The “Gauntlet” is almost over for the Orlando Magic and perhaps a chance to breathe

The Orlando Magic should be feeling frustrated right now.

At 7-28, the team has tied for the worst 35-game record in franchise history. In 1992, the year before the team drafted Shaquille O’Neal, they also started 7-28 before finishing with 21 wins. The ill-fated 2004 season had eight wins at this point of their season and that was with a 19-game losing streak near the start of the season.

This team is not going to have a sterling record in other words. And that was expected with such a young roster.

Still, nobody probably saw a franchise-worst start. Then again, nobody anticipated the team to be down five rotation players for the entire season, see their budding young star guard slip in and out of the lineup with a sprained ankle or a wave of COVID infections decimate the roster and force the promotion of every important G-League player to the main roster.

None of this is surprising too because of the difficulty of the schedule the Magic have faced.

The Orlando Magic have faced an extremely difficult schedule so far this year. Adding in all the injuries and the team is eager for a chance to breathe and reset in 2022.

The good news is Orlando is near the end of the most difficult part of its schedule, at least on paper. And while the Magic are not a team that can count any game as a guaranteed win, they need a little bit of a breather from this stretch.

When we started mapping out the season at the beginning of the year, we termed the 22-game stretch from Nov. 15 until Dec. 26, “The Gauntlet.” Really, adding the two games against the Milwaukee Bucks to this difficult stretch of the schedule is not crazy when talking about difficulty.

Orlando has played 15 of its last 22 games on the road — the game against the Toronto Raptors was postponed. Fifteen of their last 22 games were against opponents who made the playoffs in 2021. And now 16 of those 22 games are against teams that are in playoff and play-in tournament position in 2022. That does not include three games against the Atlanta Hawks, who are now just outside the play-in tournament.

In all, Orlando has gone 4-18 during this difficult stretch, doubling their wins from the beginning of it. Of course, two of those wins came against depleted teams in the Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks because of the COVID wave that hit the entire NBA as much as it hit the Magic.

Orlando is going to take whatever wins it can get at this point. But it deserves some recognition how tough the road has been for Orlando so far.

The Magic are 3-16 this season against teams with records better than .500. Only the Miami Heat have faced more teams with winning records in the Eastern Conference. And only the Sacramento Kings and Portland Trail Blazers have faced more than 20 teams with winning records this season.

According to ESPN’s RPI formula, the Magic have played the sixth-toughest schedule in the league to this point.

For the season, the Magic rank 28th in the league in offensive rating at 102.8 points per 100 possessions and 26th in the league in defensive rating at 112.5 points allowed per 100 possessions. They are now 29th in net rating, accurately reflecting where they stand in the standings.

Since Nov. 14 and the “Gauntlet” began, the Magic are 28th in offensive rating, scoring 104.1 points per 100 possessions and 25th in defensive rating giving up 113.9 points per 100 possessions.

That offensive improvement is certainly welcomed especially considering all the injuries the team has faced.

Further, in the team’s last 15 games, Orlando is 23rd in defensive rating, giving up 112.7 points per 100 possessions.

The numbers are virtually in line with their season averages. But seeing the team climb those ranks feels like a point of positive growth.

Right now, it is difficult to judge anything with the insane amount of injuries and absences the team has faced. Orlando’s growth has been limited to individual player growth. The reason there is so much positivity around the team is that there has been plenty of that.

Orlando has been a young team going through the grind right now as the team deals with both learning the league and injuries through the process. The Magic were always going to get off to a trough start for all those reasons.

Orlando is right where everyone expected — a full seven games behind the Indiana Pacers for 12th in the Eastern Conference and nine games back of the Boston Celtics for the final play-in Tournament spot.

The Playoffs are going to be a far-fetched goal for the second half of the season. The team has put out lineups that were essentially the “tanking” lineups fans typically see late in the season to this point. Largely out of necessity.

There is light at the end of the tunnel though.

According to Tankathon, the Magic have the 13th hardest remaining schedule in the league. But that number should drop fairly quickly.

Yes, Orlando still has both games remaining against the Phoenix Suns and three against the Chicago Bulls. But they will be done with the Milwaukee Bucks after Thursday’s 2021 finale and only one more game against the Brooklyn Nets (they stole a win from the Nets thanks to all the COVID absences).

Still left on the Magic’s schedule are three games against the Detroit Pistons (one will take place next week), both games against the Oklahoma City Thunder and all three games against the Indiana Pacers. The team still has its home game against the Houston Rockets too.

Orlando will close the season with 11 of its final 15 games at the Amway Center with just four teams from the 2021 Playoffs in that closing kick (one of them is the Golden State Warriors’ lone trip to Orlando). Currently, there are 11 teams in that closing kick currently in at least play-in tournament position.

But that closing stretch includes both games against the Oklahoma City Thunder and a game against the Detroit Pistons. And there will be some separation in the standings by then that may make this look a lot easier too.

The Magic are essentially waiting for this chance to take a breath and finish the season strong. They just needed to get through the 2021 calendar year to begin assessing and building themselves up again.

They have a solid stretch of home games in mid- and late-January that could be a great time to bring back injured players like Markelle Fultz, Jonathan Isaac and even Jalen Suggs. It would fit at least Fultz’s and Suggs’ perceived timelines for them to return by this point before the team finishes next month on their final West Coast trip.

There are no games that Orlando can win “easily.” That is just not how this team was built.

But knowing this team’s likely development, the team was always set up to play better when they got to the end of the season, especially when everyone was healthy.

There are plenty of signs things are trending in the right direction. And everyone is withholding judgment on a lot of the team aspects for the Magic until they get a fully healthy roster. That is certainly still one of the big goals for the team this season.

The second half of the season will be about fostering continued individual growth and re-integrating injured players into the team. Orlando should expect to win a few more games.

After all, the Magic tripled their win total from this point of the season the last time they started this slowly. It would not be surprising to see things click for this young group later in the season.

It was always set up for this.