Book your tickets to Boston, Magic fans.
The Orlando Magic took down the Atlanta Hawks 120-95 in Tuesday night’s first-round Play-In game to secure their spot in the playoffs as the Eastern Conference’s seventh seed, with a series against the reigning champion Celtics on the docket.
The Magic — who came into the Play-In as the seventh seed and will now exit in the same place — won the outing on the back of their vaunted defence as they held the Hawks to well below their regular-season average of 118.2 points per game.
Star forward Paolo Banchero led the way on the stat sheet with 17 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. They also got some massive scoring contributions off the bench, with guards Cole Anthony netting 26 points and Anthony Black adding 16.
Orlando had a strong first quarter, securing a 15-point lead after 12 minutes, and kept that momentum going for much of the game. That lead ballooned to 22 with three minutes left in the second.
Though the Hawks cut into the gap in the third quarter, bringing it all the way down to only a three-point margin, a big run in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter courtesy of Anthony off the bench built the lead back up to double-digits.
Hawks superstar guard Trae Young was ejected from the game late after displaying some frustration with officiating and the impending loss.
They’ll now head to Massachusetts to take on the second-seed Boston Celtics in the first round, with Game 1 of their series on Saturday. This is the second straight season that they qualify for the post-season. They have not won a series since the 2009-10 season.