As the Magic travel for a four-game West Coast road trip that starts Thursday night at Phoenix, Orlando believes the seven-day stretch away from home will help the team shake off a 2-5 start to the regular season.
Last season under past coach Jamahl Mosley, the Magic used a 3-1 performance on a four-game road trip out west to catapult themselves to win 10 of their first 13 games following the NBA All-Star break.
Under new coach Sean Sweeney, Orlando, which features much of the same roster as a year ago, is hoping for similar results when it faces the Suns, Warriors, Kings and Jazz over the course of the next week.
“Anytime you go on the road, the idea is that you work together, bind together and ultimately become closer and better because of it,” Sweeney said after practice inside the AdventHealth Training Center before the team traveled Wednesday. “That’s part of the idea, is to get better and get closer together.”
The Magic know what they need to do in order to achieve better results after dropping back-to-back games against Boston and Washington earlier this week to fall to 0-4 at Kia Center this season.
Despite a small sample size of just seven games, the Magic were 28th in scoring (105.7 points per night) and 18th in opponent scoring (114.7 points per night) heading into Wednesday’s slate of the games.
The Magic’s offensive rating (108.0) sat 23rd league-wide while their defensive rating (116.2) sat 25th, according to NBA.com.
Magic center Wendell Carter Jr., who’s averaged 12.4 points and 8.9 rebounds per night (both personal bests since 2022-23), was asked what would make Orlando’s road trip a successful one.
“Continue to build,” he said. “Of course we want to be in that winning column a little bit more. That’s always the goal, but (so is) doing it the right way (by) sticking to our process for all 48 minutes of a game. We have yet to put that together, even in some of our wins.”
“The moment we can get that 48 minutes together, where we’re doing everything we’re supposed to be doing on both ends of the court, that’s when we’ll start to ascend into the team that we know we can be,” Carter added.
One early area of the growth from the Magic under Sweeney is their ability to move the ball.
Nearly 70% of Orlando’s field goals made have come off assists, with just 30.1% of the team’s field goals unassisted, according to NBA.com. That percentage of field goals made assisted sat second in the league entering Wednesday.
It’s also an increase from a season ago when only 64.7% of Orlando’s field goals made came off assists, which was 12th-most.
In addition, the Magic have averaged 308.1 passes made per night (second-most as of Wednesday), a mark that is up from 293.3 per night last season (11th).
Still, the team has averaged 17.3 turnovers per night, tied for the fifth-most in the league, according to NBA.com.
“Well, I love the percentage of shots that are assisted,” Sweeney said about Orlando’s passing. “That speaks to the intent. I think the decision-making and spacing that go with it have to continue to improve. I think we saw (against) Boston, they were bringing three and four guys to the ball, and there were times where we should have been more willing to pass, especially to our bigs there.”
“And then there were times against the Wizards where I thought we had created advantages and had some good looks that we maybe moved the ball on,” Sweeney added. “But in general, I like the intent, and I think the execution can continue to improve.”
Orlando feels confident that improvement will come as more games are played under Sweeney, starting Thursday at Phoenix (1-4).
It doesn’t help that they’ll continue to be shorthanded on the road without Paolo Banchero (right high ankle sprain), Jalen Suggs (right knee bone bruise), Noah Penda (partially torn right hamstring) and Jonathan Isaac (left knee injury management). In addition, two-way rookie Izaiyah Nelson (left ankle injury recovery) didn’t travel with the team.
“It’s early,” Carter said. “There’s no reason to overreact on anything. It’s a new system, a lot of new things, we’ve got some injuries. … But one thing I’ve always said is that this group is full of winners.
“They’re going to do whatever it takes to win, so we’ll figure it out and we’ll be good.”
Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com
Up next
What: Magic at Suns
When: 9 p.m., Thursday, Mortgage Matchup Center
TV: MagicTV 27, DAZN (streaming)