Orlando Magic must defend their home floor next

The Orlando Magic have survived a difficult stretch in their schedule. Now they have to bank up some home games and defend the Amway Center.

Evan Fournier said he has not seen anything quite like what the Orlando Magic have gone through. And other players and members of the team will admit the Magic’s run through the first 29 games has been odd.

The split does not seem so bad. The Magic have played 13 road games, 14 home games and two games in Mexico City. It does not seem so bad from that perspective.

Then you look closer at the schedule and see a strange string of road games that have kept the Magic away from Amway Center for the majority of the last month. Starting with Thanksgiving (Nov. 22), the Magic have been away from Orlando for 18 of 24 days through Dec. 15 (the end of the Mexico City trip).

That is an unusually brutal stretch of days on the road. In the 11 games they played during that stretch, Orlando went 5-6. That is doing a pretty good job keeping their head above water.

But all the same, the team could not wait to be home. By the time Evan Fournier got home from Mexico City, he said his bed felt strange.

Nice, but strange.

"“How about that schedule? Oh my god,” Fournier said. “It’s the worst I’ve ever seen. It’s very important. Winning on the road is hard. Going west is always hard. You have to take advantage of every opportunity you have to win at home. Including Mexico City.”"

But the schedule marches on. There is no stop and the team is happy to get a little bit of a reprieve. Although it is not much of one.

The Magic play four of their next five games at home but then head back on the road for a tricky six-game road trip. By Jan. 10, the Magic will have gotten through perhaps the most difficult stretch of their schedule and have stayed in the Playoff race.

But that can fall apart quickly. The Magic know that better than anyone else. It happened three years ago when the team was riding high at 19-13 in January. Only to falter and win just two games in January. There is still a chance things fall apart.

And they will fall even further south if they cannot bank some wins at home at the Amway Center.

With that daunting road trip ahead, Orlando knows it has to be better at Amway Center. Much better than the team’s current 6-6 record.

"“Winning at home is very important,” Fournier said. “First of all to get the fans involved. Have a good showing at home. To build confidence. When you play for a good team, it’s a feeling they have to come here and we know we’re not going to lose that game. it’s huge for a team to know that you have it, it doesn’t matter who you’ve got.”"

Fournier would know. When he was with the Denver Nuggets his rookie year in 2013, the Nuggets secured the third seed in the Western Conference behind a 38-3 record at the Pepsi Center. Denver has always had a strong home record.

But that invincibility there was critical for the Nuggets in taking that leap into the Playoffs.

It is a familiar formula for any sports league. Win your home games, make up the difference on the road.

Coach Steve Clifford said typically to win 50 games, a team has to win half of its road games and then win 30 of the 41 home games. The Magic are not likely to hit that mark, he said, but the team has played a lot better on the road than it has at home to this point.

This year, the Magic have a 104.5 offensive rating and a 107.4 defensive rating. In home games (at the Amway Center, the Mexico City games still officially count as home games), the Magic have a 105.5 offensive rating and a 110.1 defensive rating.

Orlando’s offense has stayed consistently poor no matter where they play. It seems their defense only travels.

"“We’ve just got to put a full game together,” Aaron Gordon said. “That’s what we’re looking to do. We always love playing on the home floor. Nothing more beautiful than that.”"

This is all part of the things that have to change for the Magic during the holidays as the team plays a favorable schedule at home. This is the time to start banking up some wins to ride out to the Playoff push when the calendar turns.

And it is absolutely vital for the team to do so.

The Magic have made a living this year beating teams with below .500 records — 9-2 this year. That confidence and skill will serve the team well for the next two weeks.

This next stretch will see the Orlando Magic play host to the San Antonio Spurs (16-15) on Wednesday before a trip to play the Chicago Bulls (7-24). Then the Orlando Magic play four straight at home — vs. the now Goran Dragic-less Miami Heat (13-16, a game behind the Magic for the final Playoff spot), the Phoenix Suns (7-24), Toronto Raptors (23-9) and Detroit Pistons (14-14).

Outside of the Raptors game, the Magic are playing all opponents with similar or worse records on their home floor (except for the Bulls). If the Magic want to be a Playoff team, winning these kinds of games at home will be vital.

Because yes that tough schedule — a New Years’ Eve road trip that starts in Charlotte and meanders to the West Coast — is still ahead. The next week is vital to the Magic’s Playoff hopes.

"“It’s been difficult,” Clifford said of the team’s schedule so far. “The only thing is it also gets better for us. This next stretch is very difficult. It’s challenging, but it ends up being the same for everybody along the line. We have done a good job to hang in there and win the road games that we have.”"

Every team indeed goes through difficult stretches of the schedule it has to manage. The Magic’s rough spot happened to come early. The fact the team has stayed in the Playoff race through all of this is admirable and encouraging.

Every team’s schedule evens out in the end. There are 41 home* games and 41 road games for every team. There will be favorable stretches and tough stretches. And Orlando took care of that asterisk by winning its two “home” games in Mexico City.

At home, the Magic have struggled to take advantage of their opportunities. Statistics are beginning to show the home-court advantage is becoming less and less in the league. But there is still the basic logic of building momentum and comfort winning at home. It will still matter in April and May (if the Magic should get that far).

The Magic have struggled to win at home. And that has to change.