The Orlando Magic thrashed the Charlotte Hornets 121-90 to keep their season alive as the NBA playoffs’ final teams were determined Friday.<\/p>\n
Paolo Banchero<\/a> top-scored with 25 points to set up a daunting first-round playoff series for the Magic<\/a> against the Eastern Conference top-seeded Detroit Pistons<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was Orlando’s last chance to qualify for the postseason via the play-in tournament, having failed at their first attempt against the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n A physical, tough Magic outfit outmuscled the youthful Hornets<\/a> from the tip-off of the win-or-go-home game in front of a sell-out 19,000 home crowd at Orlando’s Kia Center.<\/p>\n Banchero bulldozed Charlotte’s defense, scoring 12 in the first quarter alone.<\/p>\n Having never trailed by more than a single point, Orlando soon stretched comfortably clear, establishing a giant 35-point lead shortly before half-time.<\/p>\n Recovering from a sluggish start, LaMelo Bell<\/a> – the hero of the Hornets’ first play-in game against Miami<\/a> on Tuesday – exploded after the break.<\/p>\n He poured in 21 points in the third quarter alone as he tried to single-handedly extend Charlotte’s season.<\/p>\n But Orlando’s lead never dipped below 20 points, as the Magic eased to a win against a Charlotte side that had finished the regular season in strong form.<\/p>\n Victory ensured the Magic have reached the playoffs for the third straight season, while the Hornets’ decade-long wait goes on.<\/p>\n The NBA playoffs begin Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orlando Magic thrashed the Charlotte Hornets 121-90 to keep their season alive as the NBA playoffs’ final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,48,6,47,76,3883],"class_list":{"0":"post-712942","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\/116423932252632377","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712942","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=712942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}