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Magic

As the 2025 NBA Playoffs tip off, every team in the Eastern Conference brings with it a burning question. Some are looking to validate their dominance, others are hoping to make noise for the first time, and a few are simply trying to recapture playoff magic from the past. Here&rsquo;s one key question for each East playoff squad heading into this year&rsquo;s postseason.
Cleveland Cavaliers &ndash; Are they for real?
The Cavaliers were expected to take a leap under new head coach Kenny Atkinson, but few predicted it would be this significant. Cleveland posted a 64-18 record, up from 51 wins last season, and ranked eighth in the NBA in defensive rating (111.8) while climbing to the best in the league in offensive rating (121.0). It&rsquo;s a massive leap in two-way consistency, anchored by Evan Mobley&rsquo;s breakout campaign and a more dynamic offense tailored around Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland.
Mobley&rsquo;s development has been a game-changer. The 22-year-old averaged career-highs in points (18.5), rebounds (9.3), and assists (3.2), while maintaining elite rim protection (1.6 blocks per game). Offensively, his confidence as a shot creator and short-roll playmaker opened up space for the rest of the team. The Cavs now run more actions through Mobley, especially from the elbows, and his improved jump shot has made him far more difficult to guard.
But make no mistake &ndash; Mitchell remains the barometer. The All-Star guard battled injuries down the stretch but still averaged 24.0 points, 4.5 assists, and 5.0 rebounds on 44.3% shooting. If he can stay healthy and lead confidently on both ends, Cleveland has the pieces to make a legitimate run to the conference finals.
The Cavs have the metrics, the momentum, and the maturity. Now it&rsquo;s about proving they belong with the league&rsquo;s elite when the lights are the brightest.
Boston Celtics &ndash; Can they go back-to-back?
The reigning champions enter the playoffs with a sense of unfinished business &mdash; not because they failed last year, but because they&rsquo;re now chasing greatness. The Celtics finished 61-21 this season for back to back 60-win seasons. They had the league&rsquo;s second best net rating at +9.4, fueled by elite balance: second in offensive rating (119.5) and fourth in defensive rating (110.1).
Jayson Tatum continues to evolve as one of the NBA&rsquo;s most complete stars. His 26.8 points per game came with improved efficiency (58.2% true shooting) and a career-high 8.7 rebounds. Tatum has learned to pick his spots better, moving the ball when doubled and attacking mismatches when given space. Jaylen Brown, fresh off his Finals MVP last season, has become a more consistent creator as well, averaging 22.2 points.
Add in Kristaps Porzingis&rsquo; floor spacing and rim protection, Jrue Holiday&rsquo;s stability on both ends, and Derrick White&rsquo;s ability to do everything in between, and the Celtics are again the most complete team in basketball. But repeating is never easy. No team has done it since the Warriors in 2018, and even small injuries or matchup issues can derail a title defense.
Boston is built for this moment, but with every other East contender gunning for them, the question looms large: can they close the deal twice in a row?
New York Knicks &ndash; Can they stay healthy?
When fully healthy, the Knicks look like a team that can hang with anyone &mdash; and that includes Boston and Cleveland. But that&rsquo;s been the caveat all season. Jalen Brunson missed 17 games, Karl-Anthony Towns sat for 10, and OG Anunoby dealt with multiple absences due to elbow and hamstring issues. New York&rsquo;s starting five of Brunson, Hart, Bridges, Anunoby, and Towns had time to play with pace and their own style, and they looked formidable.
Brunson has been the Knicks&rsquo; engine, averaging 26.0 points and 7.3 assists while continuing to elevate in crunch time. His pairing with Towns gave New York a new level of offensive versatility, and Mikal Bridges&rsquo; ability to guard top wings allowed them to scheme freely. But concerns about wear and tear remain &mdash; especially under Tom Thibodeau, whose rotations have leaned heavily on his starters. All five starters have averaged in the top 15 of the most minutes played in the league, and that can likely put a strain on their bodies.
Depth is another concern. The Knicks rely on Precious Achiuwa, Cam Payne, Delon Wright, and Landry Shamet to absorb the bench minutes. A deep run hinges on all starters being available and fresh throughout the postseason. If any one piece breaks down, New York could fall short of its championship aspirations.
This is their most talented team in years &mdash; but availability may be just as important as ability.
Indiana Pacers &ndash; Do they have enough to make a deep run once more?
Last year, the Pacers surprised many by reaching the second round, aided in part by injuries to their first-round opponent. This year, expectations are higher &mdash; and the margin for error is thinner. Indiana finished 50-32 and ranked 9th in offensive rating at 115.4. Their identity remains clear: run fast, shoot threes, and trust in Tyrese Haliburton to control the tempo.
Haliburton posted 18.6 points and 9.2 assists per game this season, and despite shooting efficiency dipped slightly as teams began pressuring him more aggressively, he bounced back quite nicely and got back to the high level he was playing at. That&rsquo;s where Pascal Siakam comes in to help him and provide a stabilizing frontcourt presence, while defending opposing bigs.
Depth-wise, the Pacers have the tools. Myles Turner remains one of the league&rsquo;s best shot blockers, Andrew Nembhard has been solid alongside Haliburton, Bennedict Mathurin has been a spark off the bench, and Aaron Nesmith&rsquo;s development as a 3-and-D wing adds much-needed versatility. Still, the question remains: can they win when the pace slows and every possession becomes a grind?
Indiana is fun, fast, and fearless. But deep playoff success often requires more grit than style &mdash; and this postseason will test how much of both they truly possess.
Milwaukee Bucks &ndash; How lethal can the Giannis-Dame combo be?
It&rsquo;s been a bumpy road for the Bucks since pairing Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, but they enter the playoffs with renewed hope. Injuries limited their time together but when both were on the floor, Milwaukee looked like a top 4 team in the East. The potential for a dominant inside-out attack remains, even as questions swirl around their chemistry and late-game execution.
Giannis put up another MVP-caliber campaign (30.4 PPG, 11.9 RPG, 6.5 APG) on 60.1% shooting, while Lillard added 24.9 points and 7.1 assists per game, albeit with a slight dip in efficiency (44.8 FG%, 37.6 3P%). Their pick-and-roll tandem has shown flashes of brilliance, especially with spacing provided by their teammates. But Milwaukee&rsquo;s defense remains a glaring concern, particularly at the point-of-attack.
Much of that responsibility falls on new head coach Doc Rivers, who took over midseason and has spent much of his tenure reshaping the defensive schemes. The team has shown better connectivity lately, but consistency is key. If the Bucks can get solid two-way contributions from Brook Lopez, Taurean Prince, and Kyle Kuzma, their ceiling rises considerably.
This postseason is the first true test of the Giannis-Dame partnership after a failed one last year. Can it deliver in crunch time and carry Milwaukee back to the Finals?
Detroit Pistons &ndash; Can they win a playoff series?
One of the most surprising stories of the season, the Detroit Pistons went from dead last in 2024 to securing the No. 6 seed in 2025 with a 44-38 record. It&rsquo;s a dramatic turnaround fueled by internal growth, better health, and the emergence of Cade Cunningham as a legitimate star. Cunningham averaged 26.1 points, 9.1 assists, and 6.1 rebounds, and improved his shooting splits across the board &mdash; including a respectable 35.6% from three.
Head coach J.B Bickerstaff deserves credit for stabilizing the young roster. Jaden Ivey (despite being out for the year to injury), Ausar Thompson, and Jalen Duren have all taken steps forward in their roles, and the addition of veterans Malik Beasley, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Tobias Harris has added much-needed floor spacing and leadership. The Pistons ranked 10th in defensive rating at 112.5 &mdash; a massive leap from their abysmal finish last season
Still, playoff basketball is a different animal. Detroit lacks experience, and their margin for error will be slim. Can Cunningham carry the offense when defenses trap him? Can their shooters hit timely shots? And can Duren hold his own against seasoned playoff bigs?
Winning a series would be monumental for the franchise &mdash; and a sign that Detroit&rsquo;s rebuild is truly behind them.
Orlando Magic &ndash; Can their offense hold up?
There&rsquo;s no questioning the Magic&rsquo;s defensive pedigree. They finished second in defensive rating (109.1) and boast a switch-heavy scheme built around length, versatility, and discipline. But the big question entering the playoffs: can they score enough? Orlando ranked just 27th in offensive rating (108.9), and the loss of Jalen Suggs and Mo Wagner due to injuries further thins their already-limited shot creation.
Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner carry the bulk of the offense, but both have faced inconsistent stretches. Teams often sag off sub-par shooters like Cory Joseph or Jonathan Isaac, daring Orlando to hit perimeter shots &mdash; something they&rsquo;ve struggled to do all year. Against Boston&rsquo;s elite defense, those issues could be magnified.
Orlando will try to control tempo, force turnovers, and win the possession battle. They&rsquo;ve been excellent in close games, but whether they can consistently generate efficient halfcourt looks remains uncertain.
Defense may win championships, but the Magic need buckets to even stay in the fight.
Miami Heat &ndash; Will they be able to replicate the Heat playoff magic this year?
The Heat have built a reputation as a team you never want to face in the playoffs &mdash; especially as a lower seed. In 2023, they made the Finals as an 8-seed. In 2024, they made the Celtics work despite key injuries. But can they pull off another surprise run this year? The roster remains largely intact, but injuries, aging stars, and inconsistency have clouded their outlook.
Without Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo must step up on offense while anchoring the defense. Tyler Herro&rsquo;s scoring punch is much needed, and the role players should contribute as well. But questions linger around depth and chemistry within their lineups after a shaky year.
The Heat finished just 21st in offensive rating (112.4) and 9th in defensive rating (112.0), a sign that the margins are tighter than ever. Still, if any team knows how to punch above its weight class, it&rsquo;s this one. Erik Spoelstra will maximize every mismatch, he always finds a way to manipulate the opposing team.
Don&rsquo;t count them out just yet but don&rsquo;t expect the same magic to happen each and every time as well.

Breaking down the biggest question facing each team in the 2025 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs.

2025 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs: Each team’s biggest question in the playoffs

Orlando Magic young superstar Paolo Banchero will be sidelined indefinitely due to a torn right oblique, according to ESPN&rsquo;s Shams Charania.&nbsp;
The 6-foot-10 forward will be re-evaluated in 4-6 weeks with his return depending on his response to treatment.&nbsp;
ANALYSIS: This is a tough break for the Magic currently with a 3-2 record. Banchero has been a big part of that, averaging over 29 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists in 5 games. He had a good start to the season, scoring 50 points, 13 rebounds, and 9 assists to become the second youngest player since LeBron James to have that statline.&nbsp;
Now the Magic will be scrambling and look to their bench to supplant Banchero&rsquo;s production. This could mean additional minutes for Jonathan Isaac, who has not played that much to start the year. This could also mean more offensive load for Banchero&rsquo;s co-star Franz Wagner, as he would be tasked to lead and score more for Orlando. Rookie forward Tristan da Silva would also likely get some run off the bench as players like Jett Howard, Caleb Houstan, and Anthony Black move up the rotational hierarchy.&nbsp;
This would be an interesting month of November for the young Magic as they try to keep in step with the East.

Orlando Magic young superstar Paolo Banchero will be sidelined indefinitely due to a torn right oblique.

Paolo Banchero out indefinitely due to torn right oblique

Day 8 of the 2024 NBA Playoffs saw some interesting games as we entered the halfway mark of the first round. The Orlando Magic leveled up their series vs the Cleveland Cavaliers, 2-2, at home. Boston regained control of the series against Miami after a tough game 2 loss to now lead 3-1, while OKC took a commanding 3-0 lead vs NOLA who are still without Zion Williamson. Lastly, the Lakers, after 4 games finally win against the Nuggets after leading most of the time in the entire series.
Check out the recap here:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
FINAL SCORE THREAD 🧵<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBAPlayoffs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBAPlayoffs</a> - Game 4 🏀 CLE 89 - 112 ORL | Series tied 2-2 Franz Wagner 📊 34 PTS | 13-17 FG | 13 REB | 4 AST Jonathan Isaac 📊 14 PTS | 5-7 FG | 4-6 3P | 7 REB | 2 BLK Jarrett Allen 📊 21 PTS | 8-11 FG | 9 REB <a href="https://t.co/f31CYHJM2F">pic.twitter.com/f31CYHJM2F</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1784369901299470391?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2024</a></blockquote>

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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBAPlayoffs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBAPlayoffs</a> - Game 3 🏀 OKC 106 - 85 NOP | Thunder leads series 3-0 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 📊 24 PTS | 8-20 FG | 8 AST | 5 REB | 4 STL Jalen Williams 📊 21 PTS| 9-16 FG | 3-4 3P | 9 REB | 5 AST | 2 STL Josh Giddey 📊 21 PTS | 8-13 FG | 4-7 FG | 8 REB | 6 AST<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ThunderUp?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ThunderUp</a> <a href="https://t.co/T8twIl6DnJ">pic.twitter.com/T8twIl6DnJ</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1784373151289454723?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 28, 2024</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBAPlayoffs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBAPlayoffs</a> - Game 3 🏀 BOS 104 - 84 MIA | Celtics lead series 2-1 Jayson Tatum 📊 22 PTS | 11 REB | 6 AST Jaylen Brown 📊 22 PTS | 11-20 FG | 8 REB | 3 AST | 2 STL <a href="https://t.co/YF1clU5Ua2">pic.twitter.com/YF1clU5Ua2</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1784394162206540138?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 28, 2024</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBAPlayoffs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBAPlayoffs</a> - Game 4 🏀 DEN 108 - 119 LAL | Nuggets lead series 3-1 LeBron James 📊 30 PTS | 14-23 FG | 5 REB | 4 AST | 3 STL Anthony Davis 📊 25 PTS | 23 REB | 11-17 FG | 6 AST D'Angelo Russell 📊 21 PTS | 8-15 FG | 4 AST Austin Reaves 📊 21 PTS | 7-15 FG | 6 AST First time&hellip; <a href="https://t.co/DRLLSh7emJ">pic.twitter.com/DRLLSh7emJ</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1784425292049903767?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 28, 2024</a>
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Day 8 of the 2024 NBA Playoffs saw some interesting games as we entered the halfway mark of the first round.

2024 NBA Playoffs Day 8 Recap: Lakers finally strike vs Nuggets; Celtics regain control

Views are the author&rsquo;s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the website.
The 2023-2024 NBA season has wrapped up and the race for the league&rsquo;s annual awards has officially ended. Here&rsquo;s a look at my picks of the NBA's award winners.
Most Improved Player: Tyrese Maxey, Philadelphia 76ers
(Runner-ups: Coby White, Jalen Johnson)
Notes: In the end, Tyrese Maxey takes the award with the amount of burden and responsibility in a Philadelphia team reeling from the loss of James Harden to become a true No. 2 option behind reigning MVP Joel Embiid. White improved a lot this year, increasing his averages both numbers and his shooting percentages. Johnson, like White, has also increased his usage and averages by a lot, featuring as the third option behind DeJounte Murray and Trae Young, or even as the second option without one of those two. A jumbo playmaking forward, Johnson showed improvements in his playmaking as well as his ability to score and had increased numbers in shooting as well. Ultimately, Maxey wins this award out because he was a guy who increased his usage and his role while playing most of the season without Embiid.
Sixth Man of the Year: Naz Reid, Minnesota Timberwolves
(Runner-ups: Malik Monk, Bobby Portis)
Notes: Naz Reid has been the best player off the bench this season with the way he has been an offensive spark plug for the Timberwolves this season. He&rsquo;s had a phenomenal season, and he had to start and fill in for Karl-Anthony Towns when he went down while still being an efficient scorer as he is. If you factor in all the stuff for these awards, you could actually make a case for Monk, for Portis, maybe even guys like Norman Powell for the Clippers and Bogdan Bogdanovic for the Hawks. But with Minnesota going 56-26 and having the second most wins in franchise history &ndash; ultimately ending up atop the three best teams in the West, this gives a little bit of boost to Naz Reid due to his importance to the team.
Defensive Player of the Year: Rudy Gobert, Minnesota Timberwolves
(Runner-ups: Victor Wembanyama, Anthony Davis; Honorable mention: Bam Adebayo)
Notes: One of the hardest awards to figure out. Minnesota had the best defense in the league for a reason, and based on that Rudy Gobert would be a deserving winner of the award. When he&rsquo;s off the floor, the team does not perform defensively the way it does when Gobert is on the floor. This was hard because Wembanyama had a legitimate case, being the generational defender that he was. Davis also had a strong case with how he carried single-handedly the Lakers&rsquo; defense, while Adebayo had the immense burden of playing all the defensive schemes in Miami. Ultimately, it ended up with Gobert with the way he lifted a good defensive team to the best in the league, manning that paint and being that anchor that holds all of the pieces together.
All-Defensive Team:
1st Team - Rudy Gobert, Victor Wembanyama, Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo, Herb Jones
2nd Team - Derrick White, Jalen Suggs, Jaden McDaniels, Alex Caruso, Jonathan Isaac
Notes: Starting this year, the NBA&rsquo;s All-NBA teams and defensive teams were positionless so I had to cheat a little bit here, putting 4 bigs in the 1st team. Gobert, Wembanyama, Davis, and Adebayo are no-brainers considering their defensive impact for each of their teams, while Jones takes the last spot in the 1st team for his ability to disrupt offenses as well as guarding each team&rsquo;s best player night in and night out for the Pelicans.&nbsp;
The second team features White (most blocks for a guard), Suggs and Isaac (best defensive players for the 4th best defense in the league, helping to lead the Magic back to the playoffs), McDaniels (best wing defender for the best defense in the league), and the perennial all-defense player Caruso who brings it in defensively every game.
Rookie of the Year: Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs
(Runner-up: Chet Holmgren)
Notes: Despite Holmgren having far and away the better team success, there&rsquo;s no denying Wembanyama&rsquo;s greatness in his rookie year. The French phenom has transcended the game both figuratively and on the eye test &ndash; he is simply a generational talent who is going to take over the league soon. Holmgren got off to a hot start in the first two months of the season but since January, Wembanyama has locked up the award for himself with out-of-the-world numbers for a rookie. He was dubbed as the best prospect since LeBron James and now he is well on his way to being one of the greatest of all time if he remains healthy after a historic rookie season.
All-Rookie Team:
1st Team - Victor Wembanyama, Chet Holmgren, Brandon Miller, Jaime Jaquez Jr., GG Jackson
2nd Team - Ausar Thompson, Amen Thompson, Keyonte George, Brandin Podziemski, Trayce Jackson-Davis
Notes: There were several names to choose from here, and it felt hard to cut some of them here. Jordan Hawkins of the Pelicans has had a good start to the year when the team had all those injuries paving the way for him to play early into the season but has seen the bench since as NOLA got healthier and players came back; Cason Wallace had such a good shooting year off the bench for the No.1 seeded Thunder despite shooting being labeled by scouts as his biggest weakness coming into the NBA; Dereck Lively II being center that Luka Doncic needed and fit well with by catching all those lobs and helping the Mavs&rsquo; defense this season big time; No.2 overall pick Scoot Henderson had a good close to his rookie year.
All in all, these 10 rookies have felt like the best rookies in terms of production, opportunity, and narratives surrounding them. Of course, Wembanyama and Holmgren are automatic locks; Miller has been the best player in Charlotte without LaMelo Ball and Mark Williams; Jaquez is a vital piece off the bench for Erik Spoelstra&rsquo;s playoff-bound Heat team; and GG Jackson becoming a legit NBA scorer despite being the youngest player in the league to round out the first team.
The Thompson twins have just been defensive monsters ever since stepping foot in the league; George playing point guard at Utah has turned some heads and he has stepped up with the opportunity given to him; while Podziemski and Jackson-Davis have arguably been rotational pieces to the Warriors despite being rookies and has contributed a lot to them finding a way to fit in a complex team.
Coach of the Year: Mark Daigneault, Oklahoma City Thunder
(Runner-ups: Chris Finch, Jamahl Mosley)
Notes: There have been so many good coaches this season that have elevated their teams to good records, say Ime Udoka of the Houston Rockets and Tom Thibodeau from the New York Knicks. But my Coach of the Year pick goes to Mark Daigneault of the OKC Thunder because this award tends to favor the expectations set for a team before the start of the season. The Thunder weren&rsquo;t supposed to be this good this season, but Daigneault catapulted them into one of the best teams not just in the West but the entire NBA. The evidence is written on the wall: No.1 in the West despite being the second youngest team in the league; having a top 5 ranking on both offense and defense and no.2 overall net rating. Finch and Mosley take the runner-up spots with the work they had to lift both the Timberwolves and the Magic to being top 4 seeds in their conferences as well as having top-rated defenses in the league.
Clutch Player of the Year: Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
(Runner-ups: DeMar DeRozan, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander)
Notes: Another tough and close race, but ultimately it goes to Curry. Despite the Warriors&rsquo; so-so record, Curry had the most clutch time points, shot 50% from the field, and 46% from three in clutch time. Curry had the most threes than anyone in crunch time &ndash; being just the incredible clutch-time performer that he is &ndash; and always been.
All-NBA Team:
1st Team - Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum
2nd Team - Jalen Brunson, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Anthony Edwards, LeBron James
3rd Team - Stephen Curry, Domantas Sabonis, Kawhi Leonard, Devin Booker, Tyrese Haliburton
Notes: With Jalen Brunson carrying the Knicks to a second seed in the East playing without Julius Randle since January, it was incredibly hard to leave him off the 1st team. However, by the slightest of margins, I gave the nod to Tatum for being the best player on the best team in the league by a wide margin.
All the other picks were pretty explanatory, with the top 4 in the MVP race in Jokic, Doncic, SGA, and Giannis all expected to be first-teamers. The second team kind of got tougher besides Brunson, with legends Durant and James making the list because of the seasons they had leading their team as well as playing their most regular season game in years. Rounding out the second team were Edwards and Davis, two stars with the biggest impacts on their teams in the tough Western Conference.
The third team is actually a toss-up with a lot of good cases from the league all around, but ultimately I went with Curry, Sabonis, Leonard, Booker, and Haliburton.
Most Valuable Player: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander&nbsp;
(Runners-up: Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic; Honorable mention: Giannis Antetokounmpo)
Perhaps the closest race out of all the awards, all three players here are each deserving with their narratives and the numbers that support each of their cases. You can never go wrong picking one over the other, so it came down to personal opinion on who I thought had the strongest case this season. His case?
-Leading the second youngest team in the league to No.1 in the West
-3-1 series vs Denver
-3-1 series vs Dallas
-First player since Steph and MJ to average 30/5/5 in a season with 2+ steals
-Second in defensive net rating for guards
One could make the argument for Nikola Jokic being the best player in the world having better numbers than his two MVP seasons while Luka Doncic had one of the best seasons statistically in all facets of the game, but there&rsquo;s no denying SGA&rsquo;s strong case as well given the expectations for this young Thunder team.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is my MVP.

The 2023-2024 NBA season has wrapped up and the race for the league’s annual awards has officially ended.

OPINION: Picking the 2023-2024 NBA Awards winners

In a game featuring two of the best No.1 overall picks in recent memory, the Minnesota Timberwolves blasted the Orlando Magic, 113-92, at the Kia Center in Orlando on Tuesday night.
Anthony Edwards, the No.1 pick in 2020, and Paolo Banchero, the No. 1 pick in 2022, failed to get any kind of momentum going throughout the game. Edwards only mustered 6 points due to foul trouble, while Banchero struggled shooting against a big Wolves frontline, finishing 8-of-22 from the floor for 18 points.&nbsp;
Lucky for Edwards, his teammates picked up the slack as the Wolves ran the Magic off the floor right from the get-go. They led from start to finish and never let Orlando develop a rhythm or make a run.
Karl-Anthony Towns led the Wolves with 28 points on a perfect 5-of-5 shooting from three-point range, while frontcourt mate Rudy Gobert was dominant in the paint, finishing with 21 points and 12 boards. Towns also made history as one of three active players to have 25+ points, 5+ rebounds, 5+ assists, 5+ threes and 3+ steals, joining Stephen Curry and Jalen Brunson.
Orlando, who's still without Franz Wagner, Wendell Carter Jr., Joe Ingles and Jonathan Isaac among others, only shot 36% from the floor against a stifling Minnesota defense that is ranked No. 1 in the NBA.
After this blowout victory, the Wolves will travel to Boston to face the Celtics tomorrow in a battle of the top-seeded teams in each conference.
As for the Magic, they will face their division-rival Miami Heat in their next game; they are currently tied for the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference.

The Minnesota Timberwolves blasted the Orlando Magic, 113-92, at the Kia Center in Orlando on Tuesday night.

Timberwolves blow out Magic as Anthony Edwards, Paolo Banchero struggle

Despite missing eight players, the Orlando Magic upset the Denver Nuggets, 122-120, on Friday night behind Paolo Banchero's first career triple-double.
Fresh off scoring a career-high 43 points in a double-overtime loss against the Sacramento Kings, Banchero poured in 32 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds for Orlando. The 21-year-old is the youngest player in Magic history to record a triple-double.
Banchero attempted a career-high 19 free-throw attempts, making 15 of them &mdash; including four free throws late in the game to seal the win for Orlando.
&ldquo;Coming into the game, we had eight guys out, so we had to have a next-man-up mentality," said the reigning Rookie of the Year and No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. "I can't be prouder of the team; that was a hell of a win."
Orlando came into the game with only nine players available, and then rookie Anthony Black left the game after just five minutes due to illness. The Magic played with just eight players the rest of the way. 
Franz Wagner (right ankle), Wendell Carter Jr. (right knee), Markelle Fultz (left knee), Gary Harris (right calf), Joe Ingles (left ankle), Jonathan Isaac (right hamstring) and Goga Bitadze (illness) were among the players who were sidelined.
Fortunately for the Magic, they made up for their lack of depth with hot shooting, making 17 three-pointers against Denver (led by Jalen Suggs&rsquo; career-high 7 threes). Orlando also shot a franchise-record 25 threes two nights ago in Sacramento.
Suggs and Cole Anthony combined for 50 points, while Mo Wagner added 19 to reinforce Banchero.
The Magic, who have now beaten the Nuggets twice this season to sweep the season series, move to 20-15 after going just 4-6 over their last 10 games and 6-9 over their last 15. Orlando is currently the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Nikola Jokic was splendid again from the field, scoring 29 points on 68% shooting, but it wasn't enough to lead Denver to victory a night after <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nuggets-nikola-jokic-hits-gamewinner-near-halfcourt-to-beat-warriors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">banking in a 39-foot heave</a> to bury the Golden State Warriors.&nbsp;

Paolo Banchero recorded his first career triple-double to lead his short-handed Magic to an upset win over the Nuggets, 122-120.

Shorthanded Magic beat Nuggets behind Banchero’s first triple-double

Most NBA teams have a young core of some sort, but some are better than others.
Each year, teams try to add to their young nucleus through the draft. The 2023 NBA Draft just featured the most highly-anticipated prospect since LeBron James in Victor Wembanyama, plus a number of other talented rookies like Scoot Henderson, Brandon Miller and the Thompson twins.
Entering the 2023-24 season, which team has the best young core? Today, we'll rank the five best cores from around the league. The criteria is simple: players must be age-25 or younger to be considered.
5. Orlando Magic&nbsp;
The Magic landed young star Paolo Banchero with the No. 1 overall pick last season, pairing him with 2021 lottery pick Franz Wagner to form a nice one-two punch. Cole Anthony had high expectations entering the league, but he hasn't quite become the player that fans wanted him to be. One player who has exceeded expectations is Wendell Carter Jr. After a shaky start to his career with the Chicago Bulls, Carter has found his place on the Magic and is considered one of the better young starting centers in the NBA. He isn't the only player who turned his career around after landing in Orlando, as Markelle Fultz is playing his best basketball and has a nice redemption story of his own. Other young players who have an opportunity to make an impact going forward are Orlando's recent lottery picks Anthony Black and Jett Howard, both of whom are 19 years old. Orlando has consistently been one of the worst teams in the league for several years now and while their rebuilding roster is solid, it isn&rsquo;t quite as good or enticing as some of the other teams on our list.
Notable Players: Paolo Banchero (20), Franz Wagner (23), Wendell Carter Jr. (24), Anthony Black (19), Jett Howard (19), Markelle Fultz (25), Cole Anthony (23), Jalen Suggs (21), Jonathan Isaac (25), Caleb Houstan (20)
4. New Orleans Pelicans
The Pelicans are the only young core on this list with postseason experience, as they made the playoffs in 2021-22 and made the play-in tournament last season. Their young core is largely carried by four players: Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy III and Herb Jones. Ingram has become a terrific scorer, and he's coming off a season in which he averaged career-highs in points (24.7) and assists (5.8). While Williamson has been one of the best players in the NBA when healthy, we haven&rsquo;t seen him on the court very much since he was drafted in 2019. Murphy is a terrific shooter and Jones has had a very solid start to his career as well, making a name for himself as a lockdown perimeter defender. New Orleans has a few other young players with potential including Dyson Daniels, Jordan Hawkins and Kira Lewis Jr., but they have yet to prove themselves. Ingram, Williamson, Murphy and Jones are the main reason why the Pelicans are ranked here.
Notable Players: Brandon Ingram (25), Zion Williamson (23), Trey Murphy III (23), Herb Jones (24), Dyson Daniels (20), Jordan Hawkins (21), Kira Lewis Jr. (22)
3. Houston Rockets
The Rockets have one of the more underrated young cores in the NBA, as their lack of success has prevented them from getting much recognition. Fortunately for the Rockets, their main issue has been lack of experience, and the team addressed it this offseason. They had money to spend and they brought in some veterans to help lead the team, most notably Fred VanVleet. That said, their young core is still extremely talented and got even better through this year&rsquo;s draft. The key for this Rockets team to succeed is to make sure these young players continue to develop at a high rate, which is where new head coach Ime Udoka and his staff come in. They have multiple players on their roster with All-Star potential, and it's possible they'll compete for a play-in spot by the end of the season.
Notable Players: Jalen Green (21), Jabari Smith (20), Alperen Sengun (21), Amen Thompson (20), Tari Eason (22), Kevin Porter Jr. (23), Cam Whitmore (19)
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2. San Antonio Spurs&nbsp;
The Spurs undoubtedly have one of the NBA's best young cores. No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama has made San Antonio the team to watch this season. That said, they likely won&rsquo;t be a playoff team for at least another year. While it's possible that they'll shock everyone, it will be difficult for Wembanyama to lead them to the postseason as a rookie. He will likely need at least a year to adjust to the NBA and develop before taking that next leap in his career. Wembanyama isn&rsquo;t the only young star on the Spurs, as they have already started developing fellow cornerstones Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson, who have made quite an impression. Throw in Tre Jones, Jeremy Sochan, Malaki Branham, Romeo Langford and Blake Wesley, and it's clear why the Spurs are this high. Other young players who have shown promise are Charles Bassey and Julian Champagnie, both of whom came over from the Philadelphia 76ers&rsquo; organization. These two players have displayed a ton of potential, particularly in the G League and Summer League, and they could be solid contributors for years to come.&nbsp;
Notable Players: Victor Wembanyama (19), Keldon Johnson (23), Tre Jones (23), Devin Vassell (22), Jeremy Sochan (20), Malaki Branham (20), Romeo Langford (23), Zach Collins (25), Blake Wesley (20), Julian Champagnie (22), Charles Bassey (22), Dominick Barlow (20), Sandro Mamukelashvili (24)
1. Oklahoma City Thunder
The Spurs were a hard core to beat but, to nobody&rsquo;s surprise, the Oklahoma City Thunder have the best young core in the NBA. Not only do they have the youngest starting lineup in the league, it is filled with young stars. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has emerged as one of the best guards in the league, while Josh Giddey and Rookie-of-the-Year runner-up Jalen Williams just had a terrific season. Chet Holmgren, the No. 2 overall pick in last year's draft, hasn't played yet but he will undoubtedly make an immediate impact and could give OKC a Rookie-of-the-Year finalist for the second year in a row. Despite how young the Thunder are, they could make a serious playoff push this season, with Shai at the steering wheel. Perhaps what's scariest about the Thunder is that they have 35 draft picks over the next seven years, including 15 first-rounders, so their already-impressive young core is still a work in progress.
Notable Players: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (25), Chet Holmgren (21), Josh Giddey (20), Jalen Williams (22), Cason Wallace (19), Luguentz Dort (24), Aleksej Pokusevski (21), Isaiah Joe (24), Tre Mann (22), Jaylin Williams (21), Ousmane Dieng (20), Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (22), Keyontae Johnson (23)

Entering the 2023-24 season, which NBA teams have the best young core? Hunter Simpson ranks the best cores from around the league.

Ranking the NBA's top-5 young cores entering the 2023-24 season

Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero has been named the NBA's 2022-23 Rookie of the Year and the recipient of the Wilt Chamberlain Trophy.&nbsp;
Banchero was widely regarded as a lock for this award, prompting numerous sportsbooks to remove Rookie-of-the-Year odds midseason.&nbsp;
Banchero received 98 first-place votes and 494 total voting points. Oklahoma City Thunder guard Jalen Williams was the runner-up, receiving 241 total voting points (although he received zero first-place votes).
Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler surprisingly received two first-place votes, but just 114 total voting points. Indiana Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin (27 voting points), Sacramento Kings forward Keegan Murray (21 voting points) and Detroit Pistons guard Jaden Ivey (3 voting points) also received votes.
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This season, Banchero averaged 20.0 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.2 threes and 0.8 steals, while shooting 42.7% from the field, 29.8% from three-point range and 73.8% from the free-throw line.
Orlando ran its offense through Banchero, and the 20-year-old proved that he has what it takes to be a No. 1 option. Throughout the season, Banchero displayed his ability to create for himself and others.
Banchero led all rookies in points, while also ranking third in assists, fourth in steals and fifth in rebounds. He posted 40 games of 20+ points and six games of 30+ points &ndash; the second-most by a Magic rookie.
The No. 1 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft won four consecutive Rookie of the Month awards during the season, earning the honor in December, January, February and March.
Banchero is Orlando's third Rookie-of-the-Year recipient, joining Shaquille O'Neal and Mike Miller (who is Banchero's agent).&nbsp;
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Banchero had a number of dominant performances throughout his rookie campaign.
On Nov. 5, he had a 33-point, 16-rebound performance against the Sacramento Kings &ndash; becoming just the second teenager in NBA history to record at least 30 points and 15 rebounds in a game, joining LeBron James. After scoring 30 points in the following game against the Houston Rockets on Nov. 7, he became just the fifth teenager in NBA history with back-to-back 30-point outings, joining LeBron, Luka Doncic, Zion Williamson and Devin Booker. On March 31, Banchero turned heads with 30 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 blocks in a win over the Washington Wizards.
While Banchero's efficiency dipped at times during the season, his dominant start to the campaign and strong finish helped him lock up the award. Over his final 17 games of the season, Banchero averaged 20.3 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists on 53.4% True Shooting.
Entering this season, Orlando had the fourth-youngest roster in the NBA (with an average age of 23.94 years old). Banchero and Franz Wagner have emerged as franchise cornerstones that the Magic can build around going forward. The Magic also have plenty of talented pieces surrounding their dynamic duo, including Wendell Carter Jr., Markelle Fultz, Jonathan Isaac, Cole Anthony, Jalen Suggs and Bol Bol.
The Magic will have a chance to add to their impressive young core, as they have the sixth-best odds in the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery (with a 9% chance of landing the No. 1 pick). Orlando will also receive the Chicago Bulls' lottery pick, unless it lands in the top-four. Chicago has the 11th-best lottery odds.

Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero has been named the NBA's 2022-23 Rookie of the Year.

Magic's Paolo Banchero wins NBA's Rookie of the Year award

MIAMI (AP) &mdash;&nbsp;The reactions from Victor Oladipo&rsquo;s Miami Heat&nbsp;teammates&nbsp;told the story as he sat on the court,&nbsp;holding onto his left knee as fans watched in stunned silence.&nbsp;Kyle Lowry&nbsp;yelled a profanity.&nbsp;Max Strus&nbsp;covered his face with a towel.&nbsp;Jimmy Butler&nbsp;held his head in his hands, staring at the floor.
They feared he was hurt badly. They were right.
The Heat announced Sunday that Oladipo tore his left patellar tendon, a diagnosis that came after an MRI earlier in the day. The injury ends Oladipo&rsquo;s season and calls his availability for the start of next season &mdash; and likely beyond &mdash; into serious doubt. He will need a third major surgery in just over four years, the previous two coming after a quadriceps injury over his right knee.
No timetable will likely be known until after the surgery.
&ldquo;Yes, there are injuries. That is a part of this game. We understand that,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Sunday before the team learned of the diagnosis. &ldquo;But the human side of it, when you see somebody that&rsquo;s overcome so much and he&rsquo;s done it time and time and time again, and he always does it with an incredible positive spirit and a smile on his face even last night &hellip; that&rsquo;s why I admire him so much.&rdquo;
Oladipo&rsquo;s is the second significant injury for the Heat in the first three games of this postseason against Milwaukee. Eighth-seeded&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://www.nba.com/playoffs/2023/east-first-round-1">Miami holds a 2-1 lead</a>&nbsp;over the top-seeded Bucks going into Game 4 on Monday night. Tyler Herro was lost for at least six weeks, which probably means the rest of the season no matter how far Miami advances, when he broke his right hand in Game 1 at Milwaukee.
Herro&rsquo;s injury seemed to open a door for Oladipo to have a bigger role in Miami&rsquo;s guard rotation; Oladipo played 26 minutes in Game 2 and 19 before getting hurt in Game 3.
Oladipo has missed 255 of a possible 374 games since initially getting hurt while playing for Indiana in 2019. He&rsquo;s been listed as inactive for 226 of those games, the second-most in the NBA over that span behind Orlando&rsquo;s Jonathan Isaac.
&ldquo;The physical toll of rehab is tough but mentally, it&rsquo;s even tougher,&rdquo; said Heat center Cody Zeller, who played with Oladipo in college at Indiana and has been close with him for years. &ldquo;And he&rsquo;s always so positive. He&rsquo;ll attack this rehab like he has the others. Mentally, I don&rsquo;t know how he does it. There&rsquo;s a lot of long days, a lot of slow days and it&rsquo;s tough to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I&rsquo;m just sick for him.&rdquo;
The injury came shortly after&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/1649953651824431104?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Oladipo pulled off perhaps one of his top highlight-reel plays</a>&nbsp;of the season, controlling a rebound at one end, dribbling downcourt at full speed, blowing past three Milwaukee players on his way to the rim and scoring &mdash; punching the air in celebration to end that play.
The next shot he took was his last: He drove down the lane, getting past two Bucks, then appeared to slip as he tried to plant for his jump and&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://twitter.com/BallyHEAT/status/1649955318187655168?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">grabbed at his knee right away</a>&nbsp;as he landed.
&ldquo;I think of all these times behind the scenes when no one&rsquo;s watching,&rdquo; Spoelstra said. &ldquo;I feel like I&rsquo;ve had a front-row seat to that on all these off days the last three years, on weekends when no one is here &mdash; but he&rsquo;s on the training table, and then working his way to the weight room, usually like a four- or five-hour process and then finishing up with all the post-rehab work. &hellip; Those can be very frustrating times, but you never would see that on his face.&rdquo;
Miami&rsquo;s guard rotation is now very thin. Gabe Vincent and Kyle Lowry are the point guards. Strus and Duncan Robinson &mdash; who has been in and out of the rotation this season, but had 20 points in Game 3 &mdash; will be the primary shooting guards. There aren&rsquo;t many other options.
Oladipo,&nbsp;who has a $9.5 million player option for next season,&nbsp;was a two-time All-Star with Indiana before&nbsp;getting hurt in January 2019.&nbsp;He returned a year later, wasn&rsquo;t anywhere near the same player and Indiana traded him to Houston in January 2021. The Rockets didn&rsquo;t keep him long before&nbsp;moving him to Miami,&nbsp;with whom Oladipo played four games in March 2021 before getting hurt again.
Oladipo appeared in just eight regular-season games in the 2021-22 season while recovering from a second surgery to repair his right quadriceps tendon. He got into 15 playoff games for Miami last season, then agreed on a two-year deal to stay with the Heat last summer.
He played in 42 games this season with Miami, his most in any regular season since 2017-18.
&ldquo;Never count him out,&rdquo; Robinson said. &ldquo;But it hurts.&rdquo;

The Heat announced Sunday that Victor Oladipo tore his left patellar tendon, a diagnosis that came after an MRI earlier in the day.

Heat's Victor Oladipo tears patellar tendon, latest injury setback

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) &mdash; Damian Lillard scored eight of his 41 points from the foul line in the final three minutes Sunday night to the lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a 122-119 win over the Orlando Magic.
Jerami Grant added 20 points, six rebounds and seven assists for the Blazers, and broke a tie with a 3-pointer for the game&rsquo;s final field goal with 35 seconds left.
&ldquo;We had to have this one,&rdquo; said Lillard, who also had a game-leading nine rebounds to help the Blazers break a three-game losing streak. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got 19 games left now. Everybody else is playing with a sense of urgency because they know the race is tight. Lose one and you can drop three spots. Win a couple and you can really make up some ground.&rdquo;
The Blazers are one game behind Utah and New Orleans for a spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament.
Paolo Banchero led Orlando with 26 points. Franz Wagner added 24, and Markelle Fultz finished with 15 points, eight assists and four steals.
Two 3-pointers by Lillard and one by Shaedon Sharpe filled a run late in the third quarter that broke an 83-all tie and left Portland with a nine-point lead, the largest of the game.
The Magic did not catch up until Fultz drove for a layup to tie it at 113 with 58 seconds left.
Nassir Little answered with a 3-pointer, and the rest of the game was all free throws.
&ldquo;The ball was swung to (Little) and he hit the biggest shot of the game,&rdquo; Lillard said. &ldquo;It showed a lot of growth on his part.&rdquo;
&ldquo;We know everybody&rsquo;s going to do the best they can to take Dame away, and everybody else has to be aggressive,&rdquo; said Portland coach Chauncey Billups. &ldquo;That was a big-time shot.&rdquo;
Portland led 58-56 after a first half in which Banchero made all seven of his shots and scored 16 points.
Lillard scored 14 points in the first half and missed all six of his 3-point attempts. The second half was a different ball game, especially for Lillard.
&ldquo;He shot 20 free throws tonight. It just kind of makes it hard to guard him. You just want to put your hands behind your back,&rdquo; said Magic guard Jalen Suggs, who had 15 points and three steals. &ldquo;When he shoots 20 free throws by himself, it&rsquo;s kind of hard to stop him from having a huge night.&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Blazers: Lillard (17 for 20) missed more than one free throw for the first time since Jan. 25. In the 16-game interim he shot 168 for 176 (95.5%). ... G Anfernee Simons missed a second game with a sprained right ankle. ... C Jusuf Nurkic missed a 13th game with a strained left calf. . . . Grant and Lillard had 4-point plays.
Magic: C Wendell Carter Jr. (left hip pain) and G Gary Harris (hip) did not play. ... The Magic played for the first time at home since losing F Jonathan Isaac to season-ending surgery on a torn adductor muscle. Isaac played 124 minutes in 11 games after missing 2 1/2 seasons due to knee injuries.
BIG REVERSAL FOR BLAZERS
The game hinged on a replay reversal.
With 2:07 remaining and the Blazers up by one, Lillard tried to slide through two Magic defenders and was called for a charge. But Billups challenged the call, and a review determined that Suggs had not &ldquo;established position&rdquo; outside the arc before the contact. Lillard then made two free throws.
&ldquo;It was a big moment in the game,&rdquo; Billups said. &ldquo;A big play.&rdquo;
UP NEXT
Blazers: Play at Detroit on Monday night.
Magic: Play at home against Milwaukee on Tuesday night.

Damian Lillard scored 41 points on Sunday night to the lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a 122-119 win over the Orlando Magic.

Damian Lillard scores 41, Blazers hold off Magic 122-119

On January 23, 2023, Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac made his highly-anticipated return to the court after being sidelined for nearly two-and-a-half years due to a torn ACL. Isaac shined in his first game back, and he continued to make an impact as he suited up in 11 games for the Magic this season.
Unfortunately, Isaac has once again suffered a season-ending injury.
According to <a href="https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1631765149160816642" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski</a>, Isaac underwent surgery today to repair a torn left adductor muscle and he'll be out for the remainder of the year.
Isaac's injury struggles started when he initially tore his left ACL on Aug. 2, 2020, when Orlando was competing in the NBA Bubble at Walt Disney World. While fighting his way back from the ACL injury, he suffered numerous setbacks &mdash; and even needed a separate surgery on his right hamstring at one point. This caused him to miss the entirety of the 2020-21 season and 2021-22 season.
Now, this is the latest setback for the 25-year-old, who was selected with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. It remains to be seen how long Isaac will be out and if this injury will cause him to miss any of next season.
Isaac finishes this season with averages of 5.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.3 steals and .4 blocks in 11.3 minutes per game, while shooting a career-high 40.0% from three-point range.
Prior to his injuries, Isaac was widely regarded as one of the best young defenders in the NBA, driving opposing teams crazy with his versatility, quickness, length and activity. During the 2019-20 season &mdash; the last time he was fully healthy &mdash; Isaac averaged 11.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.3 blocks and 1.6 steals on .470/.340/.779 shooting splits.&nbsp;
Isaac is Orlando's highest-paid player this season, earning $17.4 million. He has two more years remaining on his current contract.

Just one month after making his highly-anticipated return, Magic forward Jonathan Isaac has suffered another season-ending injury.

Magic's Jonathan Isaac suffers another season-ending injury

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) &mdash; Myles Turner scored 24 points, Tyrese Haliburton had 15 points and 14 assists and the Indiana Pacers ran away from the Orlando Magic in the second half for a 121-108 victory on Saturday night.
Indiana shot 59% in the second half and won for only the fourth time in 21 games.
&ldquo;That was one of the better games we&rsquo;ve played in a while, on the road,&rdquo; coach Rick Carlisle said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve played some good home games, but it&rsquo;s been a while (more than two months) since we&rsquo;ve won on the road.&rdquo;
Bennedict Mathurin scored 19 points and Jordan Nwora had 18 for the Pacers, while Jalen Smith added seven rebounds and five blocks.
&ldquo;Jalen Smith and Nwora really were exceptional off the bench,&rdquo; Carlisle said.
Franz Wagner led Orlando with 21 points. Paolo Banchero scored 19 points and Markelle Fultz 18. The Magic struggled with their shooting, going 6 for 29 from 3-point range and finished the game at 38.9% overall.
Both teams shot below 40% in the first half, while the Pacers blocked nine shots, including four by Smith.
Andrew Nembhard, Buddy Hield and Haliburton hit 3-pointers in a 17-2 run to open the second half that put Indiana up by 68-54.
&ldquo;We knew we were due for a big quarter there,&rdquo; Haliburton said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if the first half was as much them doing a good job on us defensively or us not playing our brand of basketball. But we were able to do that in the third and that was big for us.&rdquo;
Mathurin, Nwora and T.J. Connell sparked another rally that stretched the lead to 19 points with 7:51 left in the game, and a 3-pointer by Mathurn pushed the Pacers&rsquo; lead to 21, their largest of the game.
&ldquo;Our second unit really helped us today,&rdquo; Haliburton said. &ldquo;They have been struggling of late, just getting comfortable playing with each other. I thought they were really good today.&rdquo;
The Magic, who are just behind the Pacers in the conference playoff race, never recovered from the start of the second half.
&ldquo;I think something happened that we can&rsquo;t let happen,&rdquo; Wagner said. &ldquo;After a couple of shots being missed or us not getting what we wanted, we let it affect how we played on the other end. That&rsquo;s when they made that run.&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Pacers: Indiana&rsquo;s last road win was Dec. 23 at Miami. . . . The Pacers had 34 assists on 48 field goals. . . . Turner, who tied his career high with 40 points against Boston on Thursday night, had only two points until hitting a 10-footer with 3:24 left in the first half. ... Nwora finished the game with a plus-minus of 17.
Magic: F Jonathan Isaac, who played a season-high 16 1/2 minutes Thursday night, was held out of the game due to &ldquo;injury recovery management.&rdquo; ... Newly acquired C Goga Bitadze had six points and four rebounds in his first minutes with Orlando after Wendell Carter Jr. left the game with three fouls in the first quarter. . . . Carter shot 1 for 11 while taking down a game-high 11 rebounds in 18 minutes. . . . Gary Harris opened the game&rsquo;s scoring with a 3-pointer, but never made another shot in eight filed goal attempts.
UP NEXT
Pacers: At Dallas on Tuesday.
Magic: At New Orleans on Monday.

Myles Turner scored 24 points, Tyrese Haliburton had 15 points and 14 assists and the Pacers beat the Magic 121-108 on Saturday.

Myles Turner, Tyrese Haliburton help Pacers beat Magic 121-108

TORONTO (AP) &mdash; Jakob Poeltl scored 30 points, Pascal Siakam had 26 and the Toronto Raptors beat the Orlando Magic 123-113 on Tuesday night for their fifth win in six games.
Scottie Barnes scored 17 points, Fred VanVleet had 10 points and a season-high 15 assists, and Precious Achiuwa had 11 points and 13 rebounds for the Raptors, who shot a season-best 60.2%.
Wendell Carter Jr. scored 26 points, Jalen Suggs had 24 off the bench and Markelle Fultz scored 19 points for the Magic.
Orlando came in having won three straight road games but couldn&rsquo;t follow Monday&rsquo;s win at Chicago with another victory. The Magic are 1-10 in the second game of back-to-backs.
A former Raptor who was reacquired from San Antonio last week, Poeltl shot 15 for 17 and added nine rebounds and six blocks.
&ldquo;You see what he did tonight,&rdquo; Magic coach Jamahl Mosely said. &ldquo;He was a game changer.&rdquo;
The 30 points were the most Poeltl has scored as a Raptors player. His career high is 31, set with San Antonio last Nov. 15 at Portland.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just about reacting to the defense,&rdquo; Poeltl said. &ldquo;They decided to trap Freddie a bunch of times. I&rsquo;m comfortable catching the ball there at the top of the key and trying to make plays.&rdquo;
Suggs said Poeltl hurt Orlando with his bruising, physical style.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a force in the paint,&rdquo; Suggs said. &ldquo;Trying to box him out, you can&rsquo;t out-jump him. He&rsquo;s really strong and physical in there. He fits what they want to do. He&rsquo;s a physical big who&rsquo;s going to hit you in your mouth and have no remorse about it.&rdquo;
One game after setting a season best by allowing just five points off turnovers, the Raptors made a season-worst 20 miscues against the Magic, leading to 26 points. The Magic weren&rsquo;t much better, making 19 turnovers that led to 29 points for Toronto.
&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t turn the basketball over and give up offensive rebounds and give yourself a chance,&rdquo; Mosley said.
The Raptors outrebounded the Magic 40-29 and had a 13-9 edge on the offensive glass.
As the All Star break arrives, Orlando has gone 19-15 since a 5-20 start.
&ldquo;I feel like we did a solid job from the beginning of the year to now of kind of changing the script of who the Orlando Magic are,&rdquo; Carter said.
Orlando led 70-65 at halftime but Poeltl scored eight points in the third as Toronto took a 94-89 edge to the fourth.
TIP-INS
Magic: Paolo Banchero scored 13 points. &hellip; F Jonathan Isaac (left knee) sat as Orlando played the second game of a back-to-back. &hellip; G Cole Anthony (sore right wrist) missed his second straight game.
Raptors: Toronto is 13-0 all-time when shooting 60 percent or better. &hellip; Coach Nick Nurse returned after missing Sunday&rsquo;s win over Detroit for personal reasons. &hellip; F Thad Young injured his left knee early in the second quarter and did not return. .. G Gary Trent Jr. (sore left calf) missed his second game while F O.G. Anunoby (sprained left wrist) missed his ninth straight. &hellip; Toronto had 13 assists on 16 made baskets in the first quarter, including seven assists from VanVleet.
MILESTONE MAN
Barnes reached 2,000 career points. At 21 years and 197 days, he&rsquo;s the third-youngest player in Raptors history to reach the milestone, behind Tracy McGrady and Chris Bosh.
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ROAD WORK AHEAD
After hosting the Pelicans in their first game following the All-Star break, Toronto plays seven of eight on the road, a testing stretch that includes games at Cleveland, Denver, and both Los Angeles teams.
OUT ON VALENTINE&rsquo;S DAY
Toronto Mayor John Tory attended the game. Tory said last Friday that he would step down as mayor of Canada&rsquo;s largest city after acknowledging an affair with a former staffer.
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Jakob Poeltl scored 30 points, Pascal Siakam had 26 and the Toronto Raptors beat the Orlando Magic 123-113.

Poeltl scores 30, Siakam has 26, Raptors beat Magic 123-113

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) &mdash; Tyler Herro scored 23 points, Jimmy Butler added 22 points and seven rebounds and the Miami Heat rallied to beat the Orlando Magic 107-103 in overtime on Saturday night.
Gabe Vincent, who finished with 20 points, opened the overtime period with a 3-pointer. Herro scored twice from the lane and the Magic, who had led by nine with 2 1/2 minutes left in the fourth quarter, never caught up.
Markelle Fultz led the Magic with 17 points. Paolo Banchero had 16 points and 13 rebounds and missed a driving layup in the final seconds of the fourth quarter that was altered by Miami center Bam Adebayo.
Once the game went into overtime, the advantage swung to Miami.
&ldquo;We have a ton of experience, so we have the packages where we know where we want to get the ball, facing all the different coverages that we&rsquo;ve faced,&rdquo; coach Erik Spoelstra said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a big part of it, but you also have to get the stops.&rdquo;
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&ldquo;They&rsquo;re a team with a lot of experience and they&rsquo;ve been in these situations a ton of times,&rdquo; Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said.
Adebayo, who played the entire fourth quarter and overtime, finished with 13 points, 17 rebounds and six assists. He was the centerpiece of the defensive effort that held the Magic to 24 points in the final 17 minutes.
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&ldquo;Taking the paint away was the biggest thing, not letting them get the easy layups like they did in the first half,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Really closing out and helping each other. That&rsquo;s how we&rsquo;re going to win games down he stretch.&rdquo;
The Magic grabbed a 52-35 lead with the Heat shooting below 30% with 10 turnovers in the first 21 minutes. Butler and Adebayo rallied Miami late in the half and Max Strus hit a 3-pointer just before the halftime horn as the Heat pulled within 54-46.
Mo Wagner scored 10 straight points for the Magic late in the third period, and a dunk by Jonathan Isaac pushed Orlando&rsquo;s lead to 12 early in the fourth. But after a dunk by Bol Bol put the Magic up 91-81, they scored only six points in the final 6:40 of regulation, and only six more in overtime.
&ldquo;We had a couple lapses on both ends of the floor, but I think offensively we started to slow down a little and not play our style of basketball,&rdquo; Fultz said. &ldquo;We kind of let it stick a little bit. I think they turned up the heat and got a couple of calls to go their way as well.&rdquo;
Suggs, Wendell Carter Jr., and Mo Wagner scored 14 points each for the Magic.
TIP-INS
Heat: Butler, whose dunk at the buzzer won Friday night&rsquo;s game against Houston, played both ends of a back-to-back for the first time since October. ... The Heat had 20 turnovers, but none in overtime. ... Coach Erik Spoelstra said G Victor Oladipo, who missed a fifth game with an ankle injury, has a chance of playing before next weekend&rsquo;s All-Star break.
Magic: F Chuma Okeke, out since Nov. 21 with a knee injury, was slated to play a second G-League game before being reconsidered for the active roster.
SUGGS SAT OUT THE OVERTIME
Suggs, who had four steals and three blocks for Orlando and generally wreaked havoc defensively, did not play in overtime.
&ldquo;Gary (Harris) was defending Herro decently well,&rdquo; explained Mosley while acknowledging that &ldquo;we may have to go back and look at how we may have to get (Suggs) those minutes.&rdquo;
Said Suggs, who played 28 minutes: &ldquo;We realize how close we are, and we need wins in games like this. I kind of feel like we let ourselves down.&rdquo;
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Tyler Herro scored 23 points, Jimmy Butler added 22 points and the Miami Heat rallied to beat the Orlando Magic 107-103 in overtime.

Heat use balanced scoring, rally to beat Magic 106-103 in OT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) &mdash; DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine each scored 32 points, Nikola Vucevic added 26 points and 13 rebounds and the Chicago Bulls turned back a late rally and beat the Orlando Magic 128-109 on Saturday night.
Mo Wagner led the Magic with 27 points, combining with Cole Anthony and Jalen Suggs to lead a furious second-half rally that cut a 25-point deficit to six with 5:08 remaining.
&ldquo;I thought we controlled most of the game,&rdquo; said Vucevic, who had 17 points and eight rebounds in the first half. &ldquo;They made a really good run and they cut it close. It&rsquo;s been an issue for us all year long, playing with big leads. We let them back in the game, but this time we were able to finish the game off.&rdquo;
Patrick Williams had 16 points and six rebounds for the Bulls, who shot 59.3% for the game just two nights after getting outscored by 23 points in the second half of a loss at Charlotte.
&ldquo;In the Charlotte game we never responded,&rdquo; coach Billy Donovan said. &ldquo;The encouraging part is we did respond (tonight). I think it&rsquo;s good that we had that. ... Being pressed against it, we needed a game where we could respond and come out on the winning side.&rdquo;
The Bulls led 60-47 at halftime. A 3-pointer by Vucevic, who played more than eight seasons in Orlando, stretched their lead to 24 points and a free throw by LaVine made it 89-64, Chicago&rsquo;s largest lead of the game, with 3:27 left in the third quarter.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how, but we found some energy and we went on a run, got some easy buckets, hit some shots,&rdquo; said Anthony, who finished with 21 points, six rebounds and six assists.
Wagner scored the Magic&rsquo;s final 11 points in the third period and their first five points in the fourth, pulling the Magic back into contention. But when the Bulls&rsquo; lead got down to six, DeRozan and LaVine responded with baskets, and a 3-pointer by Williams made it 116-106 with 3:29 left.
Magic coach Jamahl Mosley thought the bad start cost his team the game.
&ldquo;Obviously the energy level wasn&rsquo;t where we wanted it to start the game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I really think sometimes it falls down to taking the easy route, in some ways. When it&rsquo;s hard, you just want to catch and shoot. But we weren&rsquo;t making shots, and that takes its toll on the defense. But we have to be a defensive team first, whether the shots are falling or not.&rdquo;
&ldquo;This is not an excuse but we were just flat,&rdquo; said Mo Wagner, &ldquo;and part of that was we put our head down too quickly. We kind of let go of our focus.&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Bulls: G Lonzo Ball, who has not played since tearing his left meniscus on May 10, 2021, is not yet back to running on a consistent basis and will likely not play this season, unless he is making progress by the All-Star break, according to coach Billy Donovan. ... F Derrick Jones Jr., limped off the floor in the third quarter, but came back to play four minutes in the fourth. . . . G Goran Dragic had seven points in 13 minutes after missing three games due to illness. ... DeRozan, who came into the game with a 26.3 scoring average, played eight scoreless minutes in the first quarter without taking a shot.
Magic: F Jonathan Isaac had five points and four rebounds in nine minutes in his third game back from a knee injury. ... The Magic missed their first eight 3-point attempts and finished 10 for 28. . . . Anthony has scored 18 or points in four of his last six games, all off the bench.
UP NEXT
Bulls: Host the L.A. Clippers on Tuesday night.
Magic: Play at Philadelphia on Monday night.

DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine each scored 32 points, and the Chicago Bulls beat the Orlando Magic 128-109 on Saturday.

DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine lead Bulls to 128-109 win over Magic

MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Bam Adebayo has a theory. All these close games that the Miami Heat are playing now, in his mind, are providing valuable lessons to draw upon later this season.
And the fact that they&rsquo;re winning a lot of those games right now is an added bonus.
Jimmy Butler had 29 points, Adebayo added 20 and the Heat rallied again in the fourth quarter to beat the Orlando Magic 110-105 on Friday night. It capped a 3-0 homestand for the Heat, with those wins coming by three, four and five points.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if we just like dogfights,&rdquo; Adebayo said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if we just like to make it interesting.&rdquo;
Max Strus scored 17 points, 15 of them on 3-pointers, for Miami &mdash; which moved a season-high six games over .500 at 28-22. Caleb Martin scored 13 points, Gabe Vincent had 11 and Tyler Herro had 10 for the Heat.
Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and Cole Anthony all had 19 points for the Magic, while Wendell Carter Jr. had 16 and Markelle Fultz added 10. Orlando is 14-10 in its last 24 games, after starting the season 5-20.
Turnovers simply doomed the Magic. They had 20, compared to 11 by Miami &mdash; and the Heat turned Orlando&rsquo;s giveaways into 32 points. Orlando scored 13 off Miami&rsquo;s turnovers.
&ldquo;We turned it over,&rdquo; Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. &ldquo;When it comes down to it, you&rsquo;ve got to take care of the basketball. I loved our fight. I loved the fact that we were in it, in a great environment, on the road, against a tough team. But you&rsquo;ve got to take care of the basketball.&rdquo;
Strus&rsquo; 3-pointer with 3:01 left in the third put Miami up 73-69. The rest of the quarter was all Orlando. The Magic closed the third on a 10-0 run, then scored the first basket of the fourth to go up 81-73 on a dunk by Moritz Wagner.
And then the momentum swung right back to Miami. The Heat scored 19 of the next 25 points to go up 92-87, setting up yet another down-to-the-wire finish &mdash; the theme of this now-completed three-game Miami homestand.
The Heat beat New Orleans by four on Sunday, then Boston by three on Tuesday.
&ldquo;Anytime we win, it&rsquo;s a good thing,&rdquo; Butler said.
TIP-INS
Magic: Jonathan Isaac, who returned to the Magic lineup for the first time in 2-1/2 years earlier this week after knee and hamstring injuries, was inactive on the first night of a back-to-back. He played in Orlando&rsquo;s games on Monday and Wednesday. ... Anthony had 17 points by halftime, matching his best first half of the season. He also had 17 by intermission against Atlanta on Oct. 21.
Heat: Rapper and record executive &ndash; and the star of one of Miami&rsquo;s pregame intro videos this season &ndash; Rick Ross was at the game celebrating his birthday. He turns 47 on Saturday. ... It was Miami&rsquo;s 50th game of the season and 37th decided by single digits; the Heat are 21-16 in those games. ... The Heat outscored the Magic 54-32 in the paint.
FIRST OF 4
It was the first of four meetings between the Florida rivals this season. They&rsquo;ll meet again Feb. 11, March 11 and on the season&rsquo;s final day &mdash; April 9.
The Magic have now played all other teams in the league at least once this season. Miami has yet to face New York or Philadelphia.

Jimmy Butler had 29 points, Bam Adebayo added 20 and the Heat rallied again in the fourth quarter to beat the Orlando Magic 110-105.

Heat rally again, top Magic 110-105 to close 3-0 homestand

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) &mdash; Paolo Banchero scored 23 points and Garry Harris made all six of his 3-point shots and added 22 points as the Orlando Magic held off a late rally to beat the Indiana Pacers 126-120 on Wednesday night.
Bennedict Mathurin came off the Pacers&rsquo; bench to score 26 points for the second straight game, and Myles Turner added 22 points and 13 rebounds for Indiana, which was coming off a 116-110 win over Chicago a night earlier. Buddy Hield hit his first five 3-point shots and finished with 21 points.
Wendell Carter Jr. had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Magic. Orlando made 15 of 28 attempts from 3-point range and shot 56% overall.
Harris, who made 8 of 9 shots, was the only one of 11 Magic players not to have an assist.
&ldquo;My teammates did a good job of finding me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When the ball moves like it did &mdash; I mean, we had a season high in assists (34) today. When the ball is popping, you&rsquo;ve got to step it up and shoot the ball with confidence.
&ldquo;(My shots) definitely came in the rhythm of the game. We did a great job of moving the ball.&rdquo;
The Pacers fell behind 11-0 and never caught up, losing for the eighth time in nine games since NBA assist leader Tyrese Haliburton went out with a sprained left knee and sprained left elbow.
Banchero scored 13 points in the Magic&rsquo;s 46-point first quarter in which they shot 64% and built a 17-point lead.
&ldquo;Lousy first quarter. We&rsquo;ve got to get off to better starts,&rdquo; Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. &ldquo;They hit us with a lot of shots, drives to the basket, and we were on our heels. The second night of a back to back is not an excuse because we&rsquo;ve been good all year in those situations.&rdquo;
Hield hit three 3-pointers in the second quarter as the Pacers got back within two points before trailing 73-68 at halftime.
Orlando regained a double-digit lead just before the third-quarter buzzer on Franz Wagner&rsquo;s layup after a length-of-court pass from Jalen Suggs.
The Magic went back up by 17 points early in the fourth quarter, before Indiana closed within four in the final minute.
It was the ninth win for the Magic in their last 12 home games.
&ldquo;Defense is going to have to be our identity for us to get into the playoffs. That&rsquo;s kind of our push right now, that&rsquo;s what everybody&rsquo;s mind set is,&rdquo; Carter said. &ldquo;Defending home court is going to be huge for us.&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Pacers: Hield finished with six 3s and raised his NBA-leading total to 191. ... Haliburton missed his eighth straight game, but might play Friday night. ... G Andrew Nembhard missed a second game due to illness.
Magic: F Jonathan Isaac, playing in his second game since missing two-and-a-half seasons with a torn left ACL, had five points and two assists in eight minutes. ... Franz Wagner was the only starter who also started the last game against Indiana, on Dec. 16.
HIGH PRAISE FOR THE ROOKIE
Nine-year veteran Harris on Banchero: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen anybody come into the league like he&rsquo;s come into the league, just how locked-in, focused, how mature he is. I&rsquo;ve never seen a rookie like him. It&rsquo;s been fun to share the court with him.&rdquo;
Carter on the same subject: &ldquo;He just gets the game of basketball. ... We&rsquo;re at our best when he&rsquo;s aggressive, and he understands that. He understands that there&rsquo;s a lot of weight on him as the No. 1 pick, but he&rsquo;s so calm and collected out there.&rdquo;
&nbsp;

Paolo Banchero scored 23 points as the Orlando Magic held off a late rally to beat the Indiana Pacers 126-120.

Banchero, Harris lead Magic to 126-120 win over Pacers

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) &mdash; Paolo Banchero scored 23 points, Jonathan Isaac played in an NBA game for the first time in 2 1/2 years and the Orlando Magic broke the Boston Celtics&rsquo; nine-game winning streak Monday night with a 113-98 victory.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown scored 26 points apiece for the Celtics, who managed just three points after Tatum&rsquo;s 3-pointer cut Orlando&rsquo;s lead to 97-95 with 6:20 remaining.
&ldquo;We guarded in that second half,&rdquo; said Cole Anthony, who came off the Magic bench with 18 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals. &ldquo;Under 100 points for a a team that&rsquo;s got two guys (Tatum and Brown) averaging 60 points? That&rsquo;s a heck of a job by our team.&rdquo;
Wendell Carter Jr. had 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Magic, who beat the Celtics for the third straight time after losing 10 straight to Boston.
&ldquo;We had 18 turnovers,&rdquo; said Tatum. who had three of them. &ldquo;They have long, active guys, and you&rsquo;ve got to take care of the basketball.&rdquo;
The Celtics, whose 35-13 record is still the best in the NBA, had not lost since Jan. 3 at Oklahoma City.
&ldquo;I think it says more about Orlando and how they played tonight,&rdquo; said Boston interim coach Joe Mazzulla. &ldquo;They were physical, they had an edge about them and I thought they played really well.&rdquo;
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Isaac missed 211 games since tearing his ACL in the NBA&rsquo;s restart at Walt Disney World on Aug. 2, 2020. He finished with 10 points, three rebounds and two steals, playing about 9 1/2 minutes.
&ldquo;Much love to the Magic for sticking with me,&rdquo; Isaac said. &ldquo;And the Magic fans were excited, so I was just trying to bottle all that up in one moment. It was surreal.&rdquo;
Banchero made 3 of 5 3-pointers and had five rebounds.
&ldquo;Obviously he&rsquo;s probably the Rookie of the Year and he&rsquo;s getting better every month,&rdquo; Tatum said.
After Mo Wagner&rsquo;s 3-pointer put the Magic up 43-29 in the second quarter, they went 5:21 before scoring another field goal. Tatum scored the last six points on a 12-0 run that lifted the Celtics to their first lead of the game, 45-44 with 4:10 left in the first half.
Orlando led 55-54 at halftime, then opened up a 13-point lead with the help of 3-pointers by Isaac and Gary Harris during a 15-3 run midway through the third quarter.
&ldquo;I know they came out and hit some really tough shots early on, but we stayed he course from there,&rdquo; said Magic coach Jamahl Mosley. &ldquo;Then obviously we wanted to make sure it was a defensive effort down the stretch.&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Celtics: G Marcus Smart (right ankle) and F/C Robert Williams III (hyperextended left knee) did not play after getting injured Saturday night at Toronto. ... G Malcolm Brogdon missed the game for personal reasons. ... Tatum went to the Boston locker room with 6:47 left in the third quarter with a &ldquo;cramping on the side of my stomach,&rdquo; but re-entered the game with 2:04 left in the period.
Magic: Franz Wagner had 15 points, seven rebounds and a game-leading plus-17 plus/minus ratio. . . . The Magic shot 51.2 overall and 11 for 27 (40.7%) from 3-point range . . . Fultz&rsquo;s slam dunk with 7:49 left in the third quarter was the first field goal by a Magic starting guard.
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The Orlando Magic broke the Boston Celtics’ nine-game winning streak Monday night with a 113-98 victory.

Banchero, Isaac, Magic end Celtics’ 9-game win streak 113-98

After being sidelined for nearly two-and-a-half years &ndash; 904 days to be exact &ndash; due to a torn ACL, Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac made his return on Monday against the Boston Celtics.&nbsp;
Isaac looked excellent in Orlando's 113-98 win, finishing with 10 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals and an assist in 10 minutes &ndash; while shooting 4-of-7 from the field and 2-of-3 from three-point range.&nbsp;
Isaac was on a minutes restriction, but made the most of his playing time. From the moment he checked in, he made his presence felt by knocking down jumpers and guarding both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. 
The former No. 6 overall pick provided a ton of energy and activity &ndash; even diving for a loose ball at one point &ndash; and he didn&rsquo;t hesitate when given opportunities to shoot. The fans gave him a huge ovation when he first checked in, and they went nuts every time he made a play.
His best sequence came late in the third quarter, when he knocked down a three-pointer and then stole the ball from Brown to create a fastbreak dunk for Paolo Banchero.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Jonathan Isaac THREE + STEAL + POWER SLAM PAOLO that's 10 PTS + 3 REB + 2 STL + 2 3PM in 9 MIN The Magic are so back <a href="https://t.co/le25Znnmy1">pic.twitter.com/le25Znnmy1</a>
&mdash; Beyond the RK (@beyondtheRK) <a href="https://twitter.com/beyondtheRK/status/1617700433946107906?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2023</a></blockquote>

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Isaac initially tore his left ACL on Aug. 2, 2020, when Orlando was competing in the NBA Bubble at Walt Disney World. Isaac suffered numerous setbacks &ndash; and even needed a separate surgery on his right hamstring at one point &ndash; causing him to miss the last two seasons entirely.
"It&rsquo;s been such a long road," Isaac said after the win. "[I was] thinking about all that it has taken to get here &ndash; the tough days, the good days, the bad days, the ups-and-downs, and all of the people that were a part of getting me back. The training staff, we call them the purple people eaters, but our coaches that worked with me tirelessly &ndash; Nate Tibbetts and all of those guys. And then just my family, my church family, my faith that I have been fortunate enough to lean on this entire time. I wouldn&rsquo;t be here [without] all of that. Much love to the Magic for sticking with me, and the Magic fans that were excited. Just trying to bottle all of that up in one moment, it was surreal.&rdquo;
To put Isaac&rsquo;s missed time in perspective, consider this: the last time he appeared in an NBA game, Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball had yet to be drafted. Also, the movie "Tenet" hadn't come out yet. The Magic looked very different back then too; the only players remaining on the roster from when Isaac suffered his injury are Markelle Fultz, Terrence Ross and Mo Bamba.
Now, the Magic are one of the youngest teams in the NBA and they&rsquo;ve assembled a talented core that includes Banchero, Franz Wagner, Wendell Carter Jr., Bol Bol, Jalen Suggs, Cole Anthony and Fultz. Since Isaac is only 25 years old and still has plenty of untapped potential, the former No. 6 overall pick should fit right in with Orlando going forward.&nbsp;
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been waiting for J.I. to get back and it&rsquo;s been a long process, but he had to take his time and listen to his body,&rdquo; Banchero told Basketball News. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy for him that he&rsquo;s finally able to come back and just receive the love that he deserves. These fans have been waiting to see him, so everybody is really excited. This is probably the healthiest we&rsquo;ve been all year.&rdquo;&nbsp;
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Prior to his injury, Isaac was widely regarded as one of the best young defenders in the NBA, driving opposing teams crazy with his versatility, quickness, length and activity. During the 2019-20 season, Isaac averaged 11.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.3 blocks and 1.6 steals on .470/.340/.779 shooting splits. If he can stay healthy, it&rsquo;s not crazy to think that All-Defensive honors are in his future, and he could even grow into a Defensive-Player-of-the-Year candidate.
The Magic currently have the NBA's 22nd-ranked defense (allowing 112.2 points per 100 possessions), so they could certainly use a healthy Isaac on that end of the court.
&ldquo;When you talk about the journey he&rsquo;s been on since getting hurt&hellip; he&rsquo;s that example of what it takes to work to get back,&rdquo; Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s never wavered, understanding how strong his faith is and understanding the process of what he had to do in order to get back on the floor. So that&rsquo;s what makes us so proud of what he&rsquo;s done and been able to do to get back on the court.&rdquo;
Mosley was impressed with Isaac's effort on Monday night.
"I thought he was great," Mosley said. "I thought he did a great job playing with a level of poise. I think that was the importance of&nbsp;him getting the G League time. Obviously, there was a ton of emotions and rightfully so. I thought it was great the way he handled himself."

After being sidelined for nearly two-and-a-half years – 904 days to be exact – Magic forward Jonathan Isaac made his return on Monday.

After missing 2 years, Magic's Jonathan Isaac provides spark in return

Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac is expected to play in his first game since August 2020 on Monday night versus the Boston Celtics, <a href="https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1617219218155470849" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports Shams Charania of The Athletic</a>.&nbsp;
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After missing over two NBA seasons, Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac is expected to make his return and season debut on Monday vs. Boston, source tells <a href="https://twitter.com/TheAthletic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheAthletic</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Stadium?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Stadium</a>.
&mdash; Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1617219218155470849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2023</a></blockquote>

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Isaac tore the ACL in his left knee in August 2020 but had a setback during rehabilitation as he injured his right hamstring that required an additional surgery in March 2022. Earlier this month, he was able to work his way back to play with the Lakeland Magic, the Magic's G League affiliate.
The 25-year-old has only played 136 games after being taken with the 6th overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. When has has played, the 6'10" forward has averaged 9.3 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game.

Jonathan Isaac is expected to play for the Orlando Magic on Monday after being sidelined for more than two seasons with injuries.