5 most important stretches of Orlando Magic’s 2024 season
5 most important stretches of the Orlando Magic’s season
The In-Season Tournament (Nov. 14-Nov. 24)
Nov. 14: at Brooklyn (In-Season Tournament)
Nov. 15: at Chicago
Nov. 17: at Chicago (In-Season Tournament)
Nov. 19: at Indiana
Nov. 21: vs. Toronto (In-Season Tournament)
Nov. 22: vs. Denver
Nov. 24: vs. Boston (In-Season Tournament)
Nobody really knows how teams or players will react to the In-Season Tournament. This peculiar new thing that the league has invented to put some early spice into the season is still unknown.
On one hand, these games are baked into the middle of the regular season. A lot of teams will still be trying to figure themselves out and what they are about.
On the other hand, put a trophy in front of anyone in this league and they are going to get competitive and go for it. That is why the later rounds are likely to give the NBA exactly what they imagined when they pitched and executed this idea.
The early games? It just is not clear how much more serious these teams are going to take it. Especially contending teams.
It may come down to the first set of In-Season Tournament games will feel fairly normal. Then as the standings shake out and the stakes of the games become clearer, perhaps the intensity and focus for these games will increase.
A team like the Orlando Magic should take this kind of tournament seriously. Orlando’s players need pressure game situation practice for the postseason — let alone for what is likely to be a close race for the postseason in March and April.
The Magic will have a busier-than-most schedule for the In-Season Tournament weeks. They play seven games — the first four on the road and then three at home.
For me, this actually gives the Magic a perfect venue to practice some playoff focus and feel. The In-Season Tournament games are obviously the most important. But the Magic could easily treat these two weeks as a mini-seven-game series.
Win four of the seven and the team “wins” regardless of whether the Magic advance to the knockout round. Of course, that would be better to give the team some more intense game practice.
It is still unclear how any team, let alone the Magic, will treat these games. But there is the opportunity to get a test run for the postseason if the Magic want it.
And a Game 7 with the Boston Celtics on Black Friday would have a big-game feel with the time and date of the game along with the opponent and the potential stakes involved.