In the first game of the NBA play-in tournament, Cole Anthony came off the bench on Tuesday to lead Orlando to a 120-95 victory over Atlanta with 26 points and six assists to his name. This was the club’s first ever appearance in a play-in game, and now they have officially qualified for the playoffs.
Paolo Banchero also contributed with 17 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists for the Magic, while Wendell Carter Jr dropped 19 points and seven rebounds, and Anthony Black with another 16-point effort off the bench on 6-of-7 shooting.
After a balanced 41-41 regular season, now the Florida franchise emerge as the Eastern Conference’s seventh seed, and will face none other than the Celtics this Sunday evening at Boston. Orlando recently beat the defending NBA champions last week, but they rested their top six players that night.
“It’s a great opportunity to play against the best team in the league, and they’re the champs still until somebody beats ’em,” said coach Jamahl Mosley after eliminating the Hawks. “What they present is a lot of challenges, and we have to try to find a way to figure that out.”
Atlanta suffered the loss of Trae Young, who led with 28 points and six assists, as he earned two technical fouls and was ejected during the fourth quarter. “I thought we did a good job on Paolo and Franz [Wagner],” expressed his coach Quin Snyder. “And they had some other players who really stepped up and made plays.”
Banchero and Black had been the most productive-offensive threat for the Magic last night, while their rivals scored only six points in the final 6 minutes of their first quarter. By the end of the first half, Orlando was already leading by 22 points.
“It was a fun game, a big-time game, a unique type of challenge,” Banchero expressed. “I was interested to see how they were going to try to guard me. You could tell in the first quarter I was trying to get my teammates involved, moving the ball, and those guys got going. They carried us throughout the game.”
