5 Orlando Magic games that should get flexed onto national TV

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Evan Fournier, Orlando Magic, James Harden, Houston Rockets

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Dec. 13 vs. Houston Rockets

The Orlando Magic’s hopes to get national TV games will rely on their opponent at the moment. The games you want to target to put on national TV need a bit of national sizzle since Orlando is not quite a nationally relevant team.

Without an All-Star and a winning pedigree, it is always a fight to get notice and attention. Seemingly the only way to do that would be to win these high-profile games.

Unfortunately for Orlando, a lot of the team’s interesting matchups occur on nights where there are some legitimately good games that would be impossible to move off national TV. As much fun as the Orlando Magic playing the Philadelphia 76ers with the potential Markelle Fultz reunion occurring, the days those games fall on the schedule do not make sense.

Orlando’s lone trip to Philadelphia takes place April 5. It is hard seeing that game displacing the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks on ABC. At least all three Magic-Sixers game got NBATV nods.

So the options are a bit limited. And the matchup between the Orlando Magic and the Houston Rockets has a solid bit of history to it. And it is not just the mid-1990s.

Last year, the Magic shocked the Rockets at the Amway Center with a 116-109 win. That was one of the best wins for the Magic throughout the season. One that previewed the team’s turnaround.

The game at Houston did not go Orlando’s way but was equally exciting.

Orlando Magic /

Orlando Magic

Harden scored 40 points in that game, including a crushing shot that sealed the game in the Rockets’ 103-98 win. Not to mention, we are still two years removed from Harden’s 50-point triple-double, one of the first in league history, against the Magic.

Who would not want to see Harden go up against one of the best defenses in the league? Especially now with his running buddy.

Russell Westbrook has put up some killer games against the Magic in the past. Last year, he averaged 19.5 points, 14.5 rebounds and 15.0 assists per game in his two matchups with the Magic. Those numbers are fairly tame to what he has put up in Orlando.

For whatever reason, Westbrook has had some of his most classic games and performances against Orlando.

This would be a very good game to put on national TV, although perhaps a bit early in the season to replace a game on the national TV schedule. The Los Angeles Lakers, fresh off their game against the Orlando Magic, will be in South Florida to take on the Miami Heat in the early game that evening.

That has some juice with LeBron James returning to Miami to play Jimmy Butler. The star power is probably too much to overcome.