The Orlando Magic know the path ahead of them for their much-anticipated 2025 season. The first 80 games of the Magic's 82-game journey are on the horizon.
Of course, the NBA schedule is virtually the same every year. There are only so many different ways to say: You will play the other 29 teams in the NBA. This is not college sports where you can pick and choose your schedule and you can get excited about certain opponents. The Magic are guaranteed to play everyone in the league at least twice (and at home at least once).
The NBA is a league where new players have to get used to losing -- a good season still features 32 losses.
The games come unendingly. It is the blessing and the curse of the NBA schedule—there is always another game. It is why nobody can ever get too high or too low after wins and losses. There is no turnaround time before the next game.
What we look for in the schedule is the rough spots. We look for the soft spots where the team can bank up wins. We look for when and where the back-to-backs are.
The Magic got the good end of the schedule this year, playing the fewest back-to-backs in the league with 13 this year and holding an advantage in rest advantage games against rest disadvantage games, flipping both from last year. Orlando has parts of the schedule that will benefit the team.
There are always moments that are important in the schedule—the team's West Coast road trips and extended road trips always matter just like long homestands are vital. As we break down the schedule, it is easy to prepare for the monotonous dog days of the season.
It is easy to lose sight of what is important and get lost among the trees.
Right now, we can have a bird's eye view of the season. We can look at the whole schedule and highlight where the season will turn and what is important. We have already highlighted one of these 10-game stretches (and we will discuss it again here, because it is important).
To help digest the schedule though, we are going to break down the five most important stretches in the season. The stretches that will determine whether the team is successful this year or whether they will fall short.
5. Oct. 30-Nov. 6: The first big road trip
Oct. 30: at Chicago
Nov. 1: at Cleveland (ESPN)
Nov. 3: at Dallas
Nov. 4: at Oklahoma City
Nov. 6: at Indiana
When the schedule comes out, I usually highlight the first road trip as a key moment in the season. How the team performs and comes together on its first road trip is usually a big moment during the season. A rough road trip is usually a bad sign and leaves the team with a deficit to make up.
The Orlando Magic have a road-heavy start to the season. They play 16 of their first 25 games on the road. The Magic are going to have their work cut out for them to start the season.
And the Magic will have some sense of where they are at and how ready they are for this challenge very early in the season. Their first road trip beginning Oct. 30 is going to be a huge challenge. This team will have to come together quickly.
Orlando escaped Chicago with buzzer beating wins (after losing big leads) early in the 2024 season. Even with DeMar DeRozan gone to the Sacramento Kings, the Orlando Magic will find it tough to face the Chicago Bulls on the road.
Then they face a row of playoff contenders with a nationally televised game in their first game at Cleveland since Game 7 on Nov. 1 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. They then face the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder in a tough back-to-back before closing the road trip with a critical matchup with the up-and-coming Indiana Pacers.
This is not an easy road trip by any stretch. There is no easy win. The Bulls are the only team on this trip that did not make the playoffs last year. And Chicago is capable, especially early in the season, of stealing a win.
The Magic will face plenty of playoff opponents in the early stretch of schedules. This is something the Magic have to be better at—they had the worst record among Eastern Conference Playoff teams against opponents with a winning record last year at 19-28.
The Magic also had the worst road record at 18-23 among Eastern Conference Playoff teams. Orlando has to prove it can win these kinds of games. And this early stretch will be a test of just how much this team has grown up.
4. Dec. 3-Dec. 27: NBA Cup and beyond
Dec. 3: at New York (TNT)
Dec. 4: at Philadelphia
Dec. 6: at Philadelphia
Dec. 8: vs. Phoenix
Dec. 10-17 Emirates NBA Cup Week
Dec. 19: vs. Oklahoma City (TNT)
Dec. 21: vs. Miami
Dec. 23: vs. Boston
Dec. 26: vs. Miami
Dec. 27: vs. New York
This is a long string of games that takes up almost the entire month of December. When I have done this post every year, I usually try to limit this to six or seven games or two-week stretches. But the Magic this year have a lot of clusters of big games and strings of playoff opponents.
None are bigger than December. This could bethe most important 10-game (or so) stretch of the season.
And that is not only because it includes the final NBA Cup game against the New York Knicks (the big one that is on national TV). That game carries a ton of weight because of the NBA Cup implications. But that game too will matter for the final standings and potential tiebreakers.
But it is not just that.
On the current schedule, the Magic are slated to play nine straight games against teams that made the playoffs last year. The NBA Cup games do not seem to give much relief either—the Magic could advance out of the group stage and play two difficult opponents in the knockout rounds or they could end up with fourth games with the Milwaukee Bucks or Boston Celtics in their NBA Cup makeup games to complete their schedule.
December is going to be quite difficult—it has historically been quite difficult.
Last year, the Magic used early season success to build confidence. Entering December, the team was 13-5. The Magic finished the 2023 calendar year at 19-13.
The team can survive a tough December. And the Magic may be doing the same this time around. Among the teams in this stretch, Orlando only won the season series against New York. The Magic struggled with several of these matchups and the Celtics are the Celtics.
December will be difficult no matter how anyone breaks it down. And the Magic are going to have their work cut out for them to stay in the chase for homecourt advantage. Playing well through December and the period around the NBA Cup will go a long way to putting the Magic on their way to making good on their promise to compete at the top of the Eastern Conference.
By the time the calendar turns to 2025, we will have a good idea of how good this Magic team really is.
3. Jan. 6-Jan. 19: Playoff row, Part 2
Jan. 6: at New York
Jan. 9: vs. Minnesota
Jan. 10: vs. Milwaukee
Jan. 12: vs. Philadelphia
Jan. 15: at Milwaukee
Jan. 17: at Boston (ESPN)
Jan. 19: vs. Denver
When the schedule first came out and I wrote down all the games, two stretches stood out to me. The first was the one described in the previous slide. The December run beginning with the road games in New York and Philadelphia will be a major challenge and a proving ground for the team.
Shortly after that stretch ends, the Magic face another similarly difficult run in January. By the time the Magic emerge on the other end of it on Jan. 19, they will have to start making up ground or stand and revel in their success coming through the most difficult stretch of their schedule (or maybe they wait to revel until after their West Coast road trip in early February).
This is another difficult stretch to be sure. Orlando will play seven straight games not just against teams that made the Playoffs last year but five of seven that won a playoff series (and the one that did not is the Milwaukee Bucks).
These are all bona fide title contenders.
According to FanDuel, all the teams the Magic play in this seven-game stretch rank among the eight favorites to win the NBA championship. These are all title-contending teams in the middle of the season as they have figured themselves out more.
These games are going to be vitally important and extremely difficult. Orlando may be treading water in December and January once again.
The team can still succeed in doing that. Orlando went 12-18 in December and January last year as they battled injuries and illnesses in the middle of the season. The Magic recovered to get to 47 wins.
Of course, Orlando does not have the same advantages later in the season. There is no super long homestand late in the season and the Magic finish with 11 of their final 19 games on the road. There is not a lot of space to make up time and ground.
But the schedule always comes back around. If Orlando survives December and January, the team will be in good shape in the standings.
2. Jan. 27-Feb. 6: The West Coast road trip
Jan. 27: at Miami
Jan. 30: at Portland
Feb. 1: at Utah
Feb. 3: at Golden State
Feb. 5: at Sacramento
Feb. 6: at Denver
The Orlando Magic usually take two big West Coast road trips during the season. That is the nature of being about as far East as you can be. It typically means you have a lot of travel (the Magic though are not in the top five in most miles traveled).
This season is a bit different.
Orlando does take a brief three-game road trip to Phoenix and Los Angeles in November in between NBA Cup games. That means the Magic pay for that trip with a bit of a longer road trip in January. One that somewhat awkwardly starts in Miami on Jan. 27 (the Magic are probably heading home for a few days before traveling out West).
At least the road trip is not coming in the second game of the season like it did last year.
As far as Western Conference road trips go, this is pretty manageable.
The Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz may be well out of the playoff race by this point in the season. And Golden State, Sacramento and Denver are all playoff-capable teams, but teams the Orlando Magic should feel competitive with. The Magic lost both games to the Warriors and Kings (all four of those games were close) and they swept the Nuggets last year.
Road trips are always major moments on the schedule. The West Coast road trip is always the highlight of the season. It is one of the biggest moments on every schedule.
And this road trip in late January and early February is a big one. Especially considering it is the last really difficult stretch before the end of the season.
Orlando plays six straight games (and five at home with the All-Star Break in the middle) against teams that did not make the playoffs immediately after this game. The Magic feasted on teams with losing records last year. And they could be in for some serious momentum after a successful road trip.
1. April 8-April 13: The closing kick
April 8: vs. Atlanta
April 9: vs. Boston
April 11: at Indiana
April 13: at Atlanta
The Orlando Magic limped to the end of the season with a difficult finish to the season. They defeated the Chicago Bulls in their penultimate home game and were one game away from clinching a playoff spot. But even in August, everyone knew the road home would be tough.
At Houston and at Milwaukee on a back-to-back was expectedly tough. At Philadelphia was always going to be tricky. And then a home closer against the Milwaukee Bucks was the cherry on top.
Orlando had to do its work early to ensure it made the playoffs. That was regardless of whether the team ended up playing for a Play-In spot or for homecourt advantage as the Magic ended up doing.
The loss to the Houston Rockets was the one that hurt. They caught a struggling Philadelphia 76ers team when they were on their tear to end the season (and finally healthy enough to take advantage of it). They beat the Bucks to preserve their playoff spot and stop the bleeding.
To say the least, how the Magic close the season will be under as much scrutiny as anything else. Especially considering the standings are expected to be tight again. The season will come down to Game 82 once again.
So the final two home games—vs. the Atlanta Hawks and Boston Celtics—are big matchups for this team. And the final road trip—at the Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks are also big.
The game in Indianapolis could be especially big. The Magic and Pacers finished with the same 47 wins last year and the Magic won the season series to earn the tiebreaker.
They could be tight like that again and the game against the Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on April 11 could be decisive for tiebreakers.
And the final matinee against the Hawks could have everything on the line. Remember last year, the Magic would have fallen to the 8-seed if they had lost that game to the Bucks. It could be another wild final week for the Magic.
Orlando is going to have to finish stronger this year to accomplish their postseason goals.