(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
With the 2023-24 NBA regular season coming down the final stretch with teams around the league starting to punch their ticket to the upcoming NBA playoffs, the debates are starting to heat up about which squads have a chance to compete in the postseason this year.
In the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics are the cream of the crop as the only team in the league right now that has already secured a post in the playoffs while sporting the NBA’s best record at 54-14.
After the Celtics, the competition drops off slightly with the Milwaukee Bucks 10 games back of Boston, followed by the Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks, Orlando Magic, and Philadelphia 76ers.
There’s no doubt that the Celtics, Bucks, Cavaliers, and Knicks are getting their due credit right now, but ESPN’s Austin Rivers believes the Magic deserve much more credit for what they’ve been able to accomplish this season.
“It’s the Orlando Magic,” Rivers said, when picking an East team that deserves more respect. “The Orlando Magic have just been creeping the whole way through. They play harder than anybody in the NBA.”
Which team in the East deserves more R-E-S-P-E-C-T? @AustinRivers25 makes a case for the Magic. pic.twitter.com/aQpMoQebyr
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) March 19, 2024
Rivers does have a point with the Magic being a team that no one expected to be in the playoff picture this season and seems firmly in the mix to lock up the fourth or fifth seed in the East, bypassing the Play-In Tournament entirely.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Magic can play playoff spoiler this season after exceeding expectations during the regular season, as no one is paying much attention to what is happening in Orlando right now.
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