Magic lock No.7 seed
The Orlando Magic beat the Philadelphia 76ers 112-99 to secure the Eastern Conference No. 7 seed and a first-round matchup with the Boston Celtics. (usatoday.com)
Orlando grabbed the Eastern Conference’s No. 7 seed with a 112-99 play-in win over Philadelphia on Wednesday night, sending the Magic into a first-round series against Boston. (nba.com) The two teams finished the regular season tied at 45-37, but Philadelphia hosted the game at Xfinity Mobile Arena because the 76ers won the season series 2-1. The winner advanced straight into the playoff bracket, while the loser dropped into a second elimination game on Friday. (nba.com) The play-in format puts the No. 7 and No. 8 teams in a single game for the seventh seed, with the loser getting one more chance against the winner of the No. 9 versus No. 10 game. In the East this year, that means Philadelphia will next face the Charlotte Hornets or Miami Heat for the No. 8 seed. (nba.com; sports.yahoo.com) Orlando’s reward is Boston, the East’s No. 2 seed, in a best-of-seven series that opens Sunday, April 19, at 1 p.m. Eastern at TD Garden. The National Basketball Association’s bracket had that matchup waiting for the winner of the Magic-76ers game before tipoff. (nba.com) The result caps a volatile finish for Orlando. The Magic entered Sunday’s regular-season finale one game ahead of Philadelphia for home-court advantage in the play-in, then lost 113-108 to a Boston team that sat its top seven scorers and slid into the road slot. (nba.com) It also extends a season of uneven stretches for a roster built around Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Jalen Suggs and trade addition Desmond Bane. NBA.com noted Orlando won more than three straight games only twice this season and followed a seven-game winning streak in March with six straight losses. (nba.com) Philadelphia arrived here from a different place. The 76ers went 24-58 last season, improved to 45-37 this year, and entered the play-in without Joel Embiid after what NBA.com described as an emergency appendectomy last week. (nba.com) That left Tyrese Maxey as the headliner for Philadelphia in a game that decided whether the 76ers would get Boston immediately or fight to stay alive on Friday. Instead, Orlando took the direct path, and the Celtics now have their first-round opponent. (espn.com; nba.com)
