
The first thing the team has to do — and this is a repeated message — is to defend well and pick up a win against the 76ers. Any type of win streak is going to come from getting one win after the other.
Vogel recalled during the 2015 season with the Indiana Pacers, his team was far out of the Playoff race before going on a six-game win streak to end the season, losing on the last day of the season to miss out on the Playoffs.
That 2015 team, where Paul George was out following his broken leg during USA Basketball prep in the summer, was 21-33 through 54 games and finished at 38 wins. They missed the Playoffs that year because of a loss on the final day of the season.
A comeback like that is not completely impossible.
Of course, through 54 games, that Pacers team was 11th in defensive rating, whereas the Magic are in the bottom 10 in both offensive and defensive rating this season. That Indiana team had an identity to hang their hat on that eventually came through in putting together a win streak. Orlando would have to change some long-running trends to do that.
It all starts with taking on this resurgent 76ers team Thursday. And even that part will not be easy.
Philadelphia have changed much of its fortunes. And that serves as an inspiration for what the Magic might be able to do. . . and a warning to be sharp to get that win to begin stepping toward change.
“They are playing much better now than then,” Nikola Vucevic said. “They showed that with the wins they have had. They have some good players and they have been playing much better. We definitely have to be at our best to beat them tonight. We also have in past years lost to them at home. We have to be at our best. Although they are a young team, but they fight until the end. They are going to give it all.”
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If the Magic can match, they can begin getting back on the right track and try to make one final push.