{"id":860293,"date":"2026-10-16T10:42:33","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T10:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/860293\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T10:42:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T10:42:33","slug":"orlando-magic-focus-on-themselves-entering-preseason-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/860293\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic focus on themselves entering preseason finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following two-plus weeks of training camp and three exhibitions, the Magic<\/a> wrap up the preseason Friday against a familiar foe.<\/p>\n

Orlando<\/a> hosts the Miami Heat<\/a> inside Kia Center<\/a> ahead of the start of the regular season next week, and new coach Sean Sweeney<\/a> shared what he wants to see from his team after implementing new offensive and defensive systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetter execution, continuing to build on the things that we\u2019ve been working on,\u201d Sweeney said after Thursday practice inside the AdventHealth Training Center. \u201c(The) guys doing things the way they did last game, but now just better.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the Magic have done a good job at through three preseason games is share the basketball, rebound it and take care of it.<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s a small sample size of just three contests that have seen a variety of lineups and player availability across the league, the Magic averaged the second-most assists (32.3), the third-most rebounds (50.7) and the ninth-fewest turnovers (16.3) per night ahead of Thursday\u2019s slate of exhibitions.<\/p>\n

Those areas of the game were on display Tuesday against the Cavaliers when the Magic recorded 34 assists and outrebounded Cleveland 54-38 at Kia Center. Even if Orlando was far from perfect \u2013 it committed 16 turnovers while only forcing 12 \u2013 Sweeney was relatively pleased with what he saw.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the way the ball moved,\u201d he said. \u201cWe talk about creating together (and) I thought we were exceptional in that area. Defensively, we saw an uptick in our activity (and) our commitment to guarding the basketball was strong. We used multiple schemes at times and the execution was good and can be better.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in general I thought we did a pretty good job of things that we wanted to do and now we have to get a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a chance the Magic could be close to full strength Friday against the Heat. Fourth-year pro Anthony Black<\/a> (right ankle sprain) was a full participant in practice Thursday and the team is continuing to ramp him up toward a return.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s doing a good job, moving well and feels good, so we\u2019re going to keep on that,\u201d Sweeney said.<\/p>\n

Veteran forward Jonathan Isaac<\/a>, who was limited at the start of training camp because of a left knee injury suffered last season and was away from the team last week due to personal reasons, was also able to participate in practice Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to see him out there,\u201d Sweeney said about Isaac. \u201cAnytime you\u2019re at full strength, that\u2019s the best strength to be. But, regardless, we\u2019re going to keep working to make sure we do a good job (to) keep building and keep getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Friday\u2019s preseason finale against Miami, the Magic open their regular season against another Southeast Division opponent: The Atlanta Hawks at Kia Center on Wednesday. That\u2019s when the results will start to matter.<\/p>\n

Orlando wants to focus on Friday first.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the final preseason game so (the) last chance to see how we\u2019ll match up and just get used to everything,\u201d Magic forward Franz Wagner<\/a> said. \u201c(We want to) work on some of the stuff that we want to clean up and continue to improve on even what we did well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added teammate Noah Penda<\/a>: \u201cJust keep building on us. No matter who we have in front of us, we have to stay consistent in who we are. The main thing is the main thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson gives back<\/p>\n

Magic guard Jase Richardson<\/a> helped host a free basketball clinic for 80 local youth, largely from Boys & Girls Clubs, at the Westside Community Center in Sanford on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

In addition to taking part in drills on the court, each participant received a Jr. Magic jersey and a Magic-themed basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always special to try and give back to the community, especially to the youth,\u201d Richardson said at the event. \u201cI always feel like they\u2019re the future. So, I just try to give them as much wisdom and any knowledge I know.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Up next<\/p>\n

What: Magic vs. Heat, preseason<\/p>\n

When: 7 p.m., Friday, Kia Center<\/p>\n

TV: MagicTV 27\/DAZN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following two-plus weeks of training camp and three exhibitions, the Magic wrap up the preseason Friday against a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,165,48,6,47,76,3883,1412,80939,66],"class_list":["post-860293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando-magic","tag-basketball","tag-latest-headlines","tag-magic","tag-nba","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlandomagic","tag-social","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117450174844114696","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860293","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=860293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}