Orlando Magic: Evaluating their West Coast swing

The Orlando Magic have just come back from a five-game road trip, but how well did they get on against some tough Western Conference opponents?

For the Orlando Magic, their recent five-game haul out West was their longest road trip so far this season and brought with it all of the challenges that an up-and-coming organization should expect.

Most games were close affairs, with the Magic ultimately coming back with a 2-3 record over that five-game span. Although on the surface that doesn’t look like the kind of record a team in the playoff hunt would be happy with, and head coach Steve Clifford does not do moral victories, there was actually a lot to like.

So let’s take a look at the positives and negatives from the trip, as well as how it sets them up for the rest of the season. Were the considerable highs from the trip a flash in the pan, or have they set Orlando up to continue this nice campaign it’s building?

We’ll begin with the first game of the five, a blowout loss to the Denver Nuggets. That game finished 112-87, with the Magic looking like the outfit they had been in previous years, which coach Clifford was always going to have a tough time moving away from — lethargic, uninterested for much of the game and soundly beaten off the floor.

That result alone was the low point of the trip, but because of what followed two nights later against the Los Angeles Lakers, it can be seen as more of a positive.

Off the back of a tepid performance in the Rockies, the Magic went into the Staples Center and put on a superb performance in beating the Lakers 108-104, sweeping their opponent for only the second time in their 30-year history.

Allowing the Lakers to get back into the game when they should have been dead and buried wasn’t ideal, but that was easily glossed over by the fact they managed to pull out the win over a LeBron James-led outfit. Center Nikola Vucevic bolstered his early season All-Star credentials as well, posting a fabulous 31 points, 15 assists and seven rebounds.

On top of that, second-year big Jonathan Isaac and rookie Mohamed Bamba led the charge for pockets of the game, something that was so encouraging to see. Young guys stepped up and made plays to keep Orlando in the game.

All of this positivity in Los Angeles helped to show what happened in Denver in a different light. They started a daunting trip off with a heavy loss, only to follow it up with a signature win against an organization that employs the best player in the world.

Had this game taken place at any other point during the Magic’s prolonged rebuild, it would have taken a strange set of circumstances to occur for them not to lose the game. Instead they won, illustrating a newfound perseverance that has been one of the hallmarks of their season so far.

The following night the Magic were in San Francisco to take on the Golden State Warriors, in what was the halfway point of the trip. For most of the first half, everything went perfectly for them.

They had an answer for everything the Warriors could muster, and sensed an opportunity to knock them off at home while All-Stars Stephen Curry and Draymond Green sat with injury to plunge their season into new depths of panic.

Instead, the Magic squandered an 18-point lead, going on to lose 110-106. It was a tough one to stomach, with the talismanic Kevin Durant going off for 49 points and Klay Thompson getting hot in the fourth.

Looking at the positives however, and the Magic traded punches with the Warriors, and looked comfortable for large portions of the game in doing so. Coming out with an L was tough given how well guys like Terrence Ross played, but it showed the growth that had already taken place in such a short amount of time.

Another encouraging aspect of the game was how Orlando managed to do all of this without any production from supposed “face of the franchise in waiting” Aaron Gordon, who exited the game and had zero points due to tightness of his lower back.

Next up was a visit to the Portland Trail Blazers, in what was the toughest loss to take out West. The game finished 115-112, with the Trail Blazers doing everything in their power to give the Magic a chance to snatch a win.

All-Star Damian Lillard had a career-high 10 3-pointers, but fellow offensive terror CJ McCollum didn’t hit his first one until the fourth quarter.

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A bizarre sequence unfolded as the minutes ticked away with McCollum (shooting 82.4 percent from the charity stripe this season) and Evan Turner combining to go 0-for-6 from the free throw line. Hitting even two of those likely would have iced the game.

With time running out, the shot clock malfunctioned on a couple of occasions, most critically on the final possession of the game, with the ball in the Magic’s hands and the chance to send the game to overtime.

Perhaps it shouldn’t have gotten to that point anyway, but coming away empty-handed from that one was the most bitter pills to swallow. The last stop was a showdown with the Phoenix Suns, the worst team in an insanely competitive Western Conference.

The game itself was by no means a classic, but the Magic pulled out the win, 99-85. If anything though, this highlighted another area of the team’s improved play: their ability to win ugly.

Most of their players were having either off nights or just weren’t playing to the standard we’ve come to expect of them this season. It is also worth noting that the Suns themselves are in a funk right now trying to make all of their pieces fit together.

But in being able to dig out a win, the Magic showed that they should be taken seriously in their hunt for a playoff spot this season. They are a tough out essentially every night now, whether against the champion Warriors or a bottom-feeder like the Suns.

To end this review on a cautious note however, the Magic have typically done well in their first prolonged road trip of the campaign, even when they were going through the horrors of a fruitless rebuild.

These road swings (varying in length from 5-6 games) haven’t always taken them exclusively out West, but their time away from home hasn’t been all bad either. In five of the previous six years that the rebuild has taken place, they’ve come away .500 or better four times.

• 2012-13 : 3-2
• 2013-14 : 1-5
• 2014-15 : 3-3
• 2015-16 : 3-2
• 2016-17 : 4-1
• 2017-18 : N/A

So while it was great for them to do so well against elite teams, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are guaranteed success once they get home after a final road game against the Miami Heat on Tuesday.

What is more encouraging, however, is the fact a tough portion of their schedule is now over, and they are still right in the mix for a playoff spot. All in all the road trip was a success, with big performances and a continued fighting spirit being the main takeaways.