Back at Practice, Magic Careful to Look Too Far Ahead to Postseason

The Orlando Magic have four games left this regular season – all important toward securing their seed in the East Play-In Tournament. With no game until Tuesday evening, the Magic were careful to "overwhelm" themselves at Saturday's practice, instead focusing internally.

Orlando Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. (34) dunks the ball as Washington Wizards forward Alex Sarr (20) defends in the first half at Capital One Arena. | Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

ORLANDO, Fla. – This is not a normal weekend in the schedule of the Orlando Magic.

Earlier weather- and disaster-related postponements created schedule changes around the NBA, meaning the Magic are amidst a four-day break between regular-season contests. After Thursday's win at Washington, Orlando doesn't see a different jersey until the Atlanta Hawks visit the Kia Center Tuesday evening.

"It's kind of a blessing in disguise with the way everything worked out," forward Jonathan Isaac said after the team's Saturday practice at AdventHealth Training Center. "We're enjoying it."

"I think it's great," Wendell Carter Jr. said. "Knowing where we're at, what we have to face, knowing we're going to be in the Play-In. That means we're going to have extra games in order to get into the playoffs – hopefully just one – but the rest and the recovery is always amazing.

"I feel like the teams that win are the most recovered, plus the talent and playing hard. But recovery is a huge part of it, so I think it's good for us."

Beginning with Tuesday's contest, the Magic will see the Hawks twice in the regular season's final week. After Detroit's win Friday night, Orlando is locked into the Play-In Tournament, meaning its focus shifts to securing home-court advantage for the pre-playoff competition.

Prior to tipoff of Saturday's slate of games, the 7th-seeded Magic (38-40) were a full game ahead of the No. 8 Hawks (36-40), who have played two fewer games to this point in the season. They'll be even on game count come Tuesday evening after Atlanta hosts New York on Saturday and Utah on Sunday.

Although the stakes of the contest more closely resemble a playoff game, most of Orlando's on-court focus Saturday was internal.

"More about us, just getting the mind, the body, the spirits all up, everybody feeling good," Carter said of Saturday's points of emphasis. "Got a lot of shots up as a team. Touched on Atlanta a little bit, knowing that's going to be our next game, but ... we didn't want to overwhelm anybody."

Magic coach Jamahl Mosley described the session as "very competitive," but noted a "balance" between emphasizing rest and addressing hot-button issues that need solved in the last four games.

But, the fourth-year coach's team will keep a watchful eye on their next opponent as it begins to fine-tune its game plan.

"Walking and talking about Atlanta over the next couple of days is going to be very important, because you have the time to do it," Mosley said. Isaac called it "natural" to do some scoreboard watching at this time of year.

"We went through this last year, right? In terms of wanting to have home-court advantage," Carter said. "We understand that we play them two more times before the season ends, and it's very likely we will be playing them [in the Play-In].

"It's a great test for us to understand that we want to pick up as many of these last four so we can have home-court advantage going into the Play-In."

Orlando finished fifth in the East a season ago, missing the last home-court advantage spot by one game to No. 4 Cleveland. The fact that neither team won a road game in the ensuing first-round playoff series is well-documented.

This season, however, is different from last in several aspects. One of those is the success at home – or in this year's case, the lack thereof.

After winning 32 of 44 regular and postseason games at the Kia Center in 2023-24, the Magic are a pedestrian 20-19 in 2024-25. Since the All-Star break, their 3-9 home win-loss mark is fourth-worst in the NBA.

Two of the final four games come at home: Tuesday's Atlanta matchup, then a Wednesday matchup with the Boston Celtics – a potential first-round playoff opponent should the Magic make, then win, the No. 7-8 game. The Magic close the 82-game slate at Indiana on Friday then at Atlanta on Sunday less than 48 hours later.

Make no mistake: Winning on the road is a good thing for the Magic. But they desire as many home games as possible, and the only way to earn them is by winning.

"It's a good and bad thing, in my opinion," Carter said. "You want to be able to pick up games on the road. That's the name of the game: win as many games on the road as you can. We were phenomenal at home last year; we dropped some [this year], but you also don't want to overreact. We want to understand the significance of playing at home and understand you do need to win your home games, but we can only look forward from here.

"These last four, we've just got to make the most out of them."

Ahead of a crucial last week, Mosley drove home the same sentiment.

"We can't focus on what we have done in the past, and we've got to focus on what wer'e doing moving forward," he said.

"Regardless of what's happened before, focus on these next two coming up at home and take care of home."

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