The Orlando Magic can now visualize the road map to the their season after the NBA released league wide schedules Thursday. This year’s schedule offers four national television games with the lone ESPN game coming on March 3rd against the Miami Heat. The team doesn’t play on any holidays or special occasions and has rather a slightly different feel to the schedule than previous years.

This year the team begins it’s season at home against a younger and much different Miami Heat team. The Heat presumably will be a faster team that presses up, defensively, on the perimeter players with Hassan Whiteside behind them. The Magic hit the road after the home opener to play a back to back against two playoff teams, Detroit and NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers.

The schedule lightens very briefly with Philadelphia and Sacramento before picking up again with Washington and Chicago. While the two ladder teams didn’t make the playoffs, both teams have given Orlando problems in the past. Orlando currently has it’s longest losing streak to an individual team against Washington, while Chicago made key free agent pick ups in Rajon Rondo and Dwayne Wade.

A key difference in this year’s schedule versus previous years comes from the absence of an early December West Coast road trip. However we do go on a mini central road trip from Nov.29 to Dec. 7th playing the Spurs, Grizzlies, 76ers, Pistons and Wizards.

The month of December varies in competition but should be a favorable month for the Magic. The team has a three game home stand through Christmas from December 23rd through the 28th playing the Lakers, Grizzlies and Hornets.

Last season, many pointed to January as the month it all went wrong for the Magic. Through December, we had come off our best month in seasons, Skiles was coach of the month and we were 5th seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. January came and so did injuries to Elfrid Payton and others. The team sputtered winning one game that month.

This season, it fares to be even harder in January because our usual early December west coast road trip, is planted from January 8th through the 18th lasting 10 days playing 4 out of 6 against playoff caliber teams, with a back to back sandwiched between the Blazers and the Jazz. The month doesn’t get any easier with Golden State coming to Orlando on the 22nd and the team closing out the month on a three game road trip against high level teams like Boston, Toronto and the Timberwolves.

February being a shorter month is up and down from a schedule standpoint. The competition varies with the team doing two home and two road games for the most part of the month. The Magic do close out the month with a tough three game home stand against the Spurs, Blazers and Hawks. It’s an opportunity.

As March rolls around, the top tier teams for the conferences are usually known and the bottom spots are still in contention. The intensity begins to pick up and teams start adjusting for playoff like atmospheres and situations. The Magic do not have an extremely tough March and that is a great thing. The toughest games are coming against Cleveland in Orlando, Golden state in Oakland and the Thunder in Orlando. The team does go on a mini west coast trip consisting of three games against the Kings, Warriors and Suns. For the most part of March, the Magic will be playing teams that it most likely will be competing for the last playoff spots against. Orlando plays the Knicks twice, Charlotte twice, Washington, Miami, Detroit and Chicago with 7 of those 9 games in Orlando. A critical three game home stand takes place around the end of March playing against the 76ers, Hornets and Pistons. It’s essential the Magic take advantage of these.

In April, the team plays Brooklyn twice and closes out against the Pacers, Bulls and Pistons. If it comes down to the last couple of games, they are teams we should realistically expect to beat.

In conclusion of the schedule release and review, there are always opportunities in a team’s schedule that they must take advantage of. One being, taking advantage of long home stands and the other being an ability to win on the road. A commonality between the higher seeded teams is an ability to put together win streaks throughout the season. This is something the Magic hasn’t been able to do in years. Last season we had one four game win streak but for the most part it’s been losing streaks.

From a schedule standpoint, it would be wise for the Magic to take advantage of the easier schedule in November and December focusing on beating opponents who are not out of the team’s talent level. This applies to all teams in the NBA minus Cleveland, Golden State and partially San Antonio. However, the expectation is to compete with these teams putting themselves in a position to win in the fourth quarter. That is very possible. Notice that each month has one home stand for the Magic and it’s normally at the end of the month. These are chances to get in a rhythm by winning some on the road and bringing it back home or starting it at home and winning it on the road. Either way, it’s going to take a newfound focus.

Home stands:

November 25th – 27th – Phoenix, Washington, Milwaukee

December 23rd – 28th – Lakers, Grizzlies, Hornets

January 20th – 24th – Milwaukee, Warriors, Bulls

February 15th – March 3rd – Spurs, Blazers, Hawks, Knicks, Heat

March 20th – 24th – 76ers, Hornets, Pistons