Orlando Magic: Winning Never Felt So Good
By Luke Duffy
The Orlando Magic have won five games in a row and are showing their fans that the future is now.
After many years of poor rosters and false dawns, it looks like the Orlando Magic may have finally turned a corner. They’ve won five games in a row, and are second in the Southeast Division. That also puts them sixth in the Eastern Conference, a position they haven’t found themselves in years.
This mini-run has to come an end sometime, but with so many other teams struggling right now, let’s bask in this moment while we can and look at how the team got to this point after a shaky start to the season. After all this Magic team currently has the second-longest winning streak in the league behind the mighty Golden State Warriors. Impressive.
What will have given the front office the most joy from this surge up the rankings will be the manner in which it has been achieved. The draft picks they have selected in recent seasons are contributing to the team’s success, even if it means seeing Victor Oladipo come off the bench.
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Yet the young players acquired via trade in the past, namely Tobias Harris and Nikola Vucevic, are arguably even more important to this team right now.
Putting all the pieces together is head coach Scott Skiles, a guy brought in to help this team on the defensive end, but who has also made some big personnel calls and added to this team offensively as well. With a plus-2.3 point differential, the Magic rank 10th in the league in that category.
This also shows how they’re now coming out on the right side of close games, such as the recent 96-93 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
There’s a real confidence to this team now, and to watch it unfold on the court on a nightly basis has been the best part about this season. Individual examples of this confidence manifesting itself include Evan Fournier taking it upon himself to be an offensive focal point and Vucevic appearing to believe in his midrange game more by knocking down shots further from the basket.
While the ball now flows more smoothly offensively, that tightening up on the other end has allowed this team to pull away late in games. Holding opponents to only 32.6 percent three-point shooting is a great number, and puts this team sixth in the league. Adding to that, holding opponents to 42.1 percent from the field as a whole puts them fifth in the league in that category.
So the improved defense has been the foundation with which their better offensive play has been built on.
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Orlando’s fifth win came on the road against the Utah Jazz, in what was one of their most impressive performances to date. We can say this because the Jazz put the Warriors’ unbeaten streak under real threat, and like the Magic they are an up-and-coming team with exciting young talent.
Although the Jazz are without Rudy Gobert, a defensive revelation for them, the Magic were able to score 44 points in the paint in that win. Even better, they only allowed 22 points to be scored against them in the painted area.
Obviously not having Gobert hurts Utah, but seeing the Magic score so easily inside brings us back to the versatility this club now has which we’ve spoken about before.
With Payton developing a more consistent outside shot (33 percent three-point shooting compared to 26 percent last season) and Fournier shooting a career-high 39 percent from three-point range and 49 percent from the field, you would think this team is following the league wide trend and moving away from the paint to score.
While they can now do that, to see the ball dumped in to Vucevic for him to use his still underrated offensive skills to get a basket is great for this team. It gives them options and different ways to hurt opponents, as the Jazz found out. Being able to do this help the team achieve my favorite statistic of all so far this season.
In the month of November, the Magic went 9-6. In the improved Eastern Conference, that’s still notable.
But it was the Magic’s first winning month since March 2012. That’s crazy. Think of everything you’ve done individually since early 2012. Now imagine as an organization not getting above .500 throughout any of the months that followed.
Although it’s a meaningless stat unless the team uses it in pushing for a postseason berth, there’s no doubt it will have added belief to a team that is becoming must watch when they’re on League Pass.
It’s not just the pretty stuff that this team is doing on the court though. As mentioned above it’s the defensive improvement which has led to this team becoming more competitive. This extends as far as rebounding, with the team averaging 46.7 per game, seventh in the league. In fact, they out-rebounded the Boston Celtics 54-34 in the 110-91 home win against them a week ago.
More than that, they collected 17 offensive rebounds which they turned into 26 second hand points. Effort like that,when combined with the improved skills this team has shown offensively, is going to win you games. Next up for this team is an away game against the Los Angeles Clippers.
The run may come to an end there, but given how the Clippers have struggled this year so far, they certainly could cause them some trouble.
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In many ways it will be interesting to see how this team bounces back from their next defeat, which will come sooner rather than later. Then we’ll see the true character of this team as we approach the new year. For now though, just enjoy these good times for the Orlando Magic, they’ve been a long time coming and the fans deserve it.