ORLANDO - A fairly good way to measure whether a young team is making progress is by examining how many times they are within striking distance of their opponents in the final minutes of games.
For the Orlando Magic, who have the seventh youngest roster in the NBA with an average age of 24.7 years old, the data is promising.
Although behind far more often than they are ahead in crunch time, the Magic have frequently been within five points of their opponent in the last three minutes of the fourth quarter. In 17 games, in fact, the game has either been tied or Orlando has been down by no more than five in that window of time.