The Orlando Magic Need A Pyramid Scheme To Play Better At Home

In sports, you usually think that the home team has somewhat of an advantage over their opponent. However, this season the Orlando Magic's opponents probably can't wait to face them in the Amway Arena. The reason? The Magic are 15-5 on the road, and just 7-7 at home.

And how has this happened? Well, when they hit the road the Magic average 104 points per game, and shoot an average of 73% from the charity stripe. At home, they average 102 points, and make an average of 68% of their free throws. For the most part, their other statistics are pretty close no matter where they're playing.

In examining the four home losses that were in the double digits we can see that the Magic didn't shoot particularly well from either the floor or the free throw line. Their field goal averages in those four losses were 40%, 47%, 39% and 45%. The corresponding free throw averages were 66%, 42%, 60% and 62%. You can see that even in the one loss where they shot ok from the floor their poor free throw shooting doomed them.

I know that a number of people have raised questions about the Magic's struggles at home, but after looking at the statistics it appears that they should be able to achieve more success at the Amway Arena in the future. The first step is to raise their free throw percentage to what it is when they play on the road. Doing that will instantly better their odds of winning more home games. The Magic have the pieces in place to win a considerable amount of games, as their away record shows. They just have to put it together more consistently when they play at home so they can match the intensity and success that they've had on the road.