Orlando Magic: 3 unexpected stats from promising start

2. They’re improving offensively

You only need to take one look at how Orlando has played over the last couple of weeks to see how they are improving offensively at a nice rate. This is surprising because this wasn’t meant to be an area of strength for them coming into the season.

While right now they rank 27th in offensive rating (104.1), that doesn’t accurately represent how they have improved in such a short space of time. Over their last four games, the Magic are averaging 113 points per contest.

That would put them roughly 10th in points per game, and the manner in which they are scoring these points in even more encouraging. Recently they have blown out the New York Knicks 115-89 away from home in about as dominating a performance as they have given in years.

But Orlando is also capable of pulling out wins in tighter situations, edging out the 76ers in their most recent win, a 111-106 effort. In that game, Jimmy Butler‘s first with Philadelphia, they allowed a 16-point lead to slip away.

In years gone by that would have ended their hopes of winning, and it certainly seemed that way with the 76ers having the better players and some playoff experience last year behind them.

Instead, the Magic went on a 21-0 run to regain the lead, capping it off with this moment from Ross.

The Magic are still going to hang their hat on being a defensive-minded team (they rank 16th in defensive rating at 108.3) and with the players they have, this should be the case.

But with guys like Ross and Fournier, not to mention Vucevic — who is always going to put up points and is shooting a scorching 44.1 percent from deep so far this season — putting up big numbers on opponents is a welcome sight.

Combine that with their defending and maybe the playoffs isn’t a crazy notion after all.