Excuse some people for feeling a bit optimistic about the Magic after a 3-3 West Coast road trip.
This young team, fighting through a road-heavy first quarter of the schedule and multiple injuries, has emerged perhaps a bit ahead of schedule at 9-14 on the season. That is not a great record, but it is not a horrible one. Not at where the Magic perhaps expected to be. And especially considering the adversity the team faced already.
It is far too early to look at the standings. The Magic are just past the quarter pole of their regular season. Teams are only starting to settle into who they will be. The Magic are on pace to win 32 games, which would probably exceed expectations. Last year’s eight seed got in at 38 wins.
So Orlando theoretically still has some work to do.
Despite all that, the Magic are impressing observers around the league with the way they have withstood everything so far this season. And so it is not crazy to think the Magic could be in this battle for a while. Orlando is a mere one game behind Brooklyn for the final spot in the East Playoffs.
Venerable NBA scribe Sam Smith of ChicagoBulls.com was pulling together his conference power rankings and had some impressive words on the Magic:
“The true surprise team given they have an overall losing record. But they’ve played by far the most road games in the league and just finished up strong with five games out west, winning three and blowing a late lead in Golden State even with center Nikola Vucevic out. They’re looking like they could be a surprise playoff team this season.”
Even Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel is, at least jokingly, beginning to whisper the “P” word.
Again, it is far too early to look at the Playoffs. The Magic still have a ton of chances to get wins at home, having played only seven games at home. They are just 2-5, but the win percentage of their opponents from home games sits at .606 — or about 50 wins. The one thing the Magic have done very well this year is beat teams inferior to them in the standings or about even. The good teams, the Magic have struggled mightily with.
If this Playoff dream is to become more than a dream, Orlando has to win some big games. That could come later. Expect Orlando’s record at Amway Center to “catch up” to its record 7-9 road record. A string of home games should do this team good, especially if there are winnable games.
Orlando has an extended home stand in late December before heading back out West in January. When the Magic get back from that, we might have a better idea of whether they can stay in the race.
Rob Hennigan said at the beginning of the season he would like to see the Magic play meaningful games later in the season. They seem to be on track for that, at least.
So whisper “Playoffs” quietly. Orlando is still very far away.
