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Can Orlando finish atop the East?

Las night, the Orlando Magic hammered the Detroit Pistons in Detroit, 103-85. No one was injured for either team, no one was coming off a back-to-back…Orlando just straight up dominated the Pistons. In the last month, analysts have made it clear that it will be the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons on the top of the Eastern Conference. Then third will be the Cleveland Cavilers, who have been playing well as of late, and then rounding up the top half of the conference will be the Orlando Magic. But after Orlando’s impressive victory, is it plausible to think that Orlando could very well be the best team in the East? Absolutely.

Let’s look at what Orlando has done since January 27th, less than a month ago. The Magic beat the Celtics, went 2-1 against Detroit, and have up a game to Cleveland. 3-2 against what many would call the top three teams in the East…that’s one win shy of a victory in a playoff series.

Even more impressive, Orlando beat Boston in the season series at 2-1, broke even with Detroit and will have a rubber game against Cleveland in March and then another game on ESPN in April.

Basically, there is no one in the East that can be considered better than Orlando, because the Magic have gone toe to toe with “the best.”

Currently, Orlando trails Boston by nine games and Detroit by six. It may seem like a stretch for Orlando to surpass Boston or even Detroit in the standings, but it is indeed reasonable to believe that Orlando can make a run and even earn the #1 seed…unlikely, but possible. Look at how the teams are playing and what they have ahead of them.

Detroit is my favorite to finish atop the East, because aside from last night’s blowout loss, they have been playing great ball. They had won 10 in a row, but in their victory sandwich, Orlando is the bread, beating Detroit right before their streak and also ending it. This is the first time in years that Orlando actually hasn’t been intimidated to face the Pistons.

The boys from Motown have a tough schedule to finish off the year though. They must head out west at the end of this month and must face the likes of Utah, Phoenix and Denver. Detroit actually must play 14 of their final 29 games on the road, not necessarily easy, but not unmanageable. Where Detroit does have a downside is their strength of schedule. The Pistons will have 18 games against playoff caliber teams (depends on if you consider Philly playoff caliber and then its 16), which is brutal.

Then there is Boston, who looks primed to take a drop. Talented, yes, but old….definitely. They started off fast but age is starting to catch up with them, like many though it would. Granted, they have played well without Kevin Garnett, but Miami, New York and Indiana isn’t exactly the toughest bunch to beat.

The C’s have a whopping 31 games remaining on their schedule, and 17 of those are away games. Even more disgruntling for them has to be that they have to Western Conference road trips. That’s not to mention that 13 of those teams have plus .500 records and a handful of more teams that are playoff caliber in the East (not saying much though).

Cleveland also has 29 games left on the schedule, with just 13 on the road. They have no big road trips but 11 games against teams with a plus .500 record. The Cavs might be poised to make a run due to their steady play as of late and manageable schedule.

Now let’s look at Orlando’s schedule. They have just 27 games left on their schedule and just 11 road games, with Milwaukee being the farthest west they’ll travel. Most importantly though, just 10 of those games are against teams with winning records. Also, only 11 games will be on the road as well.

With the easiest schedule remaining in the East and all major road trips out of the way, Orlando is primed to make some kind of a run. They are 7-3 in their past 10 games, with wins coming over the likes of Boston, Detroit, Denver and New Jersey. Their three losses are to the L.A Lakers, the Cavs and the Mavericks, all playoff teams, and all games were within single digits and could have been won had several things gone differently.

What is most promising about Orlando is how they have played their past two games against Denver and Detroit. They didn’t win just because they got hot and started raining threes. They played solid defense and everyone played their specific role to perfection. This is coming in the wake of Stan Van Gundy calling out Dwight Howard and publically pleading for him to play more defense. Dwight has done that and the team has responded well. This is the time of year you want to start playing great basketball, and with Orlando starting to do that, the powers of the East better watch their backs.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 at 10:14 am and is filed under Orlando Magic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.