The Orlando Magic schedule is out. We can all plan our lives from October through mid-April now as the NBA returns to its normal rhythm.
Even for a season where many are expecting to be one where the Magic settle into the bottom of the standings, the schedule brings excitement. Orlando has to at least believe it can accomplish something.
The real anticipation for the Magic is watching their young players grow. It will be the way the team plays and improves as the season goes on.
Orlando will have its work cut out for it regardless of how the schedule is composed. They have a new coach, they have a bunch of new players and they have a ton of youth too. It is going to be a season with its ups and downs regardless of who the opponent is.
The Orlando Magic’s schedule will prove a difficult challenge with a schedule front-loaded with road games and a difficult first two months.
It is no mystery why the early predictions have the Magic at the bottom of the standings. But even those analysts believe the team is back on the right track. It is a season where progress will not be measured in wins and losses.
Managing the schedule and seeing growth through the course of the schedule will be one of the most difficult tasks ahead for Jamahl Mosley. Especially with how difficult the start will be for the team.
As the Magic prepare for their season, they will likely be doing what we will do today — breaking down the key stretches of the season that will define their success or failure. These are the stretches that will test the Magic and provide them the opportunity to sink or swim this year.
One way or another, this season will be an extreme learning experience for the Magic as they go through the NBA for the first time together and the team pieces together what it wants to be now and into the future.
Orlando Magic’s key stretches to 2022
The Start (Oct. 20-Nov. 13)
When the schedule came out, immediately our eyes were drawn to what we will call in this post as “The Gauntlet.” We will get to the details of The Gauntlet in a bit.
It will make the first stretch of games — the first 13 games or the first month of the season — all the more important.
This feels like an excessive amount of time, but the next group of games are so difficult and will be such a challenge, the Orlando Magic will have to be ready to go from the moment the season begins if they want to accomplish anything of consequence this season.
I think I write every year how critical it is for the Magic to get off to a good start. It feels like the simplest thing and an obvious goal. It is better to play from ahead than have to make up ground. But this schedule especially will require a strong start.
But even this beginning stretch will be difficult. And that is before the team gets to the really hard part.
The Orlando Magic open the season on the road against the San Antonio Spurs on Oct. 20, marking their first road season opener since the 2015 season. The Magic are used to having some comfort early in the season.
But there will be no homely comforts to start the year. Orlando starts the season with six of the team’s first eight games on the road. The two at home are a playoff team in the New York Knicks (the home opener on Oct. 22) and a play-in tournament team in the Charlotte Hornets (Oct. 27).
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In those first eight games, the Magic play just three teams that made last year’s Playoffs — and two are the Knicks. So at least the opponents appear to be manageable for the team to get off to a decent start even if it is away from the Amway Center.
The most important part of this part of the schedule will be a five-game homestand that begins on Nov. 3 and lasts 10 days.
That stay at the Amway Center will be no walk in the park either. The Orlando Magic play the Boston Celtics (Nov. 3), Utah Jazz (Nov. 7) and Brooklyn Nets (Nov. 10) during this stretch. It will still be a difficult road for the Magic to pick up wins.
It will obviously not be easy. Nothing will for the Magic.
With a new coach and such a young roster, it would be hard to expect this team to hit the ground running so quickly. But that is clearly what this team has to do.
If Orlando is going to surprise the league, it will have to do well here before The Gauntlet begins. Otherwise, the team might be climbing too far uphill.
Orlando Magic’s key stretches to 2022
The Gauntlet (Nov. 15-Dec. 26)
There is always one part of the schedule for every team that they complain about. The NBA is a marathon that is also a sprint. Everyone is trying their best to keep their head above water through the course of the 82-game schedule. It is not easy.
At a certain point, teams accept “schedule losses” and stretches where they just have to survive. For the Magic to have a difficult start flow into one of the most brutal months of basketball I have ever seen, it is really tough.
The schedule makers did Orlando few favors. And the month that goes from around Thanksgiving to Christmas is truly one of the most difficult stretches the league could put together for any team, let alone a young team.
The facts first before the specific matchups. During this time we are calling “The Gauntlet,” the Magic will play 16 of 22 games on the road. Do the math with how many road games are frontloaded on the Magic’s schedule.
Among those 22 games too, the Magic will play 14 games against opponents who made the 2021 Playoffs. Additionally, there are also four of the team’s 15 overall back-to-backs.
Among those four back-to-backs are two especially brutal home-to-road back-to-backs (a turnaround from facing the Chicago Bulls at home to Cleveland to face the Cleveland Cavaliers on Nov. 26-27 and going from hosting the Miami Heat to traveling to Brooklyn to face the Brooklyn Nets on Dec. 17-18).
Orlando Magic
If there is one thing the NBA should be working to get rid of — on top of continuing to decrease back-to-backs and eliminate 4-in-5 days — it is the home-to-road back-to-back that includes hours of travel. Chalk up both of these games as schedule losses.
And that does not even include a difficult Brooklyn to Milwaukee back-to-back on Nov. 19-20. That would be tough even if the Magic were not facing two of the best teams in the entire league.
This is a significantly road-heavy part of the schedule. The Magic will undoubtedly have trouble just getting their legs under them. Any team would.
This part of the schedule will open with a five-game, eight-day road trip. All five games are against playoff teams — at the Atlanta Hawks (Nov. 15), at the New York Knicks (Nov. 17), at the Brooklyn Nets (Nov. 19) and at the Milwaukee Bucks (Nov. 20 and 22).
Orlando at least gets to spend Thanksgiving at home.
But it will not be long before the team embarks on its longest road trip of the season — a 10-day, five-game trip through California that begins in Houston on Dec. 3 (if the league included a pit stop in the Midwest on the way back East, that would have been especially cruel).
The Magic will get some reprieve when they return to Orlando after the Dec. 12 game against the Los Angeles Lakers (the back-end of a Los Angeles back-to-back). One more three-game road trip — at Brooklyn (Dec. 18), at Toronto (Dec.20) and at Atlanta (Dec. 22) ends The Gauntlet for good.
Orlando Magic’s key stretches to 2022
Second homestand (Jan. 21-30)
Those first sets of games are wide swaths. The first two months of the Orlando Magic’s season are going to be a long slog. They needed to be talked together in those large chunks because that will define the Magic’s season in so many ways.
How far behind the Magic fall in this stretch will determine what they can accomplish the rest of the season — or even if the last half of the season and the “easy” parts will even matter. Yes, the schedule will lighten up, especially toward the end (we will get there).
The first really advantageous part of the schedule will come with the team’s second real homestand of the season from Jan. 21-30. Orlando will get five games at home to end January to try to build some momentum and comfort.
The opponents will not be easy.
The Los Angeles Lakers (Jan. 21) and LA Clippers (Jan. 26) make their lone trips to the Amway Center. So too does Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks (Jan. 30) to close the homestand.
These homestands are not just important because home games statistically are easier to win — especially for young teams. It is the practice time the team can gain from being at home and having full access to their gym.
When the Magic are home, they are better able to schedule practices and get their work in to improve individually as a team. This is the real value for young teams at staying at home.
And at the midpoint of the season, having this check-up to spend time and reinforce things the Magic have probably not had much time to work on since training camp will be a critical time for this young team.
If Orlando is going to score some upset sand fill in those shades of what their team will be, it is likely going to come during this stretch of games.
Orlando Magic’s key stretches to 2022
Second West Road Trip (Feb. 8-14)
Whenever the schedule comes out, examining when the Orlando Magic take their two West Coast road trips is usually one of the first things. Seeing where they come within the context of the season is important — one is always in early December after the team is usually home for Thanksgiving (and then the team is back home for Christmas).
The Magic’s first big West Coast road trip takes place during The Gauntlet. The second one will come right before the All-Star Break.
Orlando takes care of all its California games in the first road trip in December. This one will see the team go from Portland (Feb. 8) to Utah (Feb. 11) to Phoenix (Feb. 12) to Denver (Feb. 14).
That is a murderer’s row of opponents. All four teams were playoff teams last year and are figuring to be playoff teams again. The Utah Jazz had the best record in the league last year and the Phoenix Suns made the NBA Finals.
No trip out West is ever easy. And this one is tough. Plus it finishes with Denver in altitude — just like last year when Orlando ran out of gas late and lost in what turned out to be a blowout after Orlando had the early lead.
Expect that to happen again in this matchup. That is what a schedule loss is and the last game of a road trip is often the most difficult.
But these road trips are where the team gets tested most. This is another common trope I find whenever I am going through the schedule or as the season goes on — find these test points.
The West Coast road trip is always a test point.
That road trip coming in the last few weeks before the All-Star Break, when everyone’s attention can wane, creates the potential for upsets. And part of what the Magic should want to see is the team keep focus to grow at these points of the season and steal wins over quality opponents.
Especially at this point before the team starts eyeing the next season.
Orlando Magic’s key stretches to 2022
The Closing Kick (March 11-April 10)
If the Orlando Magic are somehow anywhere close to the playoff chase — or the Play-In Tournament — then this final month of the season is going to be vital. The Magic’s schedule is set up for them to make a big run to the finish just like they did in 2019 (although this closing kick is seemingly easier than that 22-9 run).
This finish is not that long. But the Magic’s final month will be one where the team could theoretically close strong.
Just as Orlando started the year off with a road-heavy schedule, the team finishes home-heavy. The Magic play 11 of their final 15 games at the Amway Center. In those 11 games, the Magic face four teams from last year’s Playoffs. The Golden State Warriors are the only other notable contending team making it to the Amway Center at the end of the season.
This part of the schedule also includes a season-long six-game homestand from March 11-22. This includes three of the team’s four NBATV appearances. Whether those stay on NBATV — they will take place at the same time as the NCAA Tournament — will be another question.
But this homestand is fairly manageable from an opponent standpoint — the Minnesota Timberwolves (March 11), Philadelphia 76ers (March 13), Brooklyn Nets (March 15), Detroit Pistons (March 17), Oklahoma City Thunder (March 20) and Golden State Warriors (March 22).
Not just that homestand though, the team has a ton of seemingly manageable group of road game here too. The team visits the Oklahoma City Thunder (March 23), Cleveland Cavaliers (March 28) and Washington Wizards (March 30).
The road trip to Cleveland and Washington are actually the only consecutive road games the team plays after the All-Star Break.
The Magic are not in a position to count any opponent as a sure win. The team is expected to be among the worst teams in the league this year. There is no guaranteed victory.
But this schedule is set up for the team to gain confidence and pick up victories to close the season out. Whether that will be something the team actually wants will be something that gets determined through the four previous stretches we described.