The Orlando Magic have backed themselves in a corner to make the final seed in the Eastern Conference. If they have that dog in them they will come out fighting these last ten games.
The truth will set you free.
And the truth is we still do not know if this Orlando Magic team is a Playoff caliber team or not. But we are about to find out within the next 10 games. That is all the time the Magic have left to prove their worth.
There is no room for error for them. They trail the final Playoff spot by 1.5 games and their once “light” schedule is about to get tougher with a four-game road trip featuring all teams in the Playoff picture.
The Magic have 10 games to prove themselves and the world they can shed their inconsistent label. They have 10 games to prove they are the team that can beat anyone in the league — the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics still loom on the schedule. And they have 10 games to prove they can take care of business against the teams they should beat — like Friday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies or the home schedule-closing games against the Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks.
These 10 games are where they will truly prove they are worthy of making the Playoffs. One slip up could mean the dream dies with ground still to make up.
To prove their worth, the Magic’s best players have to show up and show out if they truly want to call themselves a Playoff contender in the East.
The Magic do deserve credit though.
Before the season began most pundits and critics believed the Magic would fall woefully short even in the Eastern Conference. Orlando’s Las Vegas over/under was set at 30 wins. The team has blown well past that to hit 35, tying the best mark since the rebuild began.
The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook released complete odds for every team to either reach or fall short of the 2018 NBA playoffs. They had the Magic chances to make the Playoffs at -700.
Sometimes Vegas can be wrong, it is not a perfect science. They had the Brooklyn Nets’ odds to make the Playoffs at -4000. If the Playoffs started today they would currently be the 7th seed.
The Eastern Conference has proven much more competitive than anyone expected it to be in 2019 from top to bottom. And yet the Magic are still well within the playoff race.
But the Magic have work to do. As of today, Vegas is right, the Magic are on the outside looking into the Playoffs. FiveThirtyEight projects the Eastern Conference’s eighth seed will finish with 40 wins. That means the Magic would have to win six of its final 10 games to make the Playoffs.
Winning 70 percent of their remaining games and reaching .500 would almost assuredly give Orlando the playoff berth that has eluded the franchise since Dwight Howard left in 2012.
Easier said than done. Especially when you are not sure which Magic team will show up and play. Making matters more difficult, the Magic are slated to play against six Playoff teams in those final 10 games including that aforementioned four-game road trip.
It is a tough road ahead for the Magic, for sure. Even though FiveThirtyEight gives Orlando a 53 percent chance of making the Playoffs, it still projects the team to finish outside the Playoff picture. By a single game.
I am not sure that even a die-hard Magic fan would expect the Magic to win seven of the final 10 games and make that kind of run. Especially with this kind of schedule.
Whether the team can go on this run and keep pace in the Playoff race is a question left to the team’s leaders.
Coach Steve Clifford, Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon, Evan Fournier and Jonathan Issac will need to answer this with every game as they enter the point where every game feels like a must win.
The Orlando Magic still need help, trailing the Miami Heat by 1.5 games for that final Playoff spot. Any slip on the way in could be costly and leaov big to climb out of. And the game Tuesday in Miami looms especially large.
These next 10 games are extremely important for this young group. The Magic have been coming up short for their entire tenure in Orlando. A Playoff berth cements the success of this group.
And there is simply no margin for error anymore.