Especially with how small the margin might be<\/a> between being the 5-seed and the 10-seed. It will be something little or games like these that determine where everyone finishes.<\/p>\nBuilding momentum<\/p>\n
These games are important because they are the one thing the Orlando Magic can control.<\/p>\n
The team itself knows these games are huge. But they are focused more on themselves than on worrying about what is going on around them. Even if they are aware of what others are doing in the standings.<\/p>\n
If Orlando can win its games, including these critical two, then the standings will take care of itself. But what the Magic are trying to do is get themselves back on track. <\/p>\n
Orlando’s defense has slipped significantly. That was the key to their success during the seven-game win streak. It is the big reason why they lost six straight afterward.<\/p>\n
They are trying to be peaking heading into the Playoffs.<\/p>\n
That may or may not be everything. After all, the Orlando Magic lost three straight games in 2024 before closing the season with a raucous win over the Milwaukee Bucks to earn the 5-seed. The Magic may have to do something similar this season in their closing game in Boston.<\/p>\n
Orlando won three straight last year to clinch the 7-seed with three games remaining in the regular season. The Magic ended up winning five straight games before dropping the finale with bench players playing most of the game.<\/p>\n
The Magic know they will need a similar push along with some timely wins to complete this job. They need some momentum to get to the end of the season.<\/p>\n
“I was talking about it with somebody the other day, just talking about building momentum this time of year,” Desmond Bane said after Thursday’s win. “Regardless of wins, losses, you just want to be trending upward heading into that. We’ve got a good 2-3 weeks to get this right.”<\/p>\n
“I think it’s a monumental game. Two teams fighting for playoff seeding on the road. I’m excited for the challenge.”<\/p>\n
The challenge for the Orlando Magic begins with this game against the Toronto Raptors. It is a critical one. One that draws a team they are chasing closer and can build that momentum.<\/p>\n
If the Magic want to climb the standings, it starts with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was one question that Orlando Magic fans wanted to know from me throughout the afternoon Saturday: Who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-210486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}