The Orlando Magic's goals for the last 20 games

The Orlando Magic have 20 games left and are within reach of the sixth seed, which bypasses the Play-In Tournament. It's a race that could come down to the last game and it features three of their division rivals: the Miami Heat, Charlotte Hornets and Atlanta Hawks. They need to continue stacking good days in the right direction to put the finishing touches on their identity.

Paolo Banchero said that every night has a playoff-level game for them. The first test of urgency of the stretch run is in Milwaukee on Sunday against the Bucks on the second night of a back-to-back because good teams don’t turn around and lose against struggling ones, even if they have a top-five player (Giannis Antetokounmpo).

Keep in mind that the defense does the most important thing better than any other team: limiting wide-open 3-pointers (16.1). This is a great foundation to work with yet, they should have some goals for the stretch run that include...

1. Rack up some quality wins

It’s not enough to whoop on the scrubs; they have to put some good teams on their résumé, and will have at least seven games left against top-shelf competition. Those outings, like Saturday’s big-time win in Minnesota, are the ones that nurture a team’s confidence and they’ll need as much of it as possible since they’ll go in presumably no higher than the fifth seed, meaning they will start on the road versus a favored opponent.

Those seven outings are against the Cleveland Cavaliers (twice), Oklahoma City Thunder, Charlotte Hornets, Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics and the Wolves. It’s been an up-and-down season, but showing they can beat those teams might make opponents look at them as a team they don’t want to see in a series.

2. More quality production from Tristan da Silva and the next step from Banchero

da Silva's done well as a spot starter and that role could return depending on the severity of Anthony Black’s back injury. Regardless, his steady production in 3-point shooting is a tool that must continue because rivals will always want to slow down Banchero first. He’s averaging 4.1 attempts, and logging the highest percentage on the team (39.4), which means he should get comfortable soon taking two or three more.

On top of that, Banchero has been playing well, but his accurcacy could be higher. He needs to be shooting north of 55 percent on attempts inside the arc since he may not ever turn into a good enough deep threat. Natrually, his job will be harder as more defenders hover in the area he wants to go to, but the biggest difference makers find a way. There are outings like Saturday's when he is unstoppable, making 69.2 percent of two-point shots, and 90 percent at close range, and they leave one wondering why it's not an everyday occurrence.

3. Passing and open shots

The offense needs to get back to moving the ball at a high level so that Franz Wagner’s comeback is seamless, plus he and others don’t have to do too much off the dribble. It’s an area that has dropped off over the last 10 games, and the danger in that is that guarding the dribble is easier than the pass. They should be able to make some tweaks without compromising some of the mismatch-hunting style that they used against Rudy Gobert on screen rolls on Saturday.

Additionally, the Magic take 20.5 wide-open triples per game, making roughly average efficiency (36.3 percent), and only 32.8 percent of open attempts. They can’t misfire so many opportunities, and it’s been one of their three biggest issues of the season.