To the say the Magic have had an up-and-down season would be an understatement.
Orlando has gone on four separate wining streaks of three games, but has also suffered two different losing streaks of four games. Between Dec. 20 and Jan. 11, it alternated between wins and losses for 13 consecutive games before it won two in a row again.
And yet, Jamahl Mosley‘s squad (28-25) entered the NBA All-Star break No. 7 and only 1.5 games behind No. 6 Philadelphia (30-24).
Although the team has said it’s not where it wants to be, there’s still time left to make a postseason push and avoid the Play-In Tournament to outright earn a playoff spot as a top-six seed.
“They’ve been dealing with injuries, guys have been in-and-out of the lineups … So, that’s always tough,” former Magic guard Gary Harris (now with the Bucks) told the Orlando Sentinel before Wednesday’s game against Milwaukee. “You know how the season goes. There are ups and downs.
“They’re still figuring it out, but they have a good team over there,” he added.
Before turning the page on the first 53 games of the season, it’s worth examining where the Magic stand and what’s next:
Long-range woes continue
On Wednesday, Desmond Bane became the ninth player in Magic history to have multiple games with more than seven 3-pointers made in a single season.
It marked just the fourth loss of the season in which he made at least three 3s in a game and the first when he made four or more. Orlando is 12-4 when he makes three or more 3-pointers and 9-3 when he scores 25-plus points.
But Bane’s addition alone hasn’t made enough of a difference for the Magic from distance. Although Orlando has shot 34.2% from beyond the arc this season (it shot 31.8% last year), the team’s percentage was still tied for a league-worst (tied with Sacramento, Portland and Dallas), according to NBA.com.
Despite generating the 10th-most “wide-open” 3-pointers in the league (20.8 per night) — shots where the nearest defender is six-plus feet away — the Magic only made 36% of those attempts, according to league-tracking data, which ranks 26th.
Defensive difference
Orlando ended the 2023-24 campaign third in defensive rating (110.8). Last season, it improved and finished second (109.1).
This season, however, the team’s defensive rating (114.0) has plunged to 14th in the league, according to NBA.com.
So what’s changed?
It hasn’t helped that Jalen Suggs (missed 20 games) and Franz Wagner (25) — two of the team’s top defenders — have missed a combined 45 games due to various injuries.
When Suggs and Wagner do share the court, however, Orlando’s defensive rating looks more like it did last season. With the pair on the court for only 431 total minutes this season, the team’s defensive rating was 109.1, which resulted in a plus-9.5 net rating, according to databallr.com, an advanced NBA analytics site.
Unfortunately for the Magic, they have played 1,104 total minutes with Suggs and Wagner both off the court this season. The team’s defensive rating in those minutes was 118.6, which resulted in a minus-4.8 net rating, according to databallr.com.
As a whole, Orlando has averaged fewer steals (8.7 this season vs. 8.9 last season), fewer deflections (17.1 vs. 17.7) and fewer blocks (5.2 vs. league-leading 6.0) per night, according to NBA.com.
In addition, the Magic have allowed 51.4 points in the paint per game this season (the 10th-most) compared to 45.7 last season (the third-fewest).
Points galore
Despite its 3-point shooting near the bottom of the league, Orlando has seen an increase in scoring.
The Magic have averaged 115.1 points per night (which ranks 19th league-wide) and have scored 100-plus points 47 times (28-19 record), 110-plus points 35 times (25-10), 120-plus points 20 times (17-3) and 130-plus points five times (5-0) across the first 53 games this season.
Last year, the Magic averaged 105.4 points per night (which ranked 28th) and scored 100-plus points 54 times (37-17 record), 110-plus points 33 times (26-7), 120-plus points 10 times (9-1) and 130-plus points just twice (2-0) across the 82-game regular season.
Still an open spot
After Orlando traded Tyus Jones to the Hornets (who later sent him to the Mavericks), the franchise moved roughly $1.4 million below the league’s luxury tax threshold.
Two days later, the team signed veteran guard Jevon Carter to a rest-of-season prorated minimum-salary contract, which carries a cap hit of $871,000, according to spotrac.com.
The moves leave Orlando with an estimated $552,768 in tax room and one standard contract roster spot still open. Because prorated contracts are based on the amount of the day days left in a season, the Magic will likely have to wait until early March if it wants to fill its last standard spot and still remain below the tax line, according to thirdapron.com.
Converting two-way forward Jamal Cain, who’s played 19 NBA games this season, to a standard contract could be a simple solution.
Post-break push
The Magic return from league break Thursday at Sacramento to open a four-game West Coast road trip. They’ll then return to Kia Center for a four-game homestand starting Feb. 26 vs. Houston.
From there, Orlando won’t have any road trip or homestand longer than two games across the final 21 contests of the regular season. And for the second year in a row, the team will play four of its final six games on the road.
The Magic have 19th toughest strength of schedule remaining, according to tankathon.com, but nothing will come easy.
Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com
Up next …
Magic at Kings
When: 10 p.m., Thursday, Golden 1 Center
TV: FanDuel Sports Network Florida