Orlando Magic: 4 keys to a better second road trip
By Luke Duffy
1. Play the same way they started out the season
Although the Magic started the season well, when decisions start going against them or players go cold, they have a tendency to overdo it with the ball individually.
They might still have the fifth-best team assist percentage in the league (60.5 percent) but when they go down against teams they panic and get away from the team basketball they play so well.
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What they need to do regardless of the score is continue letting Vucevic shoot from deep (4.4 attempts from deep per game), let Fournier create offensively (career high 23.5 percent usage rate) and ensure Gordon continues being aggressive.
At one point they had the second-best offensive rating in the league. As the games have become more difficult they have slipped to 15th in this category (104.3).
Meanwhile defensively they have fallen to 16th in the league (104.4), further showing just how much they have regressed to the mean.
Falling back to league average in both categories is indicative of a bigger problem for the organization, but if they just kept playing the way they started the season, who knows what record they’d have right now?
Three of their four games away from home are against Eastern Conference opponents (Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers and Indiana Pacers).
They will be underdogs in all three, as well as in the game that starts that road stretch against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
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Failure to adhere to the above advice may see them go 0-4 in the process, and coming home with a 8-13 record does not set them up well for the holiday stretch at all.