Orlando Magic’s race toward the Playoffs begins now

The race for the postseason for the Orlando Magic begins now.

Despite all the setbacks and injuries Orlando has faced this season, the team finds itself in a position where the team can ignore the draft and focus on reaching the postseason. More importantly, they have the confidence to do it, as evidenced by the team’s gutsy 123-110 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday when the usually strong starting lineup came up bitterly short.

The Magic are only four games back of the final play-in spot. That is certainly within striking distance with a little less than half of the season remaining.

But the team has to take advantage of its opportunities to win games to make that final climb.

Past the halfway point of the season, the Orlando Magic find themselves within striking distance of the postseason. And this team has every reason to believe it can make that final climb.

The Magic’s biggest opportunity is health.

Orlando struggled through the first quarter of the season with injuries. It is the reason the team found itself in the hole. But as the team has gotten more stable and consistency with its lineups, it is easy to see how strong the team can play.

The Magic were fairly healthy when they won eight of nine games in December, sending out the same starting lineup for 14 straight games. After some adjustment with Wendell Carter and Gary Harris returning, the lineups are starting to get settled and the team is playing with more consistency again too.

Of course, there are still talented players set to return.

The biggest elephant in the room when it comes to health is the return of Jonathan Isaac. And the Magic are inching closer to seeing Isaac play his first games with the Orlando Magic since the bubble in 2020.

Isaac came off his three-game stint with the Lakeland Magic averaging 15.7 points per game and 6.7 rebounds. While Isaac did not have an efficient stint shooting 41.0 percent from the field and 1 for 12 from three, it was more about the flashes he showed on both ends of the court. But more so on the defensive end.

The biggest sighting of Isaac’s performances was his defensive instincts. Isaac was not afraid of being physical and his timing has been impressive which shows in his two blocks per game in his time with Lakeland.

The Magic have not been this healthy since the 2019 season. Now after seasons of being an injury-depleted team, the Magic have the cleanest report they have had, only missing Chuma Okeke right now after he had knee surgery about a month ago.

The other biggest opportunity stands within their schedule.

The Magic have to win games they are supposed to win or be competitive in. This has not always been an easy thing for such a young team.

Orlando made ground beating teams with top-tier talent in the Boston Celtics and the LA Clippers to name a few. But now it is time to make one more run and reach those teams fighting for the play-in spot.

According to Tankathon, the Orlando Magic have the 11th toughest remaining schedule. Things will not be so easy. Orlando still has two major road trips left — including one more trip out West.

But the is still opportunity there too.

They have two more games against the Detroit Pistons (whom the Orlando Magic dropped two games to already), two more games against the Charlotte Hornets (again, another team the Magic had an unfortunate loss to earlier in the season to split their season series at Amway Center) and another game against the San Antonio Spurs.

The Magic themselves will find ” breaks ” in their schedule playing teams undermanned such as the Friday’s win over the Pelicans, playing without Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram. They will face the Indiana Pacers next week without Tyrese Haliburton for example too.

Saturday, the Magic will face the Washington Wizards with a freshly returned Bradley Beal coming back from his injury. This is the team directly in front of them in the standings — two games ahead entering Saturday’s showdown in D.C. These are must-win games for the Magic to make up ground on their direct competition.

Orlando will have three more shots at Washington too including Saturday’s game.

This stretch of games will allow Orlando to continue to make up ground and catch the teams ahead of them.

This is a team that should be doing some standings-watching. But more importantly, this is a team that has to focus on itself and its ability to pick up wins.

The Magic have begun to show the maturity to understand how to do this more and more. They are learning to win and as they pile up more wins, they should be able to climb the standings.

The opportunity to make this playoff push is fairly clear.

The Magic finally find themselves relatively healthy and a couple of games that Orlando has to take advantage of if they want to make this run. The play-in tournament is in reach but the Magic have to win now before it is too late.