When the Orlando Magic lost to the Boston Celtics in their regular season finale a week ago, many believed it was both proof of the Celtics being titans and the Magic being out of options. Yet, over Orlando's last two games, they stopped the streaking Charlotte Hornets and handled their business against the Detroit Pistons.
It's among the most bizarre phenomena to see a team quickly flip the narrative on itself as swiftly as Orlando has, but perhaps it also says something about the game. One potential explanation is that the Magic were trying to avoid the Celtics in the first round.
Now, that's not to say Orlando is afraid of a rematch with Boston, but it's very possible that they believed their best course of action in the playoffs was to go through Detroit and Cleveland rather than Boston and New York. If that's the case, they weren't exactly wrong to think that after what they just did in MoTown.
The Pistons' flaws stood out like a sore thumb in their first magical matchup, which could loom large for the rest of the series if they can't cover them. And if Orlando pulls off the upset, they then face Cleveland, who they have extensive playoff experience playing against.
There's a nonzero chance this could work out, and because the Magic lost all of their games against the Celtics (all without Jayson Tatum), all evidence would point to this being the right route.
If true, it proves how bulletproof Boston is
It's very possible that the Magic are simply hitting their stride at the right time, so what happened against the Celtics (and then their play-in game against Philadelphia) was simply the team going through a bad cold spell.
But Boston is the most experienced team in the Eastern Conference, as they are almost two years removed from the title on top of their superstar duo having made five Eastern Conference Finals appearances together. They showed that when they cruised to their Game 1 win over the 76ers.
The Magic want to show some modicum of progress since pairing up Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. They also made an all-in move when they acquired Desmond Bane. Boston would be quite a bar to clear, but it would be understandable if the Magic instead wanted to maybe show their progress against a team not as strong as the Celtics.
In the end, it's just befuddling to see a team that lost to a Celtics team that was playing its second and third stringer, then lost to a Joel Embiid-less Sixers team to all the sudden beating the Hornets and Pistons when no one thought that was going to happen. There's no way to confirm if that's what they intended, but if they did, everyone would understand.
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