The Orlando Magic literally play more close games than anybody

The Orlando Magic have lamented a lot of late-game gaffes and misses. They have had plenty of opportunities, playing as many close games as anyone.

Much of the Orlando Magic’s season so far has been spent lamenting missed opportunities late in games. There have been more than a few late-game flubs and frustrations with clutch play.

Talk to the Magic or any Magic fan and they will point to the games that hung in the balance that the Magic could not take. Orlando has played in 21 games where the team is ahead or behind by three points in the final 10 seconds. They have gone 8-13 in those games, slightly below .500, but enough to dramatically affect their record.

There have been plenty of missed opportunities int he process.

Essentially, the Magic are a .500 team though. And .500 teams tend to play a lot of close games and close games tend to be 50/50 shots. A lot is left up to variability. And in watching this Magic game there has been a ton of variability.

That variability apparently goes much deeper than that.

Seth Partnow of Nylon Calculus ran the numbers and determined the Magic have played the largest percentage of their minutes in the league within nine points. The Magic are playing three quarters of their minutes through Feb. 23 within nine points. That number likely did not change much even with the losses to Golden State and New York since then.

It is admittedly an incomplete measure. Teams can hold large leads and give them up or slowly pull away. So it may not be a complete measure of how close Magic games are.

But taking that in tandem with the number of close final margins, it certainly signifies the Magic are good at giving themselves a chance to win games.

There are certainly some very interesting numbers Partnow found when combing through some of the data.

Orlando has actually been blown out — down by 20 points or more — only 4.2 percent of their minutes through Feb. 23, the fourth fewest in the league. So a game like Friday’s against the Knicks was really a huge anomaly.

The Magic actually lead for 46.3 percent of their minutes this season, right near the middle of the league in that category.

This is all to say the Magic are right there and have literally played as many close games as anyone in the league. They have given themselves plenty of chances to win and do better than their 25-32 record.

It is all really intangible for the Magic. Their inability to close tight games has been the biggest impediment to their season and the next step they have to take as a team to get to that next level.

Then again, Basketball-Reference has the team exactly where statistics say they should be. So maybe the Magic’s luck has not been so bad after all, they just do not have that extra oomph to turn close games into wins.

Next: Interior defense a problem for Orlando Magic

Right now, Orlando is just playing close games. And a lot of them. That should give the team a chance for a win at the end. The Magic just have to take them.