The Orlando Magic are readying for their first playoff berth in seven years. As they prepare for whomever they play, they will have to adjust to succeed.
The Orlando Magic are inching closer and closer to the playoffs.
The team is officially in the field and can begin talking and thinking about their playoff strategy in a serious way. Regardless of who they will end up matching up with, Orlando should already be able to see where they will have to fill in gaps and plan for.
They can anticipate the counters they will already have to make.
The Magic have taken control of the league behind a dominant defense. That is the core of everything they do. That feeds their offense — as much as their offense feeds their energy on defense.
Core identities do not change when the playoffs come around. Teams are who they are and it is impossible to change those principles in the short time before the regular season and the postseason. Doing so could throw a team completely out of whack too.
But it is also undoubted the playoffs are a different animal. Teams have the ability to focus in on a single team and tweak their strategy to exploit every weakness.
There is not only the pressure that comes with every possession carrying much more weight and importance — not to mention the national attention and television schedule — but also the focus that other teams can put on the games.
Winning in the regular season is about consistency and repetition. What can you do every day reliably, even on your worst nights?
The playoffs are about finding every little crevice to squeeze through to get a win and stepping up to the plate when the pressure is down.
The Magic have never gone through this pressure. And as a team scratching and clawing just to get into the field will face an uphill climb to win a playoff series. They will face the best teams in the Eastern Conference no matter where they end up.
That will be a tall task. But every series starts 0-0 and goes through its own twists and turns. The Magic have to enter the series believing they can win.
A big part of the Magic’s struggle this season has been lowering the team’s margin for error. The Magic will have their work cut out for them when they get to the playoffs. And a playoff series tends to expose all of a team’s weaknesses.
When the Magic get into the playoffs, coach Steve Clifford immediately is going to have a plan and a counter for several weaknesses their strong opponent is likely to try to exploit.
The Magic may be well on their way to the playoffs but the work to get ready for Game 1 is just beginning. And Orlando has to account for these weaknesses immediately.