The schedule

[MagicFan32]

How much do you guys think all these games in a short period of time has affected the team? I feel like I cannot properly evaluate where they are actually at. They just had 8 games in 12 days, and tomorrow they have their 3rd b2b in 9 days.

How does the NBA allow this? not only is it risky for player health, but it sure as heck is not good for the fans who pay money to go watch the games and have to see tired teams a lot.

Like I feel like last week may have gone differently if the schedule wasn't so compact and the Magic in reality may be closer to a .500 team than we think

[OrlandoDream]

It's part of it but not the sole reason. Some of the games we lost were winnable. team obviously looks better with more rest and provides better outcome for the players health and efficiency. This is something the new CBA will address. Read somewhere they are planning to extend the NBA season to get mor rest and less back to back.

[MagicMadness]

On that note, the '4 games in 5 nights' scenario needs to be ended permanently.

[craig01]

On that note, the '4 games in 5 nights' scenario needs to be ended permanently.

Agreed, that is horrible scheduling.

It puts players at risk and can affect the quality of play.

[drsd]

On that note, the '4 games in 5 nights' scenario needs to be ended permanently.

It is down to less than 1 per team. (I think 0.6).


..

[shadrock]

A lot of it tbh. Our guys were totally gassed at the end of that 4 in 5 stretch and vogel was digging deeeep into the bench. This is our toughest part of the schedule by far.

I think from what ive seen with my own two eyes revently that we are a much improved team.

[woosah]

Yeah i think maybe this was the toughest stretch for us. I don't know though. I looked at January and it looked like many winnable games, but i didn't pay attention to the dates as much as the teams played. Seems like last year it got tough in Jan but maybe this year was tough in December and levels out in January.

[djhunkyherbs]

Obviously the Magic need to focus one game at a time, but I think these next 11 or so games are very important. 7 are at home, and with the exception of 1 or 2, most of them should be winnable. If the team really scuffles now, it's going to be hard to make up ground, especially considering we're already 5 games under .500.

January is going to be tough. Even though the Magic don't face an incredible number of really good teams, 11 of the 16 games that month are on the road. Hopefully the Magic can keep playing at least .500 on the road for that stretch.

Finally, even though the Magic have had a rough start, the rest of the East hasn't exactly been tearing it up either aside from the top 2 teams. The Magic are currently only 2.5 games back of a playoff spot and surprisingly only 3.5 back of the 3 seed. The Magic need to start taking care of business right now as their schedule lets up a little bit, and they could be solidly within the playoff picture. This team is a roller coaster though so I'm keeping my expectations tempered

[Bergmaniac]

The schedule was very favorable for us until December 1st. Only two back to backs, mostly home games, quite a few teams faced us on their second night of a back to back. We didn't take advantage then. Overall it's been a normal NBA schedule in terms of back to backs. December has been tough, but pretty much every team has a month like in the current scheduling.

[nymets1]

I can't go to nba games because of the way they do the schedules. They have all these back to back games and it seems most of the games the teams play, they are tired. Why risk going to a game especially when you know at least 1 of the teams is going to be tired or players are out for the game due to resting. I feel the Magic should be over 500 record right now, we lost on the road to the teams we coulda beat, and lost at home to teams we shoulda beat. What about that stretch when we played 5 road games and than we came home to play the Celtics? We hang close with the Celtics for the 1st half and than we were dead tired to resume the 2nd half from the 5 game road trip. Every magic fan for sure that went to the magic home game vs the Celtics wasted their money. Next nba season they are supposed to do a better job with eliminating the back to back games and overall keep players more ready to play each game.

[purpleswordfish]

The schedule was very favorable for us until December 1st. Only two back to backs, mostly home games, quite a few teams faced us on their second night of a back to back. We didn't take advantage then. Overall it's been a normal NBA schedule in terms of back to backs. December has been tough, but pretty much every team has a month like in the current scheduling.

Brilliant post. This is absolutely true. If you think the schedule thus far has been tough, I got news for you, it gets harder later.