The Orlando Magic’s preseason makes a giant move as the team heads to China for a three-game exhibition in Shanghai and Macao starting Wednesday. Joining the Magic will be Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, along with the Chinese national team. The games, which will be broadcast to over 200 countries, represent the third journey by NBA teams into China and only the second time for ‘official’ preseason games. The last visit was in 2004 when the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings made the trip for a similar series of games involving the Chinese national team.

Back in June, Dwight Howard made a trip to China in order to promote the games to be played this week. According to DwightHoward.com, he tried to learn a few phrases in Chinese, but couldn’t quite manage to get them out when being intervied by Chinese television. He did promise to make his return trip entertaining, though, stating “I might have a special dunk for the fans in China.” We’ll have to see if he keeps that promise and if he’s been able to memorize those phrases yet.

Past trips to places like China and Japan have proved difficult on early season results for some sports teams. The Magic will have just under two weeks before the season begins when they return from the long trip. While this should be enough time to fully recover, it will be interesting to see if there’s any effect on any of the players’ performance. A slow start is never good in the NBA.

As for the Magic’s preseason results, they are currently 2-1 after beating the Miami Heat 102-69. The Heat were playing without superstars Shaquille O’Neal and Dwayne Wade, though, so there’s nothing to get too excited about.

For more information about the games in China or the team itself, check out the Orlando Magic website. The two games vs. Cleveland will be televised on ESPN2 at 8am and 12:30am on the 17th and 20th, respectively.

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