A pair of Southeast Division rivals with lofty expectations will meet for the first time on Friday, as the Orlando Magic play host to the visiting Atlanta Hawks.
Both consensus picks to make the postseason out of the Eastern Conference, Orlando and Atlanta last met in the 7 vs. 8 play-in tournament game in April, a 120-95 Magic victory. With each team returning its core nucleus while adding key newcomers, neither side wants to return to the play-in.
Orlando began its season with a 125-121 victory over the Miami Heat on Wednesday, debuting its revamped offense spearheaded in part by offseason trade acquisition Desmond Bane.
The former high-scoring Memphis Grizzlies guard was shipped to the Magic in June and began his Orlando career with a 23-point output.
“It felt good, I’m not going to lie,” Bane said of his first game in Orlando. “It’s going to be a good place to call home, for sure. … We’ve got work to do. It’s always good to come out of here with a win, but we’ve still got a long way to go. It’s the first of 82 (games). It’s a long journey. It doesn’t happen overnight.”
Bane should provide a lift to an Orlando team that made the postseason despite averaging just 105.4 points per game (28th in the league), while shooting a league-worst 31.8% on 3-point attempts.
Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner chipped in 24 points apiece in the season-opening win. Looking to complement last season’s No. 1 scoring defense (105.5 points per game allowed), Orlando is embracing the challenge of its newfound offensive balance.
“Those are very good problems,” Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley said. ” … The beauty of this team is our depth, our togetherness and the focus that we have to continue to work for one another.”
Atlanta’s highly-anticipated season began with a whimper on Wednesday, as the Hawks were uncompetitive in a 138-118 home loss to the Toronto Raptors. As new faces debuted in Kristaps Porzingis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luke Kennard, Atlanta trailed by as many as 29 points in the season opener, allowing the Raptors to score 86 points in the paint.
“A lot of things we need to clean up, stating the obvious,” Hawks head coach Quin Snyder said. ” … It’s tough to have this on your home opener. The enthusiasm we have needs to get channeled correctly into the things that are going to help us win games.”
Wednesday marked the return of Jalen Johnson, who saw his 2024-25 season end in January after a torn labrum in his left shoulder. Johnson and Trae Young had 22 points each, while Porzingis chipped in 20, but the good news ended there for the Hawks, who look to rebound on Friday.
“I don’t think there’s too many positives you can take from tonight,” Young said after the 20-point loss. “It’s embarrassing the way we started it. A lot of it comes from the preseason, obviously it carried over, we didn’t play all five of us. You could tell by the continuity we had out there, it wasn’t right. But the cream always rises to the top. We got some time to make it up and got to get going.”
–Field Level Media
