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Om Youngmisuk
multiple authors
Orlando, Florida — 3:20 to go, orlando magic guard Desmond Bain woke up confused miles bridgeAnd Ben had a big smile on his face while Magic had an even bigger lead charlotte hornets.
ban and jalen suggs Ben crushed Bridges by throwing the Hornets forward as he went for the ball. Bridges turned the ball over, was called for a loose-ball foul and was given a technical foul for pushing Ben as he was trying to get up.
Ben said, nodding his head repeatedly, “Yes!” As the Magic were headed to a commanding 35-point lead in the first half. In a do-or-die game for the eighth seed in the East, the Magic called their most complete game yet and destroyed the Hornets. 121-90 On Friday. According to ESPN Research, the 31-point victory is the largest margin of victory by any NBA team in a play-in game.
Orlando avoided an incredibly disappointing and underachieving season filled with injuries and inconsistencies by playing motivated, connected and physical basketball. The Magic will travel to Detroit to play the top-seeded Pistons in Game 1 of their best-of-seven first-round series on Sunday.
“We showed a video this morning, all these guys were in the NCAA Tournament,” Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley said. “You talk about ‘one shining moment.’ All these guys have played there, they know you’re a player. And that was it tonight.
“You have a chance to either end your season or start a new season. The defense in the first half was probably as excellent as we’ve seen in a while.”
Friday’s game was a blueprint for how Orlando is designed to play. The Magic troubled the Hornets with their physicality on both ends, playing suffocating defense that led to 14 turnovers in the first half, which Orlando converted into 22 points, and it looked like the team entering the season was expected to be a top-four unit in the East.
“When you play with a sense of desperation and urgency, when you know you’re either going home or extending your season, that’s what it looks like,” Mosley said after the game. “There [are] No second chances.”
Charlotte, which overcame a 4-14 start and became one of the league’s hottest teams thanks to a top-ranked offense (120.7 ORTG) and fifth-ranking defense (110.2 DRTG) since Jan. 1 in the regular season, was hoping to end the longest playoff drought in the NBA in nine seasons.
The Hornets arrive with confidence after an emotional 127-126 overtime win over the Heat in the 9-10 Play-In on Tuesday. And the Hornets were 3-1 against the Magic this season, winning by 15 or more points in each of the last three meetings.
But instead, the Hornets looked bewildered in the first half.
Not only was Orlando stifling on defense, but the Magic repeatedly leaked for easy baskets after missed shots or turnovers, leading to 24 fast-break points.
The Magic went on a 26–6 run from the middle of the first quarter to the beginning of the second quarter, and Charlotte never recovered. The Hornets did not score 30 points until the 3:02 mark of the second quarter.
Orlando’s largest lead was 68–33 with 1:16 left in the second quarter.
“We dug ourselves a hole that was too big,” the Charlotte star point guard said. lamelo ballWho finished with 23 points. “We couldn’t get out of it.
“We knew they were going to be really physical… but sometimes, that’s just the way the game is… it’s all lessons learned. You live, you learn. You evolve.”
It’s been an up-and-down season for the Magic. They traded four unprotected first-round picks, plus a first-round pick swap. Kentavius Caldwell-Pope And cole anthony till memphis grizzlies to Bain last summer, which was supposed to open things up paolo banchero And franz wagner. But the Magic never put things together, and Wagner missed 48 games this season due to injuries.
The Magic didn’t let their season end at home, losing 109-97 in the 7-8 play-in game on Wednesday in Philadelphia. A physical Banchero had 25 points, six assists and five rebounds against Charlotte, after totaling 18 points and missing all five of his 3-point attempts against the Sixers.
“Great player, you have to answer,” Banchero said. “That’s what they pay you to do. You can’t just settle for substandard performance, especially in situations like this, do or die, win or go home, have to perform for your teammates and set the tone. I thought I did that. I thought Jalen did that. I thought anthony blackDesmond Bain, everyone. “I thought we all set the tone for what was to come.”
The Magic know they will need a lot of this to have any chance of upsetting the Pistons.
“There’s a physicality to this game that’s going to be real,” Mosley said about the Magic and Pistons playing a similar brand of physical basketball. “…There’s going to be a lot of aggression. There’s going to be a lot of physicality. It’s going to be a dogfight.”
