:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/58268579/usa_today_10338496.0.jpg)
WHO: Orlando Magic vs. Dallas Mavericks
WHAT: Two teams that aren’t playing well are forced to play basketball for the enjoyment of nobody.
WHERE: American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. CT
HOW: Fox Sports Southwest or NBA League Pass.
THE STORY: So, me personally, I am not as in tune with the NBA as I once was. Getting married, moving, keeping up a full-time regular job during the day and writing and helping run a Mavs site kind of means you have to be focused when you have free time to watch basketball on well, the Mavs.
Which is why when I looked up the Magic here as I type this, I was floored. The last I remember honestly thinking about the Magic since the season started, they were a fun story of a hodgepodge of young talent finally coming together. Aaron Gordon had taken the leap and his 41 point game early in the season was very neat. On Nov. 10, the Magic were 8-4 and there was hope around the league that an aimless franchise with no real identity had actually found one behind a burgeoning star.
Today is Jan. 9 and the Magic are 12-28. Holy shit.
They’ve gone *deep sigh* 4-24 since Nov. 10. That is very bad! They are right back to where they were the last handful of seasons, a bad team with no direction and no real hope that anything is ever going to change. Gordon is still awesome, thankfully, or I think we’d have to round up all the Magic fans as threats to national security.
The Mavericks aren’t that better off, amazingly. Sitting at 13-28, the Mavs, despite being a pretty competitive team, are pretty much in the same place in the standings on the team that has lost 24 games in about two months. Yikes.
Needless to say, this isn’t a barn-burner of a matchup. The Magic enter tonight on a four-game losing streak — the Mavericks riding a three-game spell of their own. So while we all watch as Dennis Smith Jr. gets better, also dream about visions of Gordon, a restricted free agent this summer, pairing up with Harrison Barnes as the forward the Mavs desperately need to balance their too small and too big roster.
Go...Mavs *sobs*