The Orlando Magic shockingly fell to the shorthanded Boston Celtics and will now visit the Philadelphia 76ers as the eighth seed in the Play-in Tournament. It is a situation that could have been avoided.
Several hours before the Orlando Magic would face the Boston Celtics for the final game of the 2025-26 regular season, I talked about the worst case scenario for Orlando heading into the postseason.
Well, that scenario has become a reality.
The Magic fell to the severely shorthanded Celtics, 113-108 after leading by double digits. Now, Orlando is set to visit the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday as the eighth seed in the NBA Play-in Tournament.
After winning five-straight games, the Magic entered TD Garden with a chance to win out and host the No. 7/ No. 8 play-in game on Tuesday. However, a world existed where if the Magic lost and the 76ers won, Orlando would have to go on the road. Philadelphia defeated the Milwaukee Bucks, 126-106.
Orlando had some control over its destiny and watched it slip away.
With the second seed locked up, the Celtics cobbled together a starting lineup of Baylor Scheierman, Jordan Walsh, Luke Garza, Max Shulga and Ron Harper Jr. Meanwhile, the Magic had every key player available.
No Jayson Tatum to worry about, no Jaylen Brown, not even Payton Pritchard or Derrick White. A full-fledged roster vs a bench unit.
Yet, it would not matter, as the Magic’s three best players could not produce an effort that leads a team to victory, even against the most vulnerable opponent. Desmond Bane became the first Magic player to start in every regular season contest since Dwight Howard in 2009-10, yet he only took eight shots and scored eight points in 17 minutes of play.
Paolo Banchero had a triple-double, but he hit just seven of his 22 shot attempts and committed six turnovers. Franz Wagner had 20 points, but it took 18 shots to do it of which he only hit seven. Jalen Suggs had 23 points and had the closest thing resembling an efficient night of the Magic’s core group of players (8-17 FG, 7-15 3PT).
In the end, the Magic watched an 11-point third quarter lead slip away and ended up trailing by as many as 16 points late. They shot just 39.6% from the floor and 27.9% from 3-point range.
Now, whatever is left of Orlando’s season just got much more stressful than it needed to be. But that has been the story of the season, the high points followed by the depths of the low points.
The Magic have prided themselves throughout the season on adhering to their process and taking things one game at a time. Now, one game at a time is all they have.
A win means that the Magic get in the playoffs anyway. A loss puts them in a sudden death situation against the winner of the No. 9/ No. 10 game in hopes of becoming the eighth seed instead of going home for the summer.
Whatever the case, these were not the expectations for the Magic coming into the 2025-26 season, but as Jalen Suggs said recently, "It’s our present reality. You can't do anything to change it. "
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