{"id":649264,"date":"2026-03-09T17:09:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/649264\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T17:09:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:09:17","slug":"orlando-magic-enter-crucial-week-after-undefeated-road-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/649264\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic enter crucial week after undefeated road trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three days after defeating the Mavericks<\/a> for the first time in four years, the Magic<\/a> accomplished something on Sunday that the franchise hadn\u2019t done stretching back even further.<\/p>\n

Orlando clinched a regular-season series against the Bucks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Magic, who crushed Milwaukee<\/a> inside Fiserv Forum<\/a> 130-91 on Sunday night thanks in large part to 33 points from Paolo Banchero<\/a>, secured the three-game regular-season series over the Bucks 2-1.<\/p>\n

The last time Orlando won a regular-season series over Milwaukee was during the 2011-12 season \u2014 two years before the arrival of two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo (who missed Sunday\u2019s game managing a right calf injury).<\/p>\n

So, how did Jamahl Mosley<\/a>\u2018s squad do it?<\/p>\n

How did Orlando exit not only Milwaukee with a crucial victory but also the weekend undefeated, despite a back-to-back set on the road against the Bucks and Timberwolves<\/a>?<\/p>\n

By leaning on its recently recaptured defensive identity, of course.<\/p>\n

The Magic improved to 7-0 when holding opponents to under 100 points this season. Sunday\u2019s game at Milwaukee marked the fifth time since Feb. 1 that Orlando didn\u2019t allow 100 points in a game.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur spirit is much better, we\u2019re talking much more, our energy is being sustained throughout these games, and it\u2019s not perfect, but we\u2019re not rattling, we\u2019re not overreacting to turnovers, misses and stretches where (the opponent) is rolling and scoring,\u201d said Jalen Suggs<\/a>, who notched 20 points with three 3-pointers Sunday. \u201cWe\u2019re doing a great job staying leveled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Mosley: \u201cFor us, we\u2019ve got to know we have to keep hanging our hat on the defensive end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Magic turned that defense into offense, too, when it improved to 7-0 scoring 130-plus points this season. The last time the Magic scored 130-plus at least seven times in a single season was 2019-20.<\/p>\n

Against the Timberwolves, the Magic held their opponent to 22% shooting from 3-point range (9 for 40) while scoring 14 points off 12 turnovers. Although the Bucks shot slightly better from distance (13 for 44), they were still limited to 30% from beyond the arc and gave up 23 points off 17 takeaways.<\/p>\n

After winning Saturday night at Minnesota<\/a> by 27 points and then Sunday at Milwaukee by 39, Orlando won consecutive road games by 20-plus points for the first time in franchise history.<\/p>\n

The pair of wins also marked the first time the Magic have won on back-to-back days by 20-plus points since March 4-5, 2005 \u2014 more than two decades ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially these last couple (games), guys aren\u2019t going on crazy runs against us,\u201d Suggs said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing a really good job of keeping it to seven, six (points) and under, and then doing a great job of responding to not let them get too much momentum rolling.<\/p>\n

\u201cTop to bottom, everybody\u2019s doing a great job right now,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Although the Magic are home for five of their next eight games \u2014 starting Wednesday against the Cavaliers on ESPN at Kia Center<\/a> \u2014 the road ahead doesn\u2019t ease up.<\/p>\n

Including Cleveland, six of Orlando\u2019s next eight opponents were in position for the postseason entering Monday. The two opponents sitting outside looking in were Washington, who the Magic host on Thursday, and Indiana, who travel to Central Florida on March 23.<\/p>\n

Beyond facing tough competition, this week also includes a critical date for the Magic.<\/p>\n

Wednesday marks the third week of the team\u2019s approximate three-week re-evaluation timeline for Franz Wagner<\/a>, who continues to manage a left high ankle sprain<\/a> that\u2019s kept him off the court for a total 34 games this season.<\/p>\n

Orlando will also learn more about Anthony Black<\/a> (low back strain), Jonathan Isaac<\/a> (left knee strain) and rookie Jase Richardson<\/a> (low back spasms) upon its return home. All three missed Sunday\u2019s game at Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

Regardless of who\u2019s available, the Magic can\u2019t afford to drop many games in order to remain in the hunt for a guaranteed playoff spot as a top-six seed in the Eastern Conference next month. Seeds 7-10 in each conference compete in the Play-In for the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

To show just how tight the race is to avoid the Play-In tournament in the East, consider this: Last Thursday, Orlando sat seventh in the standings. After Friday\u2019s games, the Magic had fallen to eighth. On Saturday night, Orlando was back to sixth. Then during a portion of Sunday, it was seventh again.<\/p>\n

But by the end of the weekend, the Magic (35-28) were sixth once more after moving to 7-3 since the league break.<\/p>\n

With only 19 games remaining in the regular season, Orlando is confident about where it stands after two dominant road wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t had back-to-back blowouts in, I don\u2019t know how long,\u201d Suggs said. \u201cIt feels amazing. \u2026 Close ones are nice. They\u2019re still wins, but these feel way better. We\u2019ve got a lot of practice in those close games which has been nice, but this is another level of growth as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s been really good for us, these past two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Up next \u2026<\/p>\n

Magic vs. Cavaliers<\/p>\n

When:\u00a07:30 p.m., Wednesday, Kia Center<\/p>\n

TV:\u00a0FanDuel Sports Network Florida, ESPN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three days after defeating the Mavericks for the first time in four years, the Magic accomplished something on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3775],"tags":[7,103,165,102,121,3871,6,76,1412,80939,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-649264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-bucks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bucks","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-milwaukee","12":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","13":"tag-milwaukeebucks","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-orlando-magic","16":"tag-social","17":"tag-social-sports","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116200326726277407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}