Our annual prediction contest<\/a>, presented by Castrol, for the 2026 NBA Playoffs is live!<\/p>\nCheck it out \u2014 if you pick a perfect bracket, you can win $1,000,000. The best non-perfect bracket wins tickets to a 2026-27 NBA game.<\/p>\n
APRIL 15 \/ 6:30 ET<\/p>\n
Tale of the tape: Magic-76ers
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Tyrese Maxey and the Philadelphia 76ers take on Paolo Banchero and the Orlando Magic in the opening half of tonight\u2019s SoFi Play-In Doubleheader on Prime.<\/p>\n
Orlando Magic: ORTG: 114.9 (19th) DRTG: 114.3 (11th) Net Rating: +0.6 (17th)<\/p>\n
The Magic need Jalen Suggs. With him in the lineup, they\u2019re 34-23 this season \u2014 without him, they\u2019re 11-14. Suggs provides playmaking, toughness, athleticism, quick perimeter defense, hustle and timely 3-point shooting, all of which can be in short supply in Orlando. He\u2019s in the lineup tonight.<\/p>\n
Beyond Suggs, the Magic need the duo of Paolo Banchero (22.2 ppg, 8.4 rpg) and Franz Wagner (20.6 ppg, 5.2 rpg) to give the Sixers\u2019 wings problems. Can Paul George stay in front of one of them? Will Kelly Oubre Jr. or Quentin Grimes be able to handle the other? Does Justin Edwards or Dominic Barlow end up with the assignment? The Magic\u2019s stars have overlapping skills, but they\u2019re both adept at putting pressure on the rim. It\u2019ll be huge if they can get in the lane.<\/p>\n
Orlando\u2019s made the Playoffs in each of the last two seasons, falling to the Cavaliers in seven games in 2024 and the Celtics in five in 2025. This squad is still young, but they have experience. Will they have hunger tonight?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Philadelphia 76ers: ORTG: 115.4 (17th) DRTG: 115.5 (16th) Net Rating: -0.2 (18th)<\/p>\n
The 76ers still don\u2019t have their best lineup, with Joel Embiid (emergency appendectomy) missing tonight\u2019s game. But they have a deep, talented squad. Tyrese Maxey (28.3 ppg, 6.6 apg) has grown into a top-notch scorer this season \u2014 he\u2019ll need to be able to force the Magic\u2019s stalwart defense into rotation tonight, along with VJ Edgecombe (16.0 ppg, 5.6 reb).<\/p>\n
This is a game for Paul George (21.3 ppg since returning from suspension March 25). Can the nine-time NBA All-Star find his best game tonight and outplay Banchero or Wagner? He has the size and skill to go toe-to-toe, world-class experience and the opportunity to create a lasting memory for Philly fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Sixers will also need Andre Drummond and Adem Bona to step up in Embiid\u2019s absence. Drummond\u2019s had a varied, interesting career, ending the regular season at 28th on the all-time rebounding list with 11,513 boards. Will Wendell Carter Jr. and Goga Bitadze out-battle him?<\/p>\n
APRIL 15 \/ 6:00 ET<\/p>\n
Welcome to night two of the SoFi Play-In Tournament!
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Stephen Curry and the Warriors face Kawhi Leonard and the LA Clippers in the nightcap of tonight\u2019s SoFi Play-In Tournament doubleheader.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the second night of the SoFi Play-In Tournament! After the Hornets advanced and the Trail Blazers earned the seven seed in the Western Conference, we\u2019ve got two more games for you tonight on Prime.<\/p>\n
NBA.com\u2019s Steve Aschburner has more for you about tonight\u2019s contests.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paolo Banchero and the Magic are facing Tyrese Maxey and the 76ers to open our SoFi Play-In Tournament…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,7,164,192,6,66874,76,678,207,3817,8641],"class_list":{"0":"post-711412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-76ers","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-golden-state-warriors","11":"tag-la-clippers","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-nba-live-blog","14":"tag-orlando-magic","15":"tag-philadelphia","16":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","17":"tag-philadelphia76ers","18":"tag-sofi-play-in-tournament"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116411500163632960","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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