http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orl-sptmagic06120604dec06,1,2571944.story?coll=orl-sports-headlines Orlando begins a 10-day, 6-city tour of the mighty Western Conference tonight. DENVER -- Assembling the parts perhaps faster than expected, the Orlando Magic take their workshop out West tonight to start their longest road trip in three years. It's a chance to take yet another look through the keyhole at what they might be building. And rebuilding. After finishing with the league's worst record last season, the Magic stunningly sit atop the Eastern Conference at 11-5. They have defended their home court (7-2), much of it in the face of those powerful visitors from the Western Conference. They have climbed over .500 on the road (4-3), their most recent victory against the Knicks on Friday night in New York. Now for the Magic comes another "reveal," as the makeover shows tout: The sometimes successful, always treacherous and usually defining West Coast junket. "Yeah, I think it will be [defining]," forward Grant Hill said. "People expect us to cave in and then they can catch up. But we're looking to bond out there and come back better." The Magic meet their most daunting challenge since the franchise underwent summer renovations: A six-game trip over 10 days. The battling order: Denver (tonight), Utah (Wednesday), Golden State (Friday), the Los Angeles Lakers (Sunday), Phoenix (Dec. 13) and San Antonio (Dec. 15). Every club except the Warriors is considered a playoff candidate. The Suns are the league's hottest story, and the Spurs again look like title favorites. It will be the franchise's longest road trip since its six-game, nine-day sojourn in December 2001, a five-loss junket that began in Atlanta and ended in Seattle. The journey to the Left Coast was where last season unraveled. The Magic left with a 1-7 record. They returned at 1-12 and without their head coach, Doc Rivers, who was fired Nov. 17 in Salt Lake City after a loss to the Jazz. Western Conference teams figured into 10 of their club-record 19 consecutive losses. "Historically, we haven't done well out there," Hill said. The Magic had lost their last 18 games on the road to Western Conference teams before beating the Hornets on Nov. 5 in New Orleans. And the Hornets, transplants from the East, have been in the "West," what, 10 minutes? "It still counts," Coach Johnny Davis said. True, but now we're talking heading out West. We're talking serious time-zone changes and a two-movie flight. We're talking places with snow, smog, ocean breezes and desert nights. Not Bourbon Street and beignets. We're talking the NBA's best acrobats, wide-open, foot-to-the floorboard offenses, the tough-as-salt-rock Jazz, Kobe unshackled and Tim Duncan's signature bank-shot. The Magic's victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday guaranteed them this: They will return no worse than with an overall .500 record -- even if they drop all six games. The Magic likely will be favored only against the perennially struggling Warriors. Their best chances will come early at Denver, Utah and Golden State. The Magic play the Lakers and the Suns in a back-to-back. They beat Bryant and L.A. at home Nov.12, but they haven't won in La La Land since March 1996 (0-7). Orlando is 1-12 at San Antonio since 1992. "You shouldn't concede anything because you're on the road," Davis said. "If you go out with the mind-set that you're going to lose three games before you take off, that's negative thinking. "Some people think that a great trip is if you come back .500, but I don't know if you have to subscribe to that. . . . Historically, that's been the standard in the NBA. But championship-caliber teams don't think like that. Michael Jordan and Larry Bird didn't think like that." Sounds as if the coach is just as intrigued as fans to look through that keyhole at the Magic.
This is gonna be brutal...but then again if you look at Steve's game, he tends to step it up against the tougher opponents and slack off against the easier people. So you never know.
The Magic have 4 former western conference players on the team in Francis, Mobley, Cato, and Turkoglu. I don't see why the writer in this article is so pessimistic. I think they will win atleast 4 out of 6.
I like their chances because defensively Cato and Howard can cover the bigs as well as anyone in the league and their is no team in the west that can cover Hill, Cat, and Steve except for the Spurs. I can't wait for the suns game because I'm thinking a 130-120 point game.
So you're saying they'll go 4-2, 5-1, or 6-0 on the road against the Nuggest, Jazz, Warriors, Lakers, Suns, and Spurs? I think 2-4 wouldn't be bad, 1-5 would be understandable, and 3-3 should be considered successful. I hope that Magic-Suns game will be 140 to 138 or something. That game needs to be on national tv.
The fact that the magic are a bad road team might factor in to the mix too, don't you think? Their last game against NY was impressive, but against the west will be another story.
I think they could go 4-2. Denver - W (Anthony plays like crap after all of the bad press he's been getting) Jazz - W Warriors - L (should win, but they will lose to the lesser team) Lakers - W Suns - W Spurs - L (Spurs blow them out of the building after tough win against the Suns)
man my last final is saturday and i was thinking about driving home sunday afternoon, but i may have to hang around to catch the magic-lakers and magic-suns games on league pass b/c of the ex-rocket connections in the first and just for the excitement in the second. if the magic pay their usual attention to detail, 120 for both teams shouldn't be too hard. and if they can come out of this 2-4 they'll be doing well.
3-3 should be possible.... Jazz and Warriors should be a win.... Lakers/Nuggets... probably steal 1 there.... Spurs and Suns will be hard to beat.....
i can't think of our whole roster right now, but have the 3 guys on the magic actually played longer for the rockets than the entire current rockets roster has played for the rockets? cat 6 years, cato and steve 5 years i think for 16 years. yao 2 years, mo 5 i think, boki 2 (if you can even count boki's years), jj 1 and maybe a few others like padgett with 1? maybe i'm forgetting someone but i'm pretty sure no one has been here longer than mo and yao. so it seems like our team would fall short of the 3 in orlando. kind of amazing to think about how much the roster has turned over and how long those guys were here (which is why they get posted about so much).
I see them going 3 and 3 with losses to Denver, Phoenix and San Antonio. This road trip will go a long way in really gauging their season so far. They are among the teams that has played the fewest games so far and that has really helped their legs and record.
As at last Saturday we had played 2 more games than them. Are trying that the two game difference does not matter? Do you know that some point we were about 3 or 4 games ahead of them in the played column? Anyway that is that - the schedule will balance itself out. Every team experiences schedule issues.
