2024-25 Eastern Conference Play-In Preview: No. 8 Atlanta Hawks vs. No. 7 Orlando Magic

2024-25 Eastern Conference Play-In Preview: No. 8 Atlanta Hawks vs. No. 7 Orlando Magic

That time has arrived! Now, is when the real NBA season begins! The Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic will appear in the first of two Eastern Conference play-in gamesTuesday evening inside Kia Center in Orlando, Fla. The winner will officially clinch the No. 7 seed and square off with the Boston Celtics in the first round of the 2024-25 NBA playoffs, which begins this weekend.

Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s dive into this preview!

What to know about the Orlando Magic:

Starters:

• Cory Joseph
• Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
• Franz Wagner
• Paolo Banchero
• Wendell Carter Jr.

Key Reserves:

• Jonathan Isaac
• Cole Anthony
• Gary Harris
• Anthony Black

Orlando, Vendetta’s team, underwhelmed this season–in part due to injuries that plagued the team throughout the season. Both Banchero and Wagner missed extended time due to oblique injuries, while Jalen Suggs underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in March, ending his season prematurely.

After finishing as the No. 5 seed last year, the Magic finished an even 41-41 this year. The offense continued to be abhorrent, finishing as the league’s fourth-worst unit with the worst 3-point percentage by nearly two percentage points (31.8 percent). They did, however, find some life with their newfound starting lineup (mentioned above) toward the end of the season.

Over their last 10 games starting together, the quintet posted a 119.5 offensive rating with a plus-11.9 NET, going 8-2 over that span. Three of those wins came against the Wizards (twice) and Hornets, but the other five were against the Lakers, Kings, Celtics, Spurs and, in fact, the Hawks on April 8!

Orlando, however, posted the league’s second-best defense in the NBA and have excellent positional size at practically every position outside of lead guard, where they will try to hide Joseph. Their path to success is grinding teams down. Will that work against Trae Young and a Hawks team that will want to play with pace? We’ll see!

What to know about the Atlanta Hawks:

Starters:

• Trae Young
• Dyson Daniels
• Zaccharie Risacher
• Mouhamed Gueye
• Onyeka Okongwu

Key Reserves:

• Caris LeVert
• Terance Mann
• Georges Niang

The Hawks, Bulls and Heat have all been consistent play-in teams in the East. We’ll discuss those other teams another time, but the Hawks are making their fourth-straight appearance in the play-in.

After jumping up 10 spots in last year’s lottery and nabbing Zaccharie Risacher No. 1 overall, the Hawks traded Dejounte Murray and improved, finishing 40-42 with the 17th-best offense and 18th-best defense.

It obviously wasn’t perfect, but the two biggest standouts (outside of Young) were Defensive Player of the Year candidate Dyson Daniels and Risacher, who improved drastically as the year went on. Daniels, the centerpiece of the Murray trade, has been one of the league’s most disruptive defenders, smashing the record for most deflections in a single season while averaging 14.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game.

While it wasn’t his most efficient, Young quietly had one of the best playmaking seasons of his career. He led the NBA in assists (11.6) for the first time in his career, but topped the league in assist percentage for the third time in four years. Risacher was one of the league’s top rookies the second half of the season, catching up to San Antonio’s Stephon Castle in the Rookie of the Year chase (except, not really, Castle was still very clearly the winner).

Key Questions:

1. Can Trae Young overcome Orlando’s superior length?

One of the formulas to make Young’s life harder over the years has been to throw size at him and be physical. That’s the Magic MO.

They will be missing their best perimeter defender in Suggs, but one could assume that Caldwell-Pope will have the Young assignment with an assortment of defenders thereafter.

Atlanta’s supporting cast–Daniels, Risacher, LeVert, Niang, etc.–will have to step up, but the Hawks will need their star player to overcome Orlando’s length at the point-of-attack. He did not have any problem carving them up in their April 6 meeting despite the loss, but with the ball in his hands as much as it is, he’s going to need to step up.

2. Can the Magic score?

I don’t mean to be blunt when I ask hypothetical questions to myself. Typically, they’re more wordy. This one isn’t. No team in the NBA scored fewer than 100 points more often than the Magic, who did so 28 times this season. Surprisingly enough, they were 4-24 in those games–I say that to say I’m surprised they won four games, but that’s neither here nor there.

Atlanta scored less than 100 just seven times. Yes, only a quarter of that of the Magic. This will be a pace-up game for the Magic, so I’m expecting more possessions to be had, but there have been many times this season where I’ve wanted more from Orlando’s offense just to be disappointed by either the process or results (or both!).

Orlando will need to score to win. BREAKING: The team who scores the most points wins 100 percent of the time, my sources have confirmed! People aren’t talking about this enough. The Magic’s offense looks as dry as grass during winter, which can’t happen Tuesday if they want to clinch the No. 7 seed.

3. Who wins the battle of the boards?

I’ll start out the play-in/series previews with my favorite saying: No rebounds, no rings. Rebounding wins championships. Both were top-10 rebounding teams this season, but there can only be one winner Tuesday. Who will it be?

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