Orlando Magic on Hiatus: The top 10 games of the 2020 season (so far)

The Orlando Magic’s season is on hiatus as the league waits out the coronavirus. So we are taking a step back to revisit our favorite games this year.

The Orlando Magic are officially on hiatus.

It has been a week since the league shut its doors in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Orlando Magic played their last game last Tuesday, a stirring come-from-behind win over the Memphis Grizzlies that seemed like it was going to be another catapult for the team’s playoff push.

So much still lay ahead of the team. There was still a playoff race and seeding to fight for. The Magic were finding their footing. Next week would have proved to be a big week with two games against the Brooklyn Nets (scheduled for next Monday and Friday) to clarify and essentially determine who finished seventh in the Eastern Conference.

Those playoff races will be left to the imagination for now. Nobody knows when the league will be able to resume operation again. Everything is in a holding pattern. And it might be a while before we can even think about having basketball again.

That is a long time without seeing the Orlando Magic on TV, let alone on the court.

NBATV is doing its best, airing some classic games and last year’s playoffs on its network during the hiatus. FOX Sports Florida will do its part now too.

The Magic announced FOX Sports Florida will air some of the best games from the 2020 season during the time slots the Magic would have otherwise played, starting Thursday when the Magic were supposed to play the Cleveland Cavaliers at Amway Center with, ironically, the Magic’s opening night game against the Cavaliers.

Among these 14 games are surely some of the most memorable moments of the Magic season so far. And it is hard to believe that we would have been so close to the finish line when the NBA closed shop for the moment.

Typically we would wait until the end of the season, to recount our top-10 games of the year. But these are odd times. And now there is a schedule of re-airs to get you prepared for.

So let’s rank the top-10 games of the Magic’s season so far to get you ready for FOX Sports Florida’s re-air of these soon-to-be classic Magic games.

10. Magic get their first big win — vs. 76ers (Nov. 13)

Our Coverage: Grades; Orlando Magic’s best players came through when needed

FOX Sports Florida Re-Air: March 21, 8 p.m.

One of the big criticisms of the Orlando Magic throughout the season was their lack of marquee wins. It is something that has dogged the team throughout the whole year and one sign the team has not taken the step forward.

Coach Steve Clifford has criticized the team even after wins saying they cannot expect to be playoff-caliber teams playing the way they were playing. The Magic this year were always chasing a standard as much as a record or a number of wins. They wanted to make progress as much as anything.

Whether they have or not is certainly up for debate. A debate we will surely have as we wait for basketball to return.

And one argument for the Magic’s stagnation or regression is their record against teams with winning records. Orlando is 5-26 in games against teams with records better than .500. Only one team has fewer such wins — the Chicago Bulls with two.

That is a solid statement of how the Magic have taken care of business against sub-.500 teams. And in the Eastern Conference, there are enough of them to make the playoffs just on those alone.

There are still several wins over those great teams that stand out this year — do not worry, we will get to them on this list. But the first one still has its own standout moments.

The Orlando Magic just seem to have the Philadelphia 76ers’ number, winning both games (stay tuned) they have played so far this season. Their first meeting in November was the one that made Magic fans really believe in the team at least for a moment. Even with Joel Embiid out of the lineup.

Orlando used a 32-15 fourth quarter to blow the game open, getting big games from Nikola Vucevic (25 points, 12 rebounds) and Aaron Gordon (18 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists) to pace the team. Terrence Ross and Evan Fournier hit several big 3-pointers down the stretch to put the game away.

The Magic had their big win and at least some proof of concept for their potential early in the season.

9. Markelle Steals the Show — vs. Wizards (Nov. 17)

Our Coverage: Grades; Markelle Fultz reannounces himself to the world

FOX Sports Florida Re-Air: March 25, 8 p.m.

There was at least a little bit of skepticism about Markelle Fultz. when the season first began. Nobody really knew what to expect from him when he stepped onto the floor. Anything seemed like a bonus.

Orlando Magic

He burst onto the scene in his first game with a highlight play — more on that later. That got everyone on board. But he still had to prove himself in a game in a big moment.

Markelle Fultz took the starting job over five games into the season. And early in the year, he made it abundantly clear he was the guy for that spot.

Then he announced himself to the wider NBA world.

That happened against his hometown team, the Washington Wizards, in Orlando on Nov. 17. Fultz scored 19 points on 8-for-10 shooting. He sealed the game with a steal, dunk and a foul. And plenty of memories to go along with it.

This was a big moment for him and a big moment for the Magic. This was further confirmation that Fultz was back and able to contribute in a big way.

Fultz had been making waves throughout the early part of the season, but he never really had a burst like this. Or really a big moment in a close game. Just a huge burst that had meaning for the team.

The next day, Fultz was the talk of the national media. He was officially back and making big plays. And the rest of the world, intrigued already with his story, was beginning to take notice that he was indeed back. They would be eager to see how he would grow over the course of the rest of the season.

It is a season that has undoubtedly been a smashing success for getting the young guard re-acclimated with the league.

8. Confirmation Bias — vs. 76ers (Dec. 27)

Our Coverage: Grades; Orlando Magic can build a foundation that can crumble quickly

FOX Sports Florida Re-Air: March 29, 7 p.m.

The Orlando Magic, as noted before, struggled to find quality wins on their schedule. The team would seemingly dominate every team below .500 on their schedule and then hit a wall against the teams that were actually competing for the playoffs. The teams they had to defeat if they wanted any success in the playoffs.

The Philadelphia 76ers were the perfect cure for that. For a long time, they were the only win of significance for the team. And both times they played Philadelphia, it seemed like Orlando had the advantage.

The Magic’s defense was still in top form. They locked down Ben Simmons with Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Isaac. They could contain Joel Embiid on the outside. And the Magic mustered enough offense through Evan Fournier (20 points), Aaron Gordon (19 points, 11 rebounds), Terrence Ross (17 points) and Nikola Vucevic (16 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists).

That was all the team could do at that point: Muster just enough offense to make up for the defense.

Orlando had a sizable lead late even after scoring only 97 points. But they got a reminder, as they have so many times this year, what a star can do to an inattentive defense or even to good defense.

Embiid went on a late run of 3-pointers and the Magic suddenly started missing free throws, allowing the 76ers to get dangerously to the lead in the dying moments. Embiid still had a 3-pointer at the end of the game for the chance to win.

Orlando was suddenly scrambling. But make no mistake, the Magic were the clear dominant team in this game. A second straight win over the 76ers. For whatever reason, Philadelphia caught Orlando’s eye. It would have been interesting to see how the Magic faced off against the 76ers in Philadelphia late in the season.

7. Staking A Claim — at Nets (Feb. 24)

Our Coverage: Grades; Orlando Magic got their swagger back and a reminder of their identity

FOX Sports Florida Re-Air: April 8, 8 p.m.

By late February, the battle lines were already pretty clearly drawn. The Eastern Conference had separated itself into the very top tier with the Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics. A middle tier was settling in with the Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers and Indiana Pacers.

The Brooklyn Nets and Orlando Magic were left fighting for the final two playoff spots. And they had both gotten plenty of separation on the teams fighting to stay in the picture for one of those final playoff spots.

The fact the Magic and Nets would play each other four times starting in late January — including two that would have been played next week — only added to the intensity of this game.

This was shaping up to be a heated playoff battle to avoid that matchup with the Bucks in the first round.

And each one of these games clearly had playoff intensity. Or at least it should have.

That is not how the Magic came out in Brooklyn in late February however. They were lethargic and uninterested in playing defense. They found themselves in a deep hole. The Magic were struggling at this point and needed a spark.

If a meaningful game was not going to wake them up, something else had to.

Whatever the Magic did in the second half changed everything for them and the season. Orlando erased a 16-point deficit with 74 points in the second half to secure a big 115-113 win that would give the team the inside track to win the seventh seed.

Aaron Gordon scored 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. He scored or had an assist on the team’s final seven baskets. He took over the end of the game, hitting tough fadeaway jumpers and 3-pointers throughout the final moments of the game. That put Orlando over the top.

Orlando got a boost from Terrence Ross off the bench to spark the comeback. Like he had last year, he changed the tenor of the game. And the Magic finally had a hint of the confidence and swagger that made their 2019 run to the playoffs so thrilling and exciting.

Orlando was starting to look like that team again. The Magic found a bit of that confidence again. And in a big moment too.

6. State of Affairs: vs. Heat (Jan. 3)

Our Coverage: Grades; Orlando Magic’s defense nearing a breakthrough

FOX Sports Florida Re-Air: April 1, 8 p.m.

The Orlando Magic had one thing going for them as the Miami Heat surged to the top of the Eastern Conference after remaking their team in the summer with Jimmy Butler. They had dominated the Heat in head to head matchups. This was not a major rivalry around the league, but it is impossible to say the game did not matter to players and fans in Orlando.

Yes, the Magic have had some little brother complex with the Heat, especially after the Heat landed LeBron James in free agency and the title they won thereafter. Miami became a national brand and Orlando was still in its shadow.

The Heat would end up winning the next three matchups as a measure of revenge. Meyers Leonard would surreptitiously and proudly proclaim Florida belonged to the Heat, suggesting they too understood the Magic’s dominion over them in the last few years.

This rivalry has quietly taken on new dimensions.

Among the Magic’s few wins over team’s with winning records, none felt more cathartic and more promising than this dominant win over the Heat.

Orlando, playing its first game after Jonathan Isaac’s injury, needed the confidence boost. They needed to make a statement.

Until the Magic’s recent run of games, there was no bigger or more satisfying victory than the win over the Heat in this game. Orlando simply dominated Miami throughout much of the second half, shutting down Butler and dominating almost all the way through.

Orlando outscored Miami 21-6 in the fourth quarter to close it out and build an insurmountable margin.

In a now-satisfying bit of foreshadowing, Aaron Gordon had his best dunk of the year to date, collecting a pass deflected by Derrick Jones Jr. and then slamming hard on Tyler Herro for one of the biggest highlights of the year.

Terrence Ross was again big off the bench with 25 points — most of the Magic’s biggest wins have a healthy contribution from Ross, it seems — with Nikola Vucevic scoring 20 points to go with 11 rebounds and seven assists. He got the better of Bam Adebayo in this one.

The Magic took care of their business and at least made a small claim to the state.

5. Opening Night — vs. Cavaliers (Oct. 23)

Our Coverage: Grades; Orlando Magic see how good they can be in season opener

FOX Sports Florida Re-Air: March 19, 8 p.m.

Opening night is always unpredictable. It is hard to say exactly what a team will look like and what will happen. Results are always a bit hard to gather. And all the positive talk that colors the preseason quickly evaporates or becomes reality with the first game.

It can confirm a lot of preconceived notions or begin to show a lot of the team’s flaws. It is the first of 82 data points that informs the rest of the season.

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Still, it is hard not to overreact to the season opener. In the moment, it is both a preview and an outlier of what will happen. But it all anyone has for a few precious days.

The Orlando Magic’s debut this season had everything for fans. It had confirmation of what would become the team’s biggest struggle — its offense. It had confirmation of what they hoped would be its biggest strength — the team’s elite defense.

But the biggest thing it had was confirmation that yes, Markelle Fultz could play.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are not the best opponent on this list. In fact, they are the team with the worst record. A win over the Cavaliers should not be anything special. But because it came in that first game and that opening win, it left an indelible mark on the team.

Fultz announced himself to the world — or at least those who cared to watch on opening night — that he was back and going to make a difference. With one coast-to-coast, thunderous jam, Fultz made a memory for the rest of the season.

That was not his only big moment in the game. He had a lot of interior passes that showed off his playmaking. He scored 12 points off the bench in his first meaningful minutes in quite some time.

The Magic got a lot of the other beats they came to count on too. Nikola Vucevic scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to build off his All-Star season.

It was a strong start that made a big statement for the Magic.

4. Nearly in the Club — at Mavericks (Nov. 6)

Our Coverage: Grades; Jonathan Isaac is keeping the Orlando Magic afloat

There is only one game on this list the Orlando Magic lost. And for good reason.

The team is well beyond moral victories and counting anything but the final result as a victory. Coach Steve Clifford has chided this frame of thinking in the media. Wins are wins and losses are losses. Nothing else matters.

Yet, this game had meaning well beyond the final result.

The lasting and final image might have been Steve Clifford yelling at both the officials for failing to see his timeout (the first of several times this occurred during the season) or at Aaron Gordon for taking a poor shot in the final moment of the game. The Orlando Magic lost a late lead and the Dallas Mavericks pulled out the win with some solid playmaking down the stretch.

All that still mattered more than what made this game significant.

Still, there was a silver lining to all this. Jonathan Isaac showed what his potential truly is. How he can completely dominate a game with his defense. In the early part of the season, Isaac was really the only thing to hold onto and he was a dominant force who got his fingers into every aspect of the game.

Isaac nearly joined the vaunted 5×5 club, tallying 13 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, four steals and six blocks. He completely shut out Kristaps Porzingis (10 points on 4-for-14 shooting).

Isaac was an absolute terror, as he had been throughout the early part of the year. And this game was his best individual performance on both ends. The game that showed what a complete player he could be. It was hard to contain any kind of excitement watching this.

There were a ton of games throughout the season confirming Markelle Fultz’s potential. This game was the first that really confirmed Isaac’s full potential.

He would realize it throughout the course of the season with big games against the Toronto Raptors, Indiana Pacers and others throughout the season. He was on his way to being named to the all-defensive team if he had stayed healthy.

Orlando is still struggling to cover for the loss of his defensive presence. This was the first game that showed Isaac was one of the few players on the Magic with an elite skill that could make the team really special down the road.

Everyone is eager to see Isaac back on the court for this reason.

3. Comeback Redux — at Grizzlies (March 10)

Our Coverage: Grades; Orlando Magic return home with that familiar playoff feeling

FOX Sports Florida Re-Air: April 15, 8 p.m.

It was roughly one year ago the Orlando Magic’s season made its final turn toward the playoffs.

The Orlando Magic trailed at home to the Memphis Grizzlies by nearly 20 points in a game they had to win. Their comeback was a sign they were playoff ready. It was a sign they were serious about completing their run to the postseason. It was confirmation to fans that it was time to buy into this team.

So when the Magic were down by 16 to finish off a road trip against the Grizzlies, it felt a little like deja vu. Orlando stormed back, beginning with a run in the third quarter. Then they poured it on to pull away from Memphis and score a huge win.

The Magic scored 70 points in the second half behind strong bench performances. Terrence Ross scored 24 points and Michael Carter-Williams added 20 off the bench. The Magic found the will to come back and take the victory.

That was something that has largely been missing from the team throughout the course of the season. It felt like there were a series of letdowns.

The first half of this game was certainly a letdown. The Magic got outmuscled and outplayed through much of the first half. It took some inspired play from the second unit just to keep it a game. They have done that so many times this year.

But slowly the Magic started mounting their comeback. Their defensive intensity spiked to match the urgency of the moment. This is the kind of team Orlando had been waiting to see and be all year.

At the end of a long road trip, the Magic found the will to take the victory. They dug down deep and made the plays necessary to close the game. The Magic were beginning to realize their potential.

Unfortunately, everything was then cut short. The league-wide hiatus in response to the coronavirus made this the last time we saw the Magic for a while.

At least it was a good memory.

2. The Big Win — at Rockets (March 8)

Our Coverage: Grades; Orlando Magic are long past due to realize this potential

FOX Sports Florida Re-Air: April 13, 8 p.m.

The Orlando Magic were still having some nightmares of James Harden’s clinical 54-point effort in December. There the Magic defense swarmed Harden and forced him into shooting 3-pointers and he just buried them over and over.

There was little the Magic could seemingly do. They really lost that game to the Houston Rockets because of their poor transition defense as Russell Westbrook proved the big difference. And this was back when the Magic were playing solid defense.

Even with the Rockets playing without a traditional center, it never felt like the Magic were going to have a chance coming into this one. The Rockets had too many dynamic weapons.

That would be wrong. Completely wrong.

The Magic might have caught the Rockets at a time when they did not quite know who they were. But they also executed a perfect gameplan, clogging the lane and keeping Harden and Westbrook out of the paint. They actually had one of their best defensive games in a long time, shutting out the Rockets.

That turned into fast-breaking opportunities for the Magic. And they pummeled the Rockets on the glass — 23 second-chance points on 13 offensive rebounds — and dominated the entire game. Orlando took a 30-point lead at one point.

The Magic had not had a performance this complete where they found a healthy opponent and pummeled them. Everyone did their part with Aaron Gordon and Nikola Vucevic putting in double-doubles. It was D.J. Augustin off the bench who paced the Magic to the win with 24 points to lead the team.

But really this was every player on the team working in concert.

This was the team playing with pace and getting up and down the floor. They moved the ball to find the open man. And they shut down the lane and forced the Rockets out of their comfort zone.

The Magic were so clearly the better team. It was shocking to watch the Magic dismantle a playoff-caliber team like this on the road. It was something they had so rarely done. And it was just about as well as the Magic have played all season.

1. Showtime — at Lakers (Jan. 15)

Our Coverage: Grades; Aaron Gordon starting to take flight again

FOX Sports Florida Re-Air: April 5, 7 p.m.

There was no reason the Orlando Magic should have had a chance entering their game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center.

They were in the middle of a long and disappointing road trip out West. Evan Fournier was out with an injury. LeBron James and Anthony Davis were seemingly at the height of their powers. They were in the Staples Center against the best team in the Western Conference.

From the opening tip, something felt different. The stars for the Magic seemingly aligned almost perfectly. They hit shots early on to get some confidence. And then they just got confident and let that confidence grow and grow.

As things always are when the Magic are at their best, they did it by pushing the pace and turning their turnovers into points. The Lakers may have lazed somewhat through the game, but the Magic had to take advantage. They relied on a lot of uncharacteristic players — shout out to B.J. Johnson’s 12 points.

But this game came down to the two youngest stars on the team, carrying Orlando to the finish line after Los Angeles cut into their sizable deficit and took the lead in the fourth quarter.

Markelle Fultz showed no fear throughout the game. He bulldozed his way through James in the second quarter and did so again to hit the game-winning basket, collapsing on the court with cramps afterward. Fultz finished with 21 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for his first triple-double in a Magic uniform.

Aaron Gordon starred too. He pulled off an off-the-backboard dunk that he tried to do so often in the course of the season. He had 21 points on 7-for-12 shooting. But his makes were big and emphatic. He was not hoarding the ball or trying to do too much with Fournier out. He was attacking constantly and playing within the flow.

Everything with the Magic clicked together and worked. It was rare to see everything going like this. And it was so surprising. Those who stayed up for the 10:30 p.m. ET tip go a treat of a team outhustling their opponent and outplaying them.

This is the hallmark win of the Magic season. If the Lakers end up winning the championship, the Magic will always have this game to hang their hat on.

What was your favorite game of the 2020 season so far? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter @OMagicDaily.