The Orlando Magic had a disastrous end to their regular season, and they are dealing with the fallout of it in the national media.
The Orlando Magic squandered their chance at securing the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference and hosting a play-in game after losing to the Boston Celtics on Sunday, 113-108.
The loss came to a Boston lineup that was strung together as the Celtics, who had already secured the second seed heading into the postseason, were resting their key players.
The Magic still found a way to lose. Now, members of the national media, such as Bill Simmons, are putting them on blast.
Joined by Zach Lowe on The Ringer podcast, Simmons and Lowe expressed the significance of the loss for the Magic and what it could mean for the future of head coach Jamahl Mosley.
“I think Mosley — I don't think he wasn't on the hot seat before, but this is a borderline catastrophic Orlando loss,” Simmons said. “I mean, they actually went backwards in the standings and now have to play a play-in game as the road team; inexplicable.”
The Magic allowed Baylor Scheierman, who in his second NBA season had only been averaging 5.5 points per game in an average of 18.6 minutes per contest, to drop a career-high 30 points. Ron Harper Jr. and Luka Garza each added 27 points, and the Celtics used a third quarter burst in which they outscored the Magic 42-20.
Because of the loss, the Magic are compelled to go on the road as the eighth seed to face the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday.
“This whole thing about just not taking game 82 seriously enough because the other team's going to rest some guys, the league's too good now when guys play scrubs,” Simmons added. “They're not scrubs anymore.”
“You know, all it cost them was home court in the seven/eight game against a Philly team that's not going to have Joel Embiid,” Lowe said. “So, let's just not like pretend that it costs them like the fifth seed or the sixth seed.
And it's certainly embarrassing,” Lowe added. “They should still be able to beat Philly with no Embiid on the road. And if they can't and their season ends, then Jamahl Mosley’s seat that has been hot all year, it then erupts in flames.”
Mosley chose to stagger minutes in an attempt to keep the workload of his key players down, and it was a plan that backfired on him. Key pieces such as Desmond Bane and Anthony Black played less than 20 minutes, and Franz Wagner only played 26 minutes.
Given Mosley’s decision making, Simmons did not mince words.
“It was a horrific coaching job,” he said.
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