ORLANDO - In the NBA, there’s no such thing as “easy games.” Every opponent presents different challenges. “Bad teams” beat “good teams” occasionally. A then 9-31 Charlotte team, for example, recently beat a then 30-12 Minnesota team on the road. Two nights later, a 16-27 Memphis team, without Ja Morant or Desmond Bane, went to South Florida and beat an almost fully loaded 24-19 Miami team.
But of course, stating the obvious, teams with winning records most of the time beat teams with losing records, especially at home.
That’s important to note considering the Orlando Magic have the league’s “easiest” remaining schedule.
So, being over .500 through 44 games with how tough their schedule has been to this point is something that shouldn’t be ignored.
Not only do they play 22 of their final 38 games against opponents with losing records, but the Magic also have a home-heavy schedule left. So, when they do play against “quality” teams, most of those contests will be at Kia Center.
Orlando still has three games to play against 5-39 Detroit, three against 10-32 Charlotte, one against 7-36 Washington, two against 8-36 San Antonio, and two against 17-27 Memphis.
The Magic are 13-6 against teams with current losing records, including being 8-0 against them at Kia Center.
Right now, Orlando sits in eighth place in the Eastern Conference at 23-21. However, the Magic are just one game back of sixth place and four games back of fourth place. The other teams in that pack are the Cavs, Knicks, Heat and Pacers. Orlando still has one game left against Cleveland, two against New York, one against Miami and one against Indiana.
For tiebreaker purposes, so far Orlando has a 2-0 season series advantage over New York, and it has already won the season series over Indiana. Both Cleveland and Miami are up 2-1 on Orlando.
The Magic have won several games against the league’s elite so far this season. They beat the defending-champion Nuggets twice, the Celtics once, and the Bucks once.