Orlando Magic feasting on light part of schedule as they form their identity

The Orlando Magic’s start to the season was rough in every way. But they have turned a corner and are forming their identity while picking up wins.

The Orlando Magic have hit their groove in the last two weeks.

Coach Steve Clifford decried his team’s focus and attention to detail in a Nov. 2 loss to the LA Clippers. That finished off a four-game losing streak. The Magic seemed to be about as low as they could be. Their offense was bleak and the team was struggling to grasp the defensive focus the team would require to succeed.

It was not even 10 games into the season and it felt like the Magic were heading nowhere. The young players were not making the kind of progress the team wants. It seemed like a repeat of everything that happened before. And Jonathan Isaac spraining his ankle again only added to the feeling of dreaded deja vu.

Things change quickly though. The Magic have since burned off five wins in the last seven games. They had double-digit leads in both of those losses. They toppled the San Antonio Spurs on the road and the Philadelphia 76ers at home. They are playing inspired basketball.

The stats certainly back this up.

In the Magic’s first eight games, they had a league-worst 99.0 offensive rating (the only team scoring less than one point per 100 possessions) and they ranked 20th with a 111.0 defensive rating. Their -12.0 net rating was the second-worst in the league.

To put it simply, the Magic’s profile in the first eight games at 2-6 was of one of the very worst teams in the league.

That should give good context for the transformation the team has undergone in the last two weeks — all while playing seven games in the past 11 days.

In the next seven games — where the Magic have gone 5-2 — they are a much different team. Since Nov. 3, Orlando ranks 11th in offensive rating, scoring 110.0 points per 100 possessions, and 10th in defensive rating, allowing 105.2 points per 100 possessions. Their net rating of +4.9 points per 100 possessions is eighth in the league.

Orlando, in other words, has the profile of a pretty solid Playoff team in the last seven games.

Clifford has long said the goal for his team is to be top-10 defensively and top-half of the league in offense. The last seven games, the Magic have accomplished that. If they can continue this, the Playoffs should be a real part of the conversation.

If anything, this should give plenty of warning to everyone not to believe too much in early season stats or small sample sizes. Things can and do change very quickly.

The Magic are not likely as bad as those first eight games would suggest. They played an extremely difficult schedule to start the season — among the top 10 most difficult opening schedules by several metrics.

Using current records, Orlando played just one team with a record worse than .500 in that first eight-game stretch.

Survival at that early stage was the most important. The Magic did that.

But, by that same token, the Magic’s run in the last seven games is relatively tame. They are probably not as strong as they have looked lately.

The schedule has a lot to do with that. In the past seven games, Orlando has played just three teams with a record of .500 or better. To the Magic’s credit, they went 2-1 in those games, losing only to the Detroit Pistons.

Playoff teams find a way to feast on the worst teams in the league. The Orlando Magic have certainly done that, making a statistically improbable comeback against the Cleveland Cavaliers at home and burning off a 21-0 run to help come from behind to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers.

On a basic level, the Magic need to defeat these struggling teams to further establish themselves. Winning these games is a sign of the team’s seriousness of competing for a spot in the Playoffs. All wins count the same — games against the worst in the league and games against the best in the league.

The Magic are wracking up wins no matter how they get them. And the confidence to win games no matter the situation is permeating through the team right now. That confidence will be valuable moving forward.

Orlando certainly should expect themselves to perform better as the schedule gets tougher — and it is about to get tougher after this four-game homestand ends on Tuesday. Clifford is trying to raise expectations for this group internally and externally. And he nor the players will use their schedule as an excuse for wins or losses.

The question still remains which of these two teams the Magic are? Is the answer really about the strength of schedule the team has faced to this point?

Perhaps the simpler answer is the Magic have found their groove. The team is more comfortable with what Clifford is asking them to do and executing it at a higher level. Player roles and responsibilities have certainly clicked in for the Magic. And they are playing confidently right now.

It was important to play well through this portion of the schedule considering where the team was coming from and what lays ahead. Orlando has played exactly as they need to.

Orlando Magic

No one will deny the group still needs some work. The Magic have struggled to finish games playing with the lead. And the bench play has been inconsistent, to say the least. The two losses in this current stretch came when the bench could not produce anything outside of Terrence Ross.

The question undoubtedly left for the team is to find where its middle ground is between that rough start to the season and this strong answer so far. That part is uncertain for the team. And the next three weeks will go a long way to determining who the Magic are as a team. It should answer many of these questions.

The biggest question remains what kind of team the Magic will become. While the team has looked stronger defensively and offensively, the team is still putting down its roots. It is still hard to say what the Magic are best at. And it is still abundantly clear the Magic’s margin for error is small.

This is still a growing and developing team trying to learn how to win.

But there is a growing sense of comfort. That comfort has bred some confidence. And the team is thriving off that confidence.

That is a good place to build a foundation even if the schedule is light. The Magic are winning and played extremely well.

They have at least set a new expectation and standard they know they can reach.