Now that the Orlando Magic have won five straight, what comes next in building off this momentum?
It is always easy to talk of how great things can be when they are going well. It is even easy to project how good a team could be.
But could we engage in letting ourselves dream as Orlando Magic fans now that the winning streak has run itself up to five games?
Is this the beginning of building a strong, legitimate stretch of season that can start to position Orlando for the Playoffs?
Yes, the season is still nearing its quarter mark, but Orlando has now won five straight and 11 of 16 since beginning the season 0-3.
All of the indications are present this is a good basketball team. And, for the first time since Dwight Howard’s departure, winning basketball has returned to Orlando as the team tallied its fifth straight win with a 103-94 victory over the Utah Jazz on Thursday night.
It almost feels like ages since the Magic were this formidable. Yet, Orlando overcame a half of flat basketball to come out in the second half and play inspired ball. The Magic were able to creep away from the Jazz at a point in which there had been 20 lead changes.
Super-sub Andrew Nicholson hit a pair of back-to-back threes and Evan Fournier rained in another as Orlando slipped by Utah to build an eight-point lead with five minutes to go.
The Magic held on, and this was another one of those wins which we got the feeling was an ‘L’ just a season ago. The Magic appeared flat and a little out of sync, but perfection did not have to be on the menu to get the win.
What has been different about this year’s iteration of the Magic?
It is almost difficult to pin point to any one thing, but some of the most notable differences have been:
1) Orlando has real depth now. Nicholson and Shabazz Napier are two of the most clutch bench performers and perhaps the envisioned neither as a meaningful player when the season began. Moving a star in Victor Oladipo to a sixth-man role has only further highlighted the second unit and helped Oladipo have one of his best weeks as a pro.
2) The Magic are holding one another accountable. Defensive rotations are being made. Guys are sacrificing their body to get the “50-50” balls. Hands are remaining high to get deflections. The Magic’s defense now resembles that of a club that can dig deep and get stops.
3) Balance. Unlike seasons past when the Magic relied on Nikola Vucevic to have a big game nearly every night, the Magic have spread the wealth around this season. Even with leading scorer Evan Fournier having a difficult one-point first half, Orlando hung in it at the intermission and Fournier came alive in the second.
4) And that means the Magic have sticking power. When things are not going perfectly, the Magic are still finding ways to keep opponents like the Jazz from sneaking away with it. The game was close the majority of the evening until Orlando crept away in the fourth quarter. The fact the Magic did it on the road was even more impressive, lifting Orlando to 4-5 on the road this season.
This quartet of real trends are forming the core of the changes behind the Magic. The balance was on great display in the win with Tobias Harris scoring 17, Fournier racking up 14 and Vucevic and Payton each managing 16 and 14, respectively. Nicholson and Oladipo led the bench with 14 a piece.
And the Magic kept their turnovers low with just 10. In games that are a drudge fest like this one, sometimes it is just keeping turnovers down that makes the difference. The Jazz had 19 turnovers and the battle of the boards was nearly a stalemate (Orlando plus-1).
There were plenty of chances for the Magic to blow this one like they could have Tuesday night, and instead the team pulls to 2-0 on its road trip and now sits three games above .500.
How much better can things get? What is the next step for Orlando?
That has to become the next point of focus, because there is being good, and then there is being better.
The Magic have edged out two relatively good clubs in the West in crunch time, and the next step is to see if it can knock off a potential contending level team in the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Clippers are just 10-9 this season, but in terms of talent the team is there on the cusp with the other great teams in the West.
If Orlando can extend its streak to six by beating Doc Rivers’ club, it will only serve as further notice to the league this Magic club is arriving far sooner than even the most optimistic expected. Slowing arguably the league’s best power forward Blake Griffin is no small task, but the Magic now have a much stronger team defense and a renewed sense of optimism sweeps the fan base.
Next: Magic Proving Size is Not Everything
It is almost as though we can hear the whispers in the rafters, “Why not us, why not now?”