Orlando Magic stars Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner entered Tuesday’s NBA Play-In Game averaging a combined 60-plus-points against the Atlanta Hawks this season. But, as the two struggled to find their offense, the Magic’s bench stepped up and led them to an 120-95 win.
Cole Anthony came off the bench to lead Orlando with 26 points and six assists, while Anthony Black scored 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting, and was a game-high plus-34 in 28 minutes. With the victory, the Magic will advance to play in a first-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics starting on Sunday at Boston.
After jumping out to an early double-digit lead, it looked as if the Magic would cruise into that 7-seed, but then the Hawks surged out of the half-time break. They cut the margin to 71-68 with three minutes remaining in the third quarter as Orlando’s offense went cold. It’s common for the Magic to have poor offensive stretches during games and that will be a problem moving forward. It almost downed them on Tuesday, but they kicked into gear and didn’t let Atlanta capture the lead, before blowing the Hawks out of the water in the fourth quarter.
The Magic tend to make up for their lack of offense with one of the best defenses in the NBA. That was on display Tuesday as they held the Hawks to 38.1% shooting from the field and 19% from 3-point range. While Trae Young finished with 28 points, he was an inefficient 8-of-21 and the Magic got under his skin to the point that he kicked the ball in anger and earned a technical foul in the fourth quarter.
Banchero ended with 17 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, but Orlando will need more from him if it wants any chance against Boston.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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