The Orlando Magic have their spot in the playoffs wrapped up. Now they wait to see who they will match up with. They will have a say in it Wednesday.
The Orlando Magic are in the playoffs.
The celebration from inside the TD Garden locker room is starting to wear off and the team is coming a bit back down to earth as they prepare for their regular-season finale against the Charlotte Hornets (in their first national TV game of the year, no less).
The Magic do not yet know who they will play, but it is already clear the Amway Center will be rocking whenever the team returns home.
Several reports from fans trying to get tickets suggest at least one of the games are already sold out. And the other one no longer has multiple seats together available on the traditional ticket-buying web sites.
Those who showed up at the Amway Center box office found most of the tickets snapped up in presales to season ticket holders and online buyers who rushed to get tickets when they went on sale Monday at 3 p.m., according to Jeff Shain of the Orlando Sentinel.
On Vivid Seats as of Tuesday morning, tickets in the upper bowl for Game 3 were going for as low as $76 and for Game 4 for as low as $67. For reference, Friday’s home finale had a low of $30 on the morning of the game. Both playoff games have tickets going for more than $1,500 at their upper range on Vivid Seats.
That is not typical for a Magic game.
It is safe to say that Games 3 and 4 of the first round are going to be a hot ticket and the building itself will be rocking. Never mind that the team still does not know who it will play or when those games will be — target Game 3 for April 17, 18 or 19 and Game 4 for April 19, 20 or 21.
The Magic will not learn the dates or their opponent until after Wednesday’s game. The team only knows it will finish sixth, seventh or eighth setting up a series with the third-seeded Philadelphia 76ers, second-seeded Toronto Raptors or top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks.
Where the Magic end up depends on how results follow in the final two days of the regular season. Orlando will be watching these final games closely.
The NBA released a grid that should give you a handy guide on what might happen and where the Magic will end up:
The NBA released the following playoff seeding scenarios for the Eastern and Western Conferences. Lots to be decided on the season’s last two days! pic.twitter.com/nbASCy2vCT
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) April 8, 2019
The graph might be hard to see in the tweet above. But the big thing is there are only four scenarios where the Magic end up with the eighth seed and face off with the Bucks. That is probably good news for the Magic hoping to make a series of their first round.
For that to happen, the Detroit Pistons would have to win their remaining games (Tuesday vs. the Memphis Grizzlies and Wednesday at the New York Knicks), the Orlando Magic would have to lose to the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday and the Brooklyn Nets would have to defeat the Miami Heat in their final game. The Pistons own the tiebreaker with the Magic.
That is certainly possible so Orlando still has plenty to play for.
There are a few scenarios for the Magic to get to the sixth seed too. If the Magic win their final game against the Hornets and the Nets lose their final game to the Heat, the Magic would be sixth with 42 wins and the Nets with 41.
Orlando can also get the sixth seed if Detroit wins its final two games and Orlando and Brooklyn each lose its last game. That would create a three-way tie at 41 wins and the Magic win the tiebreaker as the Southeast Division champion.
In shorter terms, the Magic land in sixth if they finish ahead of the Nets in the standings or if they finish in a three-way tie with the Pistons and Nets.
Orlando’s most likely odds are they will end up with the seventh seed. The Pistons can only pass the Magic for seventh if they win both their games and avoid that three-way tie.
There is still plenty of maneuvering that can happen in the final two days of the season when it comes to the Magic. A win from Orlando on Wednesday would guarantee at least the seventh seed and open the door to the sixth seed. A loss is not necessarily fatal.
But Orlando clearly has something to play for when it arrives in Charlotte on Wednesday. And Steve Clifford is not one to believe in resting players to preserve them. The only current injury of note is Jonathan Isaac missing the game as part of the NBA’s concussion protocol.
They will have a say though in who they ultimately play with the top three seeds in the East locked in place. And they have plenty to play for.