{"id":714732,"date":"2026-04-20T18:43:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714732\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T18:43:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:43:32","slug":"orlando-magic-must-avoid-same-fate-as-past-game-1-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714732\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic must avoid same fate as past Game 1 winners"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT \u2014 The night D.J. Augustin sank a 3-pointer from the top of the key to help the Magic<\/a> stun the second-seeded Raptors on the road April 13, 2019, Jonathan Isaac<\/a> remembers entering Toronto\u2019s Scotiabank Arena feeling like an underdog.<\/p>\n

And rightfully so, for that opening-round Eastern Conference playoff series.<\/p>\n

During the 2018-19 season, Orlando<\/a> needed to win 11 of its final 13 games. The Magic clawed their way to a 42-40 record and claimed the No. 7 seed to make the playoffs in the era before the NBA play-in tournament.<\/p>\n

The Raptors wound up as NBA champs that season. Toronto won 58 contests in the regular season, went 32-9 at home and featured the league\u2019s most improved player in Pascal Siakam and All-NBA second-team pick Kawhi Leonard.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to Sunday night: The underdog Magic went into Detroit\u2019s Little Caesars Arena<\/a> against the top-seeded Pistons<\/a> and exited Game 1 of their first-round playoff series on top. While the outcome of both games was the same, the emotions that followed weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt way different because I don\u2019t know how long it had been since the Magic had been to the playoffs before that,\u201d Isaac, the last Magic player from that 2019 squad still on the team, told the Orlando Sentinel<\/a> on Sunday night. \u201cThat one \u2013 and Toronto was playing so well \u2013 that one was pretty crazy.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight felt confident,\u201d the eighth-year veteran added. \u201cTonight felt resilient and reserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Isaac\u2019s point, the Magic hadn\u2019t been to the playoffs since 2012 when it matched up against Toronto seven years ago. This year\u2019s group, however, is in the playoffs for a third consecutive year, though the Magic were dealing with a failure to meet expectations in the regular season.<\/p>\n

Orlando needed two chances in the play-in tournament to even reach this point. The 2019 team didn\u2019t have the luxury of the play-in as a fallback. Still, Isaac, who missed Game 1 at Detroit<\/a> because of a left knee sprain, wasn\u2019t surprised by Sunday\u2019s result.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a rocky season, but I\u2019ve always known that the confidence, the stature that this team has, is in there,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd now I guess we\u2019ve proven the perfect time to let it come out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Magic will need to continue to play with a high level of confidence Wednesday night for Game 2. They\u2019ll need it to avoid the same fate as the 2019 squad. After winning Game 1, the Magic dropped their next four games in the first-round series against the eventual champion Raptors.<\/p>\n

The last three times Orlando has won Game 1 of a playoff series (2020 in the NBA Bubble vs. Milwaukee, 2019 against Toronto and 2012 vs. Indiana), the Magic lost their next four games.<\/p>\n

The last time Orlando won Game 1 of a playoff series and also won the series: 2010 vs. Charlotte in a first-round sweep. The Magic reached the Eastern Conference Finals that year, sweeping Atlanta in a semifinal before falling to Boston 4-2.<\/p>\n

While Detroit will look to respond Wednesday, the longest-tenured member of the Magic likes what he\u2019s seen so far inside the Orlando locker room and on the court against the Pistons.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s so vocal right now,\u201d Isaac said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s so tuned in: It\u2019s not about an individual, it\u2019s about the team. Everybody\u2019s important. Everybody\u2019s contributing. And I just love it. I\u2019m really excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2014 The night D.J. Augustin sank a 3-pointer from the top of the key to help the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,165,48,6,47,76,3883,1412,80939,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-714732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-magic","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-magic","14":"tag-orlandomagic","15":"tag-social","16":"tag-social-sports","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116438515842466888","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714732","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=714732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}