The Orlando Magic made a memorable and surprising run to their first playoff berth in seven years. They picked up several big wins along the way.
The opponent for the Orlando Magic’s final home game was not the biggest opponent they could face. It was not an opponent that demanded all of their attention.
The Orlando Magic had made quick work of the Atlanta Hawks in three previous meetings. This final home game was very much a playoff game for Orlando, but one the team could easily sleepwalk through. The fans would leave the game — win or lose — not knowing the team’s playoff fate. This very well could be their goodbye.
The Magic gave them a reason to cheer. And the fans superpowered the Magic to one of their best games of the season.
It became a celebration of the team in general. This last dance on the Amway Center floor. The Magic took care of business with a 36-point victory where they scored 149 points and topped 40 points in the first quarter. It was a romp.
The team would have to clinch its playoff spot on the road in one of the toughest environments. The game against the Boston Celtics started off rough too, down by double digits in the first half. Then things turned around and the team assured their first playoff berth in seven years.
The Magic got two more home games. That too became a celebration, although the Toronto Raptors sucked much of the energy and joy from that.
Those two games encapsulated the fun of the season. Orlando was along for the ride.
And the Magic took their fans for a ride. It was a completely new and different season. Something the team has not experienced in nearly a decade. A playoff berth was a worthy reward. The prize at the end of the road.
The rebuild is not over by any means. The team still has a lot of work to do to build for its future.
But this season was special. There are very few seasons where the Magic truly surprise everyone. Those end up becoming the most memorable seasons in franchise history — the 1995 Finals run, the 2000 Heart and Hustle team, the 2008 Southeast Division championship and 2009 Finals run. This season will take its place among them.
Unlike years past, there are no moral victories (or very few) among the most memorable games. There are games that will resonate with fans for a long, long time.
Honorable Mentions
Oct. 22 at Boston Celtics: One of the Orlando Magic’s best early wins, it was memorable more for the finish. Jonathan Isaac scored a career-high 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. That included the clinching basket, a pump fake at the 3-point line into a step-in mid-range jumper. The second-year player hit it calmly and professionally and delivered a big win for the team.
Nov. 17 vs. Los Angeles Lakers & Nov. 25 at Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James is still clearly one of the best players in the NBA. Beating his team is still a big deal. The Magic simply had the Lakers’ number. Nikola Vucevic scored 36 points in the Magic’s win at Amway Center and then 31 in the win at Staples Center as the Magic swept the Lakers for the first time since 2009.
Dec. 15: vs. Utah Jazz (Mexico City): The Orlando Magic played two ugly games in Mexico City, outlasting the Chicago Bulls in the fourth quarter. They needed another gritty fourth quarter to defeat the Jazz in the second game. That was no easy task and the team really started to build its defensive identity in these two games.
Dec. 30 vs. Detroit Pistons: Evan Fournier has built a nice cache of clutch moments and play. He added a few of those this year. One of them was a brilliant runner to help the Magic defeat the Pistons in a late December matchup.
Jan. 31 vs. Indiana Pacers & March 2 at Indiana Pacers: Both of these games followed a familiar pattern. The Magic were toe-to-toe with the Pacers through three quarters and then used a strong fourth quarter — powered by Terrence Ross — to put the game away and get a win against a playoff-quality opponent.
Feb. 2 vs. Brooklyn Nets: The Magic suffered two crushing losses to the Nets in the previous three weeks — blowing a 20-point lead at home and then losing on a Nikola Vucevic offensive interference. This game, the Magic left no doubt, winning it in the fourth quarter and winning a big game against a playoff competitor.
Feb. 10 at Atlanta Hawks: In one play, Jonathan Isaac announced what he could do defensively, blocking John Collins three times and striking fear into him. Collins was never the same when Isaac was around. And Orlando continued its mastery over Atlanta.
10. The Impossible Comeback
Nov. 5: Magic 102, Cavaliers 100
The Orlando Magic were down by five points to the Cleveland Cavaliers with 40 seconds left after J.R. Smith hit one of his usual difficult 3-pointers. Orlando was following up a huge road win against the San Antonio Spurs with a letdown against a team that was already looking like one of the worst in the league.
Orlando’s effort was inconsistent at best throughout the game but their chances to win were slipping away. According to the site Inpredictable, a team with a five-point deficit and the ball has a 2.7 percent chance of winning.
After Evan Fournier missed a shot, things looked a bit bleaker. But Aaron Gordon somehow dug out the rebound and returned it to a one-possession game. Orlando would still need some help.
Aaron Gordon’s make to cut the deficit to three led to a mid-court turnover from Cedi Osman and a take foul to D.J. Augustin. His two free throws cut the deficit to one. Then with 16.6 seconds left, Kyle Korver turned the ball over. Evan Fournier tied the game after splitting a pair of free throws.
Nikola Vucevic blocked a shot out of bounds off a Cavaliers player. And Fournier did the rest, hitting a jumper at the buzzer to deliver a win.
This is the exact situation the Magic have found themselves in so many times in the last six years. The kind of games the Magic would seemingly give away despite an almost near certainty they would win it.
These heartbreaking losses were as much a sign of how poor things were going for the Magic overall as much as anything else. Coming back to win this one was the first signs that things were going to be different.
The Magic were beginning to change.
9. Opening Night
Oct. 17: Magic 104, Heat 101
Opening night always brings with it a certain amount of excitement. No one ever really knows what to expect and there is always the hope things will be different and better.
After six years out of the playoffs, fans still show up in droves for opening night to see if the team will bring something new. They usually can decipher pretty quickly if anything has changed.
A third straight year opening the season at home against the hated Miami Heat always supercharges the atmosphere too. The Magic certainly felt it.
The opening night game saw a lot of the same themes from years past, including the optimism that comes from the early season. Aaron Gordon scored 26 points and looked ready to take over the scoring load for the Magic. The team played with energy and verve.
In the third and fourth quarters, rookie Mohamed Bamba seemed to take over the game on his way to 13 points, seven rebounds and two blocks in his NBA debut. It looked like the future was on full display now.
Of course, things are never that easy. The Magic looked nervy down the stretch, giving up a late lead and giving the Heat a chance to tie the game on the final possession. But Josh Richardson stepped out of bounds thanks to some strong defense from Aaron Gordon. Orlando would survive. They would get to 1-0.
How the team might piece together in the next 81 games was still a mystery. The team would come back to earth and many of the initial storylines we thought we understood after that first game ended up not coming true. Who knew this would be Nikola Vucevic’s worst game of the season?
But this was a triumphant moment for the Magic. It was the beginning of something big.
8. Home Finale
April 5: Magic 149, Hawks 113
There are rare moments for celebration in the course of a season. Especially when the season is still very much on the line. At the end of the season, everyone is wrapped up in their nerves over every moment and every game.
The Orlando Magic’s schedule did them no favors, sending them on the road for their final two games. They had not yet clinched a playoff spot when they played their final home game. And even against the Atlanta Hawks, fans wanted to give the team the proper send off and appreciation.
The Magic put on a show and the fans seemed to make it even better for them.
Orlando scored a season-high 149 points. The team dropped 42 points in the first quarter and 81 in the first half. The Magic did whatever they wanted offensive and defensively dominating in every phase of the game.
Among the many highlights was D.J. Augustin faking out Trae Young, and continuing to needle him in their ongoing rivalry.
The Magic put together a performance that was worthy of the season they put together. The fans got their chance to celebrate the team in what would become the last home game.
It was also a clear performance that showed the Magic were playoff-bound. It showed the fans were playoff-ready too. The energy in the building quickly turned from nervousness to surety to dominance. The team wrapped up its regular season schedule at the Amway Center in glory.
No one could go home unhappy. . . no matter what happened in those final two games.
The Magic would take care of their business and clinch a playoff spot the next game. Giving their fans what they had been waiting for so long — two more playoff games.
7. Dethroning the champs
Feb. 28: Magic 103, Warriors 96
Over the years, the Orlando Magic have had some close calls against the Golden State Warriors. Earlier in the year, the Magic opened up a 16-point lead over the Warriors in Oakland and seemed poised to steal a game from the defending champions. Then Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant happened and Orlando had to lick its wounds.
That game was played without Stephen Curry. When Golden State came to the Amway Center, he would be back in the lineup but Durant would not. DeMarcus Cousins was back in the lineup too.
The Warriors were doing their thing for parts of this game too. The Magic lost track of Stephen Curry on several occasions and DeMarcus Cousins started to look spry, attacking Nikola Vucevic in the post and running the floor like a guard.
Golden State had an 11-point lead after the third quarter. The team’s record in those situations is downright silly. The Warriors do not lose when they lead by that much.
But then the Magic buckled down. They held the Warriors to 15 points in the fourth quarter and scored 33 to take the game.
Aaron Gordon hit a 3-pointer midway through the quarter to give the Magic the lead for good. And Orlando made big play after big play to ice the game away.
The Magic were not quite in playoff mode yet. They were still starting to rev up at this point of the season. The team was beginning to galvanize.
This win was a big part of that. If there was a moment when you could start to entertain the idea of late-April basketball, this game was it. A hard-fought, gutsy win over the defending champions (as depleted as they were). Those kinds of wins carry momentum and confidence.
The Magic were about to get rolling.
6. Weekend at home
Jan. 12: Magic 105, Celtics 103
Jan. 13: Magic 116, Rockets 109
Home back-to-backs are rare in the NBA. The Orlando Magic had three of them this season. But none seemed more daunting than the one the team faced in early January.
After going on a five-game road trip to the West Coast — going 1-5 with double-digit leads in three of those losses — the team returned home to face the Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets. On paper, that looked extremely daunting. This weekend had a chance to be the final nail in the coffin for the Magic’s season.
Orlando Magic
Instead, it became something of a turning point. The team dug deep and delivered two memorable performances.
David Steele and Jeff Turner on the FOX Sports Florida telecasts would often point to this weekend pair of wins as the turning point in the season. That was the first time Orlando had to make a stand to save its season.
Neither of these games was perfectly clean. The Magic took a big lead late in the win over the Celtics only to see Kyrie Irving lead the team back. Orlando’s win was more relief than anything else as the offense faltered. The game became more famous for Kyrie Irving yelling on the court at Gordon Hayward for not getting him the ball for the final shot.
The loss was emblematic of all the problems the Celtics experienced throughout the season. The Magic just had their number.
The win over the Rockets was something much more impressive.
James Harden had an incredible game, scoring 38 points, dishing out 12 assists and grabbing nine rebounds. Austin Rivers returned home and scored 25. That all feels like the formula for the Rockets to win.
But the Magic erased a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter and found a way to win. This may not have been the true turning point in the season, but it was a big moment. It was a big moment where the Magic began to believe they could win any game and beat any opponent.
After this weekend, the playoffs were very clearly a possibility for this team. As the Magic tried to change their culture, they needed to realize they were this good. Here was proof positive.
5. Comeback for the ages
March 22: Magic 123, Grizzlies 119, OT
The Orlando Magic could not afford a loss here. They lost to the Memphis Grizzlies in a frustrating loss on the road. This late in the season, the team could not afford to lose games to teams at the bottom of the standings.
Orlando had taken care of its business during this homestand to that point. But the team was not playing with the same attention to detail they had before. The Magic were relying too much on their offense and allowing the Grizzlies free reign in their paint. This was not who they are.
Trailing by 17 points in the third quarter, it felt like a lot was lost. The momentum of the homestand and the bubbling crowd curious if this team had a playoff berth were all on the line.
And then the team started to rumble a bit. Terrence Ross started hitting shots and the team started to get itself going.
Suddenly the crowd was alive. And momentum built and built and built. Evan Fournier would hit a shot to force overtime and the Magic had to close down another deficit to win in overtime. It was a big moment.
After the game, coach Steve Clifford started his press conference by saying he told his team this was the first time they experienced what the Magic’s home crowd can do for them. It was the first time they played in a playoff atmosphere in the Amway Center.
For sure too, the Magic experienced the desperation they would need in the playoffs at the end of the day. Their lives were on the line and they rose to the challenge to get a critical and confidence-boosting win.
4. Birth of The Human Torch
Nov. 14: Magic 111, 76ers 106
Early in the season, it is still hard to figure out what is real and what is noise. But patterns start to get developed and storylines start to form. Fans start to connect with the team and excitement can build.
The Nov. 14 game against the Philadelphia 76ers was a turning point in a lot of ways. Sure, the 76ers had just acquired Jimmy Butler and were adjusting to him on the fly. But this was still one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. A team that beat the Magic a few weeks ago on a last-second shot from J.J. Redick.
That game was the seedling for a legend though. Terrence Ross scored 15 points in that first meeting early in the season with the 76ers with a lot of them in a wild fourth-quarter comeback. He hit a shot from near half-court to tie the game with a little more than a minute to play.
What was becoming clear about Ross was he could get hot at any moment and that could completely change the tenor of a game. The Magic have not had a player like that in a really long time.
This game against the 76ers was the first time Ross did it in a big win. This was the game that felt like the spiritual origin of “The Human Torch.” He hit the game-winning 3-pointer late in the game and let out a celebration that would become iconic.
This was a big confidence-building game for the team. A big win over what many believed would be an elite team with so many things going on was a huge sign of what this team could accomplish.
This was also the game where Jonathan Isaac erased a Joel Embiid dunk. That play was as much a spark for the eventual win as anything else. The game showed the Magic’s potential and reset some expectations even at this early stage of the season.
3. The Clinching Win
April 7: Magic 116, Celtics 108
The afternoon games could not have gone worse for the Orlando Magic it seemed. Things in other games were breaking both right for the Magic and wrong. With no more home games remaining, the team had control over its destiny but no one felt comfortable.
The Toronto Raptors took the Miami Heat out of the running earlier in the day. But the Charlotte Hornets defeated the Detroit Pistons putting them in a prime position to make the season finale between the two teams a play-in game.
That is if the Orlando Magic did not defeat the Boston Celtics in the penultimate game. The Celtics had plenty to play for too and they were rolling as the playoffs approached.
That was plenty evident when Boston took a double-digit lead in the first half. The moment was starting to feel big for Orlando. The pressure was growing and that play-in game on the season’s final day was feeling like a real possibility.
No one should have doubted this Magic team by this point. All that worry and concern quickly receded. Orlando came back. The Magic took the lead and started to outpace and run away from the Celtics.
Orlando took care of its own business and clinched its playoff spot with a game to go. The excitement was palpable off the bench as the Magic celebrated on the TD Garden floor (home to many great Magic moments actually). Orlando had made the playoffs.
This game was emblematic of the identity they had taken on throughout the entire postseason push to end the season.
They found themselves down and kept grinding and finding a way. There was no nervousness or lack of composure. And when the opportunity came, the Magic pounced and took control of the game. This was the moment they became a playoff team officially, but they were already playing that way.
Back home, fans were excited. They had their playoff team. And that is a night Magic fans will remember for a very long time.
2. Putting the Heat to bed
March 26: Magic 104, Heat 99
In January, the Miami Heat came to the Amway Center and blew out the Orlando Magic. The Heat looked like they would be the team headed to the playoffs. If the Magic were going to right the ship, they already needed one date circled on their calendar. Their final game against the Miami Heat in late March.
The game would be for the season series and the tiebreaker between the teams. It had all the trappings of a playoff atmosphere too — Chris Bosh‘s jersey retirement ceremony was scheduled for that day. As the game got closer and closer, the enormity of the game quickly grew too.
The Heat were fighting to stay alive in the playoff race as much as the Magic were at this point. A win for Orlando would almost completely bury Miami and put Orlando in the driver’s seat entering the season’s final weeks. The Magic’s road ahead was still difficult, but this would give the team a little bit of cushion.
With all the hoopla and energy in the building, the Heat were able to blitz the Magic. They went up by 17 points in the first half. Orlando was looking dead in the water and a little overwhelmed by the road atmosphere.
The long halftime break to honor Bosh may have helped the Magic. The Heat sat and watched the franchise honor one of their all-time greats. The Magic got more time to prepare and focus on the game.
The second half was all Orlando. It felt like a rout from that point on and the Magic were able to rise to the occasion. It was far from the first time they looked like a playoff team. But on the road in a hostile environment in a game that mattered, the Magic stepped up to the plate.
Even with the Heat making one last run and Dwyane Wade trying his best to turn back the clock, the Magic closed the door. Whether it was Jonathan Isaac keeping his confidence or Terrence Ross draining shots or Nikola Vucevic keeping his consistency, the Magic had their big win.
They had their path to the playoffs in their own hands with an ace in the hole.
1. Return to the Playoffs
April 13: Magic 104, Raptors 101
The Orlando Magic waited seven years to make the playoffs. It was a long journey to get back to the postseason, even to experience a short first-round series.
As the Magic won games throughout the season and finally clinched a spot, you could sense the feeling of accomplishment they had. They did it in this place together after all the years many of these players have been together struggling even to string together two wins in a row.
There was still some feeling of disbelief among the fan base who gleefully joined the ride. There was certainly still some disbelief among basketball fans.
Orlando was still fairly easy to dismiss — just as many dismissed Nikola Vucevic’s presence on the All-Star team. Sure this team won 42 games and the seventh seed, but the Magic still had this “odd-man-out” feeling to them.
The matchup with the Toronto Raptors was always going to be a tough one. Even though Orlando matched up well with Toronto in the regular season, it was not going to be easy to ratchet things up for the playoffs.
The Magic could have played like they were simply happy to be in the playoffs. Coach Steve Clifford always told his team to push for more. They were never truly satisfied.
Game 1 was not easy by any means. The Magic took an early lead and forced the Raptors to make the first adjustment of the series, switching Danny Green on D.J. Augustin after he scored 19 points in the first half.
Toronto took control in the second half and Orlando had to rally. That is what the Magic were good at, if you could not tell from this list already.
With the game on the line and Kawhi Leonard pouring in tough shot after tough shot, the Magic made big plays. Nikola Vucevic struggled to score but whipped the ball to Jonathan Isaac and then to Aaron Gordon for two big 3-pointers. Evan Fournier got a big steal for a layup to give the Magic a late lead. Augustin slithered through the lane for a layup at a critical moment — two of his five second-half points.
Those final three came on the biggest play of the game.
Then with the game tied on the final possession, Augustin made the smart play. He read the defense perfectly and drained the game-winning 3-pointer.
Orlando proved they belonged in the playoffs and delivered an iconic moment. The moment that will replay from this season over and over again in Magic history.
Augustin’s shot will stay with the team for a long time, putting him in the pantheon of Magic players. He will always have a home in Orlando for that shot. Just like so many members of this team will forever have a home in Orlando.
The rest of the playoff series hurt. The loss woke the Raptors up and life was much more difficult for the Magic the following four games.
But Orlando will always have this moment. The ecstasy of returning to the playoffs and taking that first game. That feeling will never go away.