The Orlando Magic will open a season-long five-game homestand Friday. With the team struggling, now is the time to right the ship, or things could get ugly.
As the Orlando Magic made their run to the NBA Playoffs last year, they built a lot of their momentum at the Amway Center. They avenged some terrible losses and established a home court that would be tough to play at.
The key to that final playoff push was sweeping a five-game homestand, including a 21-point win over the Philadelphia 76ers, and winning the final nine games the team played at home before the playoffs.
Defending the Amway Center was one of the team’s big goals last year and remains one of the team’s big goals this year. The Magic will get plenty of chances to stack up home wins as the season comes to a close.
March and April dreams though are in jeopardy.
Orlando is off to an uninspiring 2-6 start. And while that is the same start the Magic faced last year, the expectations and context are certainly different.
The team’s offense still seems stuck in a slumber and the Magic are dropping close games they characteristically won last year. This is not the same team as last year. They are facing new challenges they are struggling to overcome.
All that is to say, a simple look at the early-season standings shows the Magic sitting at 2-6 and 14th in the Eastern Conference. Things are not going well, even if it is still early.
It feels like this is an urgent time for the team. It is an urgent time of the year.
Orlando has a five-game homestand. And while the pressure of the end of the season is not upon them, this feels like a moment where the Magic will either right the ship or sink further down, perhaps in a way they cannot recover.
The season may very well turn in the next five games. It certainly will set its path.
And if Orlando wants to make the playoffs they need to play with the urgency that their season is on the line in the next five games. The Magic have to get themselves going now.
That may induce some panic. It is probably not time to hit the alarm yet.
Orlando is only 1.5 games out of the final playoff spot with a mere 74 games to go. It is still far too early to make final judgments on this or any team. There is still plenty of time to turn things around and make a run to establish playoff positioning.
The Magic are still discovering the rotations they need to use and how they need to play to find success. Orlando has certainly found that formula defensively for the most part. But the results have not followed.
For a team with playoff aspirations — and maybe more — it is the results that matter. And at some point, the Magic need to see those results turn. This homestand could prove to be a critical point in the season.
The teams the Magic see on this homestand are not necessarily easy. But the schedule is at least manageable.
It starts Friday against dynamic rookie Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies (2-5). Then the team takes on fellow playoff competitors in the Indiana Pacers (4-4) on Sunday. The Orlando Magic get a stiffer challenge in the Philadelphia 76ers (5-2) next Wednesday. They close the homestand next Friday against the always challenging San Antonio Spurs (4-3) and the struggling Washington Wizards (2-5) next Sunday.
In all, it is a manageable homestand with teams the Magic should feel they can compete with. At least by preseason predictions, these are all teams (except for the 76ers) who the Magic should feel they are better than or competing with for those final playoff spots.
In other words, these are the teams the Magic have to beat if they ultimately want to make the playoffs.
But, of course, the game is not played on paper. Nor is it played on preseason predictions. And the Orlando cannot count on anything as automatic.
The Magic still have to sort through the league’s worst offense (96.6 points per 100 possessions, nearly four points per 100 possessions worse than the 29th team). The team still has to focus a lot on itself and getting itself right. That is what this homestand has to be about.
But the Magic should feel confident they can win if they can. And they will have to if they want to make that playoff push, avoiding the mad dash they had last year.
Evan Fournier said after one of the team’s early-season games that the offense was not executing at a high enough level. He mused one of the reasons might have been the lack of urgency. They know there is a long season ahead and so the intensity has not ramped up on the court quite yet.
Everyone would admit the Magic are not as good as they are going to be quite yet. Coach Steve Clifford’s goal remains to be better each day and each game, progressing to their final form by the playoffs.
It is not that Orlando is easing into the season. But naturally, the team knows there is still time to get things right. They can still sharpen up and make their run.
But if the team needs to feel a little pressure to get into shape, here is the pressure.
This homestand will be vital to the course the rest of this season takes and building the confidence that will be needed to get through a difficult December and January.
The Magic have to win on this homestand. That should make things urgent enough.
Realistically, Orlando will not be eliminated from the playoffs if they struggle in the next two weeks. But the Magic will find it a taller order if the team cannot win in this stretch and make up some lost ground.
After the Magic complete this five-game homestand, they will play a four-game road trip against the Toronto Raptors, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers. Another fairly manageable road trip against several teams Orlando should feel competitive with.
This is a spot that will challenge the Magic but will give them the opportunity to get back to .500.
The schedule will see Orlando play a lot of home games before that first West Coast trip in mid-December. In all, 10 of the next 17 games for the Magic are at Amway Center. This is why the team had to feel like it needed to build an early cushion of wins to set itself up for a playoff run.
So far the Magic have not done that. So far the Magic have struggled with these early tests. If, as John Hollinger recently mused for The Athletic, teams really find themselves between Halloween and Christmas, this next stretch is the critical one for Orlando.
If the Magic want to establish themselves as a true playoff contender, they will start building that capital this week at the Amway Center.
The team has to hope they will have the urgency and focus to pick up these wins now.