After losing their first play-in games earlier in the week, the Magic and Suns bounced back in impressive fashion on Friday, winning home games against the Hornets and Warriors, respectively, to clinch their spots in the playoffs. Orlando and Phoenix will enter the first round as No. 8 seeds, with the Magic taking on Detroit in round one and the Suns facing Oklahoma City.
The Magic ran out to a 22-point lead by the end of the first quarter in Friday’s early game and expanded that cushion to 31 points by the end of the second quarter. Their defense set the tone early by allowing the Hornets to make just 5-of-20 (25.0%) shots from the floor in the first period and 13-of-41 (31.7%) in the first half. Orlando maintained that significant lead in the second half, winning by a score of 121-90.
“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,” head coach Jamahl Mosley said after the game, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “There (are) no second chances.”
Paolo Banchero contributed 25 points and a team-high six assists to lead a balanced offensive attack that saw all five of the Magic’s starters score in double-digits. Franz Wagner added 18 points and matched Banchero’s six assists, while Desmond Bane was a team-best plus-30 in his 35 minutes of action despite scoring just 13 points on 4-of-14 shooting.
In the late game, the Suns emulated the Magic by building a big lead in the first quarter, though Phoenix gave most of that 18-point edge in the second quarter before putting the win away in the second half by a score of 111-96.
Suns guard Jalen Green, who struggled in his first taste of playoff action with Houston a year ago, was excellent in this week’s play-in games, scoring 35 points in Tuesday’s loss and then pouring in 36 more in Friday’s win over Golden State. Green made 14-of-20 shots, including 8-of-14 from beyond the arc, and also contributed six rebounds, four assists, three blocks, and two steals. His eight three-pointers matched a career high.
The Suns also did an admirable job holding Warriors star Stephen Curry in check after he went off for 35 points in Wednesday’s win over the Clippers. Curry made just 4-of-16 shots from the field in Phoenix and had as many turnovers as assists (four apiece).
The Suns and Thunder will tip off their series in Oklahoma City at 3:30 pm Eastern time on Sunday, with Game 1 of the Magic/Pistons matchup to follow in Detroit at 6:30 pm.
While Phoenix and Orlando will enter the series as massive underdogs, their regular season results against their first-round opponents offer a sliver of hope — the Suns went 2-3 against the Thunder, while the Magic went 2-2 vs. the Pistons.
So much for the Hornets shooters bouncing back, that was fugly.
GSW accomplished the better draft pick strategy loss, it will be interesting to see how the lottery goes for them.
Pistons and OKC in 5.
lol agreed. Straight up beat down. But all jokes aside..I think the hornets should think about adding better vets around lamelo. The kid is talented for sure, but he lacks discipline. He needs like a jrue holiday type of player, mentoring and guiding him through tough situations, especially during a must win game against Orlando. Anyways, they’ll probably be better next season. The suns meanwhile will probably be the next team we see get beat down. It’ll be fun to watch either way it goes..
Looks like HoopsRumors readers got it wrong
link to hoopsrumors.com
You gotta stop thinking of basketball based on vibes and who you like and dislike. Charlotte played at home against Miami, barely made any turnovers, which is very uncharacteristic of them, injured the opponent’s best player in the 1st quarter, and still only scraped into overtime because White made some crazy 3s. But the vibes were great, sure.
And Orlando have been disliked by most because of the Bane trade and because of other things which I honestly can’t even articulate. Again, why do folks dislike Orlando? Does anyone care to explain?
Anyway. So people voted for Charlotte. But that’s not how basketball works, folks.
The moment I heard that Diabate had an injury, I thought “Orlando’s got this”. And when I saw him move poorly in that 1st qtr yesterday, it was clear Charlotte had no chance.
I appreciate your “Saturday morning revelation” regarding your Orlando Magic pick prior to Friday’s game. Well done !!
It would be real impressive if you told us NOW what will happen later TODAY in the NBA.
Or if you’re not feeling any of the games today, you can tell us what will happen Sunday in the NBA.
My prediction is that all the home teams win today except for the Lakers. Which is consistent with the Vegas odds.
The Rockets will lose to the Lakers.
The refs will determine the outcome.
The narrative has been written for them.
I hadn’t heard that KD was out when I posted that comment.
You need to be a little more friendly with Damon Jones.
Want a prediction?
Celtics won’t make it to the Eastern Finals.
I don’t get why after Tatum’s return they were proclaimed the best team in the East.
He won’t be at his best this off-season after that injury. His return has shifted the team dynamics, and I’m not sure that the shift is for the better.
That’s interesting, Peter. Not sure who you think will knock them off? Detroit is Young, Sixers don’t have it, Cleveland is flawed…
I agree that Philly don’t have it. Boston will probably advance to the next round.
They will face NYK or Atlanta. I think Boston will lose that series.
OK. Again interesting.
Well, Boston didn’t make it to the Eastern Finals.
I thought they’d go out in the Semis. But Philly surprised us.
Yes, they sure did. Embiid for all the crap he gets is stepping up. Coming back that quick from appendix surgery sounds hero-like because I’m not sure of the normal timeline there.
I guess Tatum was feeling a calf strain in the other calf and didn’t want to risk the Achilles thing for next season. That’s totally understood. especially since he knows what the last one felt like.
So now who comes out of the east. Wow total crapshoot. Has to be the Knicks, right?
Yeah, Boston looked off. Mazzula and their fans will be tempted to say: “It was close late, but we just missed open shots”. I don’t think it was that simple. They started the game flat and didn’t look like a team but a collection of individuals. I saw that after Tatum’s return as well, it’s just that they were making their shots, and it masked it. His return seriously disrupted them. If not in this round, I think they would’ve gotten knocked out in the Semis. Even with Tatum.
It’s hard to pick Philly over NY. How likely is it that George and Embiid will continue to play well and shoot hot? Not very likely. How likely is it that the rookie will keep having a big positive impact? Again, not very likely; rookies seldom do that.
And Philly’s bench has not produced for them. NY’s bench is quite productive, they play well as a unit and don’t rely on having a starter or two to carry them.
Plus, while a lot has been said about the OKC-Phoenix series, and LAL always get accused of that, I thought that the NYK-Atlanta series was actually the most one-sided in terms of officiating in this first round. New York got almost every call imaginable.
In several games, coach Brown made poor challenges. But you know what? You can’t make a good challenge when every decision goes your way. And not just in New York. Games 3 and 4 in Atlanta were like that, too. That female ref closest to the camera kept making mistake after mistake in game 3.
So yeah, New York are favourites. But you are right, it’s kind of a crаpshoot. It wouldn’t totally surprise me if Cleveland or even freakin Orlando of all people advanced to the Finals. Hard to call.
It’s easier to predict the outcome of the Finals. OKC will sweep anyone, or it’ll be a 4-1 or maybe a 4-2 that’s not actually close, just OKC with a couple of bad shooting nights.
Talent wise OKC should sweep any opponent.
But people have personalities and ups and downs and drawing upon motivation to go 150% at all times can be challenging. Just ask any team attempting to repeat.
So OKC probably in 6 over whoever gets there, for those very reasons.
I guess you’re right. It’s easy to predict OKC to win every series 4-0, but they will lose games.
And thanks! I like this forum. Here we can have real conversations and actually discuss something. In other places like Youtube, Reddit or TikTok it’s just about who leaves the most clever short comment to get the most upvotes.
By the way, I like your breakdown. Good view of what’s going on right now and why we are where we are.
There were some good reasons why Vegas and the people voting thought that the Hornets would win, based on how the teams played post allstar break.
Hornets were 18-9, and that was with losing both games in their B2B vs playoff teams Rockets and Cavs starting the post ASB schedule. Their longest losing streaks down the stretch were 2 games.
Magic were 17-12, and had a 6 game losing streak that included losing to the Hornets by 19.
I hadn’t heard that Diabate was injured when I voted. For the play-in games, I went 3-1.
What direction does GSW take? Run it back or rebuild?
Run it back? Some will argue that the 2025-26 failure was just bad luck. Steph to get healthy be an MVP candidate, Draymond is ageless, Porzingis will get healthy, Butler and Moody return at full strength by March, and they’re a still a contender.
Rebuild? It’s time to start over. Steph alone isn’t enough, and he’s showing his age. Contract obligations to Butler and Green preclude building a competitive roster in 2026-27. Make 2026-27 year 1 of a rebuild. Get a dynamic young coach, and make the painful trades to acquire more draft picks and youth. Keep Steph and hope he’s ready next season when $100M of cap space appears.
Great questions. Either way it does seem like they need five or six new guys who actually can have an impact on an NBA game. In Dunleavy I trust.
Rebuild. Suns were younger and fresh legs. Warriors look old out there. maybe they can trade a future 1st rounder for a 1st rounder in this draft. Their only hope is to play close to .500 ball and if Butler and Moody can come back mid season. Please do not trade for LeBron, Giannis or Leonard. That would be psuhing the team back another 5 years of rebuild.
You know that GSW in their current state can’t compete with what’s out there. Can’t compete with OKC, Denver, SA and a bunch of other young promising teams in the West.
Their ceiling in 23-24 and 24-25 was knocking out a young team in the 1st playoff round, which they did in 24-25.
Next season, their ceiling is probably having a respectable regular season (35-40-ish wins) and either getting knocked out in the 1st round or in the play-in game. But what’s more likely for 26-27 is a series of injuries, a sharp decline of older players, and young players they currently have not developing into anything of note. If they run it back, the only good thing that’ll happen to them in 26-27 will be some great but inconsequential games from Curry.
Is that worth the squeeze? Not at all. But they may run it back just because they’re still popular and get good revenues, they have Curry and feel like they owe him at least a gesture of some kind, etc. But as far as them being competitive, it’s over.
Remember our chat last summer?
link to hoopsrumors.com
We talked about it in June, and to be honest, as it got closer to October, I felt less confident in my prediction. And they didn’t even start the season particularly well; they were below .500 for the first month or so. But the coach and the organization as a whole resisted going into tank mode.
Peter, A superb take.
Agreed, with this roster and the unavailablity of Butler and Moody:
– the ceiling is 35-40 wins
– the expected wins are closer to 30, given the accelerating decline in performance and availability of their older players.
Keep in mind that ownership/management needs to plan beyond 2026-27. Season ticket subscriptions (and $900M in revenues) were locked in 3 weeks ago, so next year’s performance won’t factor into this off-season’s planning. The critical business consideration is convincing fans before April of 2027 of the team’s future direction. Otherwise, the highest priced tickets in the NBA quickly lose 30% of their value.
Although this season bombed and there is no young talent, GSW still finds itself in the position Boston did coming off a Championship season with valuable young talent under long-term contract: their current spend must be dramatically reduced. This season, the Warriors paid the 2nd highest luxury tax in the league. And there is no way out of the > $120M obligations to Curry and Butler next season.
As you know, the CBA is designed to force teams into a 5-6 year spending cycle, with spending peaking with the success in the last years, and then “resetting” after success. Progressive tax penalites are so punitive for consecutive years of over-spending that even the wealthiest teams (Warriors, Clippers, Knicks, etc) must comply. GSW fans have been spoiled by success, but every team must plan for at least one “down season”, with lower spending and lower wins.
Prediction: the rebuild starts now. Expect:
1. Cut to next year’s payroll.
– Steph, Butler, Moody, and Draymond (who won’t be extended) get paid $174M, leaving little for the rest.
– Porzingis won’t be resigned, and most of the $28M he made this year will go unspent.
2. Losing. 28 wins, maybe less. Steph will win some on his own, but he won’t be over-used.
3. Talent rebuild : 3 high draft picks by 2027 draft.
– High lottery pick in 2026-27 draft.
– “Franchise PG” in this draft (there are 6-7 of them, and one should be available at #11. (Philon should still be there, maybe Brown. Maybe they trade up.)
– The “cycle” dictates that you synchronize the development of multiple players in 1-2 years, not spreading it over time. So, for this 2026 draftm, we trade a 2030 or 2032 draft pick for a 2026 draft pick. Several teams are currently looking to make this kind of swap.
– Exchange Draymond Green for draft capital or young player.
4. 2027-28: back in the mix
– Steph still around
– Podz, Santos, Moody as rotation players
– $100M of cap space to acquire new talent
– 3 new young players
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
The best thing that could have happened to Orlando is face Detroit Pistons. I know about Detroit record but I think that Boston is the best team in the east, Orlando would have had 0 chance to beat the Celtics, but instead I think they will have a better chance with Detroit based on the little experience of the Pistons players in the playoffs.
This will be a very interesting.
Rocco, I think you’re right that Orlando would get spanked by Boston.
I’m amused by the use of “interesting” to describe the Detroit-Orlando matchup. These may be the two most physical teams in the league. Orlando has fallen short of my expectations this year, but they have something to prove. This will get nasty.
Orlando starting five – with Franz healthy – has a little advantage over Detroit’s. Detroit’s bench is far deeper and better. I don’t think any of the team will lose a home game.