ORLANDO, Fla. — Every once in a while, a phenomenon happens in the NBA when a team billed as a “rebuilding” can surprise its competitors by putting together a season ahead of schedule. The Orlando Magic certainly fit that profile a year ago.
Orlando, which hadn’t been close to the playoffs in a while and was still considered a young core with potential, let its play do the talking. The Magic started the season 13-5 through the end of November and improved to nine games above .500 through the first 23 games of the season.
Suddenly, with a 16-7 record, there was this “rebuilding” Magic team, firmly in the playoff race more than a quarter of the way into the season.
Not only did it validate the Magic’s efforts to get back into contention, it provided a cushion that kept Orlando afloat when it took a beating over the next month and a half — a stretch that saw the Magic go 9-16 over a 25-game stretch and get to 25-23 when the calendar turned to February.
History tells us that Orlando finished the season winning 22 of 34 games and finishing fifth in the Eastern Conference, making the playoffs for the first time in four years. But the Eastern Conference was tightly contested—only four games separated the second-seeded New York Knicks and the eighth-seeded Miami Heat—in a frenzied race to the finish. In Orlando’s case, it avoided the play-in tournament by winning tiebreakers against the Indiana Pacers and Philadelphia 76ers, who also finished the year with 47 wins.
Almost every NBA team experiences ups and downs over the course of an 82-game season. But for Orlando to come out of the season strong, it needed a young, solid team. By coming together to finish the season on a high note, each of those early wins counted toward securing a spot in the top six of the Eastern Conference playoff teams.
The Magic aren’t going to sneak into anyone’s hands this year, though, and they have no intention of doing so. Instead, Orlando is puffing its chest out and preparing to land a seed The Magic believe they deserve to be among the best in the East. Offseason acquisitions and player rumors suggest the Magic want to be competing with the East’s elite for years to come.
Their calendar For the coming season, they will have to prove it from the start.
Of Orlando’s first 26 games to start the regular season, only 10 will be played at the Magic’s home stadium, Kia Center. Compared to last season, the Magic have played 13 of their 16-7 season-opening stretch on their home court.
The Magic finished last season at home with a 29-12 record (the sixth-best home record of the entire NBA season), but finished in the bottom half of the league in terms of winning percentage on the road. It’s not uncommon for young teams to struggle on the road, and the Magic did too, especially during the aforementioned 9-16 stretch in the middle of the season, where Orlando finished 5-11 in the 16 road games of that 23-game stretch.
Additionally, the traveling team did not win a game in the seven-game playoff series between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Magic. If one or two outcomes are different and Orlando hosts the series instead of Cleveland, the outcome could have been different than what ultimately happened, with the Cavs winning Game 7 at home to close out the first-round series.
This time around, in 2024-25, there’s no heavy home schedule that can help them prepare. From Oct. 23 to Dec. 8, Orlando will embark on two separate five-game road trips and eliminate one of its two West Coast trips. Opening-night games at Miami and later trips to Memphis and Charlotte are close enough together that they won’t be too much of a travel pain, but Memphis will be on the second night of their first of a back-to-back and Charlotte will be sandwiched between Thanksgiving-week home games. Three of the five straight road games will also come in the first month and a half of the season.
A week in the Northeast concludes the series of games, with two games in Brooklyn, one in New York and two more in Philadelphia. It’s not until mid-December, when a third of the season is over, that the Magic can catch their breath and unpack a bit.
The test that now faces the Magic is early attrition. Can Orlando, which hasn’t been the only team to improve on its immediate competition, find enough success in the early part of the schedule to inspire the confidence and fight needed to be considered one of the best teams in the East?
While the conference pales in comparison to the Western Conference, Orlando is battling in a highly contested conference with favorites to go deep into the upcoming season. How many wins would be enough to secure a spot in the top six and avoid the play-in? While early preseason projections show only seven or eight teams being considered for the playoff picture, every team considered would likely opt for the safety and free time that comes with avoiding having to earn a spot in the top eight beyond the 82-game regular season schedule.
After playing 16 of the first 26 games away, Orlando will play more home games than away games in three of the next four months — 29 at home compared to 22 away from December through March.
Therein lies the potential advantage of playing so much away from home to start the year: If the Magic can manage their affairs or at least avoid being at the bottom of the Eastern Conference early in the season, they can then benefit from having a favorable home court in the middle and late stages of the season. When they’re fighting for a playoff spot, every aspect that can benefit Orlando is helpful.
In the NBA, that means sleeping in your own bed, practicing and working out in your own facility, and finding an easier balance at home. Comfort on the road is a trait that the NBA’s most elite teams often have, but it’s imperative that teams serious about their success defend their home court first.
So while Orlando will have to take care of business as a visitor early and often to start the year, the opportunity to find their rhythm at home with their mettle tested lies on the table directly in front of them.
For a conference that’s shaping up to be a fierce battle near the top, with Orlando looking to bark as much as anyone, every little bit helps.
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