{"id":711519,"date":"2026-04-16T03:54:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T03:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/711519\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T03:54:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T03:54:30","slug":"hornets-vs-magic-play-in-schedule-dates-times-tv-channel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/711519\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornets vs. Magic Play-In Schedule: Dates, Times, TV Channel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">The Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament is about to come to an end. Following a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/magic\/onsi\/desmond-bane-shines-orlando-magic-lose-76ers-play-in-tournament\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">tough 109-97 road loss to the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> on Wednesday night, the Orlando Magic are now set for a must-win showdown against the Charlotte Hornets.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">The Hornets arrive in Orlando with momentum after edging out the Miami Heat 127-126 in their Tuesday matchup. For the Magic, the mission is simple: win on Friday night to secure the No. 8 seed and a first-round date with the Detroit Pistons, or see a promising season come to an abrupt end.<\/p>\n<p>Charlotte Hornets vs. Orlando Magic Game Details<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6p\">The winner of this matchup will officially become the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n<p>Date: Friday, April 17, 2026Time: 7:30 p.m. ETLocation: Kia Center, Orlando, FLTV\/Streaming: Prime VideoPlay-In Path<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6y\">The road to this Friday night clash was determined by the opening games of the tournament:<\/p>\n<p>7\/8 Game: The 76ers defeated the Magic 109-97 on Wednesday. The Sixers claimed the No. 7 seed, while the Magic dropped to the final elimination game.9\/10 Game: The Hornets defeated the Heat 127-126 in overtime on Tuesday. The Heat have been eliminated, while the Hornets advanced to face the Magic.Regular Season Series<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"77\">During the regular season, the Hornets held the upper hand in the head-to-head matchup, winning three of four meetings.<\/p>\n<p>Date<\/p>\n<p>Location<\/p>\n<p>Result<\/p>\n<p>Score<\/p>\n<p>Oct. 30, 2025<\/p>\n<p>Charlotte<\/p>\n<p>Magic win<\/p>\n<p>123-107<\/p>\n<p>Dec. 26, 2025<\/p>\n<p>Orlando<\/p>\n<p>Hornets win<\/p>\n<p>120-105<\/p>\n<p>Jan. 22, 2026<\/p>\n<p>Orlando<\/p>\n<p>Hornets win<\/p>\n<p>124-97<\/p>\n<p>Mar. 19, 2026<\/p>\n<p>Charlotte<\/p>\n<p>Hornets win<\/p>\n<p>130-111<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">The Hornets won both meetings in Orlando this season, giving them some confidence that they can go into the Kia Center for a third time and pull out the biggest win of their season to clinch a spot in the playoffs for the first time in 10 years.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7f\">The Magic come into the game just days removed from having a chance to clinch a top-six spot in the East. After <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/magic\/onsi\/news\/orlando-magic-slide-puzzling-rotation-decisions-loss-boston-celtics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">losing to the Boston Celtics in the season finale<\/a> along with the defeat against the 76ers, the Magic find themselves with one more life.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s Next for the Winner?<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7l\">The team that emerges victorious on Friday will have a quick turnaround. As the No. 8 seed, they will advance to the first round of the NBA Playoffs to face the Detroit Pistons, who finished the regular season with the best record in the East at 60-22.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7o\">The loser of Friday&#8217;s game will be eliminated from postseason contention and enter the NBA Draft Lottery, but the Magic&#8217;s pick will go to the Memphis Grizzlies as part of the Desmond Bane trade.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament is about to come to an end. Following a tough 109-97 road loss&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,48,6,47,76,3883],"class_list":{"0":"post-711519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-magic","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-orlando","12":"tag-orlando-magic","13":"tag-orlandomagic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116412368416744384","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711519","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=711519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}