Orlando Magic take on Miami Heat in miniseries with everything on the line

The Orlando Magic have nothing on the line but pride. The Miami Heat have playoff seeding on the line. It should prove a good test for this resurgent team.

Time/TV:

7 p.m./FSFlorida

Line:

Magic by 1

Season Series:

Heat 108, Magic 101 in Orlando on Dec. 26; Heat 108, Magic 97 in Miami on March 25; Tonight in Orlando; April 10 in Miami

The Orlando Magic have been eliminated from the Playoffs for nearly two weeks. The pressure that was placed on them to make the Playoffs was lifted and the team started rolling again.

Since that loss to Miami, Orlando has won four of six games and has started playing some of its best basketball of the season. Even Scott Skiles has had to admit his team is playing like a Playoff team — all the while wondering where this kind of play was when the games did matter.

Maintaining that to the end of the season remains the team’s goal. The Magic are not playing playoff games or anything that means much for the standings (outside of Lottery positioning, which the Magic are not that interested in either), but these games do mean something.

And that is where the weird quirk in the schedule comes in.

Friday and Sunday, the Orlando Magic will play the Miami Heat in a home and home — Friday in Orlando and Sunday in Miami. It affords at least some opportunity to play a somewhat simulated Playoff series, you would think.

The Heat will not be treating things that way, but they are in a position where they need to win every game with the Eastern Conference all bunched up the way it is.

The Magic? They are playing for their own pride. But with the same opponent coming back to back, there is an opportunity to simulate something of Playoff adjustments and prepare for the games in a similar fashion knowing Playoff intensity will exist in some fashion from them.

Perhaps the right approach is to keep the same focus — deal with the game at hand.

“To be honest, we are only focused on tonight,” Evan Fournier said. “After tonight’s game, we will be focused on the other one. Tonight is just Miami and we are going to give everything we can to win against them. We have struggled against them in the past, so we are going to make sure we give everything tonight.”

There will be some adjustments made of course. The Heat have handled the Magic fairly easily in the first two meetings.

Skiles said he will return Nikola Vucevic to the starting lineup after a brief stint off the bench following his return from a groin injury.

Fournier said the team will be focused on its defense and corralling Hassan Whiteside, who went for 26 points in the team’s last meeting a few weeks ago. The focus will also be to stay disciplined in pick and roll coverage to keep Dwyane Wade and Joe Johnson out of the lane.

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The Heat though are still just a very good team. Their standing in the Eastern Conference says it all. To get one win against them will be something of an accomplishment and a reason to believe this strong play is something more than a flash in the pan.

“Miami is playing really really well right now,” Skiles said. “In order to beat them once, we will have to play really well. To do it twice would be accomplishing something for sure.”

The Magic’s season will not make or break on the next two games. It is simply a measuring stick for Orlando’s focus in these final games and whether the team is engaged and looking to build momentum as it has said. The Magic have played some inspiring basketball since that last game with the Heat.

There is nothing really at stake here for Orlando except pride and professionalism.

But the Magic are still trying to grow something. How they play against the Heat these next two games could be a good sign of their progress. It certainly cannot hurt to watch this team continue to try to grow as the season winds down to its end.