Evaluating Washington Wizards’ competition for the 8th seed

4. The Orlando Magic

If the Brooklyn Nets can turn their recent slide around, the Orlando Magic could very well find themselves back in the 8th seed where they sat most of the season. And maybe ahead of the Washington Wizards as well.

The Magic have dropped their last two and have given up 130 and 114 points in those losses, which are bad signs for the team. The Magic’s bread and butter is defense, as they sit in 4th in the league at just 106.9 points per game for their opponents.

On the flip side of that, they struggle to score almost as badly as the Charlotte Hornets at 29th in the league with just 105.3 points per game. Evan Fournier is having a career year scoring the basketball, averaging 18.9 points per game, the highest in his career with percentages that are nearly as good as his career years as well.

And of course Nikola Vučević and Aaron Gordon are putting up numbers for their team as they have for years, but maybe the biggest surprise is the contributions of newly acquired Markelle Fultz, whom the team acquired in February of 2019 for Jonathon Simmons and some picks.

Fultz has seen a resurgence in his ability to score the basketball and is averaging 11.7 points per game on 46.3 percent shooting.

But the team is also sorely missing Jonathan Isaac who was coming on as a very decent two-way player in his 32 games this season before suffering a severe bone contusion in his left knee that cost him the rest of his 2019-20 season.

Still, the Orlando Magic have the easiest remaining strength of schedule of any team on this list, having just the 24th toughest schedule of all 30 NBA teams in their remaining 21 games. They also own the tiebreaker over the Washington Wizards with a commanding 4-0 lead in the season series.

 Head-to-head games remaining: 0

Odds of making the playoffs: 99.6%

Current record: 27-34

Games back: 0