{"id":712818,"date":"2026-04-18T00:33:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712818\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T00:33:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:33:20","slug":"hornets-face-magic-for-playoff-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712818\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornets face Magic for playoff spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Charlotte Hornets<\/a> are one win away from ending a decade-long playoff drought as they prepare to face the Orlando Magic<\/a> for the final spot on Friday night in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

UPDATES:<\/p>\n

1st Quarter<\/p>\n

Previous coverage:<\/p>\n

The team that continues to gain confidence, especially after the battle against the Miami Heat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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ALSO READ: Heat, Hornets react to NBA ruling on uncalled LaMelo Ball foul, and how he’ll be eligible to play<\/a><\/p>\n

The Hornets survived a win-or-go-home scenario on Tuesday with the 127-126 victory over Miami, and their reward? To do it again.<\/p>\n

However, this is for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve already played Orlando four times this season and won three of those games.<\/p>\n

The NBA said Charlotte\u2019s LaMelo Ball<\/a> should have been ejected for an uncalled flagrant foul when he reached out and tugged on the ankle of Miami\u2019s Bam Adebayo.<\/p>\n

Ball spoke Friday for the first time since the league fined him three days before.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s all basketball. I feel like Bam<\/a> knows,\u201d Ball said. \u201cWe never had anything going on. I never had anything with anybody. I just go out there and play basketball. Even the one before. I\u2019ve seen it. I tried to foul him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMessage, mindset, is to take the confidence of the last game, understanding that we are built for this moment,\u201d said coach Charles Lee. \u201cWe have earned this moment, but on every possession, this is all we\u2019re guaranteed is this one game.\u201d<\/p>\n

>> Sports reporter DaShawn Brown will be live at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. to break down the game and what\u2019s next for the Hornets. Channel 9\u2019s Eli Brand will also have instant reactions from one of the many Hornets\u2019 watch parties.<\/p>\n

The Hornets are learning postseason is a completely different beast.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere were a bunch of moments where you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh wow, we\u2019re in a good spot. We\u2019re going to win,\u2019 and then you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh no, we could lose this game,\u2019 but I think the guys stayed steady,\u201d coach Lee said on Thursday. \u201cThe communication was really good. The execution in crucial moments was great. I think the last two days have been good for us to rest, recover, eat, sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, the goal isn\u2019t to go back and forth with a great scoring team,\u201d Hornets\u2019 Brandon Miller<\/a> said on Thursday. \u201cWe always want to get a few stops.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee spoke about Ball\u2019s fines on Thursday, as well.<\/p>\n

Coach Lee said he loved that Ball took accountability and didn\u2019t believe it was malicious.<\/p>\n

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He also said he\u2019s relieved that Ball will be available to play.<\/p>\n

VIDEO: Hornets to face Magic in final play-in battle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Charlotte Hornets are one win away from ending a decade-long playoff drought as they prepare to face…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[2648,7,970,473,9306,1409,966,48,189,6,47,76,3883],"class_list":{"0":"post-712818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-bam","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-brandon-miller","11":"tag-charlotte-hornets","12":"tag-dashawn-brown","13":"tag-eastern-conference","14":"tag-lamelo-ball","15":"tag-magic","16":"tag-miami-heat","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-orlando","19":"tag-orlando-magic","20":"tag-orlandomagic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116422903563834107","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712818","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=712818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}