Orlando Magic Daily
Fansided

Orlando Magic: 5 questions for the second quarter of the season

By Philip Rossman-Reich

Jonathan Isaac's emergence as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate has boosted the Orlando magic early this season. (Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images)
Jonathan Isaac's emergence as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate has boosted the Orlando magic early this season. (Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
5 of 6
Next
Markelle Fultz, Orlando Magic, San Antonio Spurs
Markelle Fultz was able to power the Orlando Magic through some lackluster moments in the team’s win over the San Antonio Spurs. (Photo by Harry Aaron/Getty Images) /

Where will the Orlando Magic fall in the playoff race?

Entering Friday’s games, the Orlando Magic sat two games ahead of the Charlotte Hornets in eighth place and one game behind the Brooklyn Nets for seventh place.

Looking at the teams beneath the Orlando Magic, there is not a lot of reason to be confident in anyone outside the Detroit Pistons, a playoff team from last year dealing with some injuries. Then again, the same could have been said of the Magic, who were 4.5 games out of the final playoff spot when they began their run Jan. 31.

Orlando is not “in” the playoffs as of yet. FiveThirtyEight gives the Magic a 72-percent chance to make the playoffs at 40-42 for the season. That is not where the Magic thought they would be and not where they want to be ultimately.

This is the quarter of the year where teams start to separate themselves. The serious contenders gain distance from the pretenders and start fighting for home court. The teams at the bottom start dreaming of ping pong balls.

While the standings are still fairly tight, that separation is already beginning to occur. The Magic find themselves squarely in the middle. They almost certainly would like to climb up a bit.

The schedule is not set up for them to do so. After Friday’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Orlando Magic face a gauntlet that pits them against the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets before they head out on a four-game West Coast road trip.

The schedule will lighten up some. The Orlando Magic will wrap their season series against the potent Washington Wizards by early January. The struggling Chicago Bulls are included in this stretch.

But the Magic will also hit the midpoint of the season while they are in the middle of their second West Coast road trip.

The Magic will have to scratch out wins during that road trip leading into Christmas — hoping they get Nikola Vucevic back in the meantime. But then they will have to get to work climbing the standings. They certainly have started doing that now that they have found their footing since the injury.

The real test will come during the next 20 games. By the midpoint of the season, the Magic will absolutely know what kind of season they might have.