Postgame Live - Game #68 - Magic vs. Thunder

0:00Hey, it's Howie Mandel and I am inviting you to witness history as me and my Howie Do It gaming team take on Gilly DeKing and wallow $267 million gaming in an epic global gaming league video game showdown, four rounds, multiple games, one winner, plus a half-time performance by multi-platinum artist, Travis McCoy. Watch all the action and see who wins and advances to the championship match against Neo. Right now at globalgamingleague.com, that's globalgamingleague.com, everybody games. Oh, what's going on, Orlando Magic Fans? Welcome to the six-man show, post-game live, presented by Thrive Ant. Luke's 108 to 113 to the Oklahoma City Thunder. What a weird game.

1:00Game that I think most Magic fans went into this one expecting a loss, not necessarily because we're playing the defending champions of the best team of basketball, but just because of the schedule, right? You play in Atlanta last night, you gotta turn right around and play the Thunder the second out of the back of back. It's always going to be tough. And it looked like that was going to be the case in the second quarter as the Magic Trail by as many as 18 became all the way back, also in the second quarter to make it a one-point game, had the lead for a large chunk of the third quarter and then just did not have enough in the tank in the fourth quarter, you ended up losing by five. Although you get two, three in the last couple of seconds there to make it look a little more respectable, it was more like a 10, that's all point loss. But maybe a little better than some Magic fans expected, but also in some ways felt like a game that you could have had in many respects. So anyway, I'm going to talk about that with all of you here tonight. Glad you're here. My name's Kevin. This is going to be an interesting one as we kind of maybe look for some silver linings, but also maybe again be disappointed in the fact that Magic went O and two in this.

2:05We knew it was a very difficult back-to-back, but O and two nonetheless. This show is all about you getting involved in the chat, I really appreciate everybody being here. This show is brought to you by Mark Abraham, who is a financial advisor with Ryvent. He's also a die-hard Orlando Magic fan and season ticket holder, and he is on a mission to help Orlando Magic fans be wise with their money. Maybe you can be more wise with your money than the Magic were wise tonight or last night in some certain moments of those games. But yeah, he wants Magic fans be wise with their money, and so if you're looking for a little bit of help in the area of finances, you want to give Mark a call at 407-366-4364 or shoot him an email on his website, those are in the description below. The constitution call is completely free, so just give him a call. I don't know what's going on in your world of finances and talk a little magic basketball as well. You won't be disappointed. I promise you that. Mark is a great guy. Big shout out to him and to throw him in for a sponsoring this show. The other thing, very, very exciting, one of the best weeks of the year, as you heard on the broadcast tonight, it is the week of the Doobin Drop. I believe this is round four of Doobin Orlando Magic, excuse me, collaboration.

3:10I have been blessed with a little bit of a little bit of the Doobin merch myself this year. Pretty exciting. Yeah. So I'm rocking a couple of the pieces that you're going to see this week. There are even more that I've yet to be seen. But of course, is this anything shirt as they featured many times on the broadcast tonight is sick. That is available in person only at this Saturday's game against the Lakers, but some of the rest of the collections are going to be available online or in person, which is pretty cool. Yeah, I'm rocking the hat. I'm rocking the sweatshirt, the crew neck sweatshirt, see if I can get stuff all the way up there looking great. Yeah, I always love their creative takes on everything Orlando Magic, but especially stuff. Because I'm such a big stuff fan. I love that they get really, really creative with stuff. And so yeah, there's a lot of great pieces. Shout out to Doobin. You definitely want to get your hands on some of that stuff this week. All right. Let's talk about this game. Tough. Tough, tough, tough stuff. Other chats as we always do, by the way, yes, you can hear it.

4:12I'm very under the weather, but we fight on for another day, just like this team fights on for another day. Teams got a tough schedule. We've got a tough schedule. No rest for the weary. We press on work. Here we go. E-Craft says margins so thin against OKC bench horrific beside Javan and goga in his six minutes. Most doesn't help. It doesn't help the margins left Mo in way too long until momentum shifted. That use of challenge could go on and on. Yeah. Bench was really, really bad. Except for those guys. Yeah. The goga, Mo thing is interesting. Mo, I mean, Mo just Mo hardest tonight. Right. There's just no. You can't, can't sugarcoat it. He really, really hurt us. And yeah, part of me just feels like Mosley was like, he'll turn around, he'll be OK. He was not OK. And he hasn't been OK since he's come back. And I know he's coming back from an ACL injury. That's a big deal. That's a big thing to come back from.

5:12But there has to be a line somewhere between letting a guy come back and find his way, find his rhythm, find his groove, find his physicality, all those things versus it costing you basketball games. And I'm not sitting here saying Mo Wagner costs the magic of the game. That's not what I'm saying. But I am saying he didn't hurt you in stretches of this game. And so you have to you have to find that line. In years past, when the magic were bad or rebuilding or just happy to be here, you could afford to let guys ramp back up in games. We can't afford that now. And this isn't just a one off event either. Like Mo has, Mo has struggled multiple times since coming back. He's had a couple good performances, but by and large, they haven't been great. And so tonight, especially considering the opponent, I felt like Goga could have been a better answer for what OkC was doing tonight. And so for him to go out there and get six minutes, didn't love that.

6:12I totally agree. The challenge was a bad challenge. I agree with that too. Not great, not great. But yeah, the bench is a hole. I mean, the other guy, I should have mentioned Jet Howard, man, Jet Howard and Mo Wagner combined like that stretch just absolutely cost this team, absolutely cost it. Again, I'm not blaming the loss on those two guys. A lot of guys could have been better tonight, but that stretch in particular felt like that was where the nail was put into the coffin right there. Even though the magic had plenty of time to come back, but once in the second half like that, once you give a team like OkC a double digit lead for the second time, good luck getting it back. Thanks for that super chat, you craft. Mr. TV says, I'm ready to get frauds and black back, yeah. And I hope Spurs kills the Thunder's chip hopes this year. I can't say I'm watching SGA play ball, yeah, man, it sucks because SGA is so good at basketball. I wish you just focus on that instead of focus on the foul banding, although I will say

7:13I didn't think it was as bad tonight as we've seen in years or games past. Yeah. You only took 11 free throws tonight. Yeah, that's not. That's not terrible. But he was very, he was, what did he have 12 in the first half? So he had 28 in the second half. It's crazy. 14, 27. And I'm pretty sure he was 4 of 12. I feel like I remember that on the graphic 4 of 12 at the half, which means he went 10 of 15 in the second half. So yeah, he was, he was just great tonight and I, I tend to agree with you. I don't love the foul baiting, but tonight I didn't think it was that bad. A combination of I don't think he was baiting is as much plus I think the magic were able to be a little more physical with him than, uh, sometimes other teams are Mark Steeler with the super chat. SJ foul overturned on Sugs with ridiculous, uh, unfortunately, Mark. I think I've, as soon as I saw it, I thought it was the right call, unfortunately. And if for no other reason, just to be brutally, brutally honest.

8:16This sounds terrible. Forgive me. Forgive me. Magic fans and forgive me. Jalen Sugs. Jalen kind of deserve that. If you leave the ball, so late baiting your defender right there, so late down the floor, just to gain half a second, maybe extra or you're trying to bait your defender into going for the loose ball, you kind of deserve something like that to happen. That was just not a smart play by Jalen Sugs. Just being honest. Just why that why wait that long, like I don't understand it. Um, yeah, it's, it's a tough call. It's one of those like that comes down to a millisecond, but I, I do think it was the right. It was right to overturn it. And again, I think it was deserved. I just did not understand that at all, but whatever. Um, man, this was tough because, um, I, I, I come away from this one. Just with the effort that the magic put out tonight, again, second out of back to back,

9:16you got to travel, played a brutal game last night against the hottest team of the league, turn around tonight and play against the second hottest team of the league. That's tough. Uh, and the magic I thought played with enough energy and hustle for most parts of this game to be competitive. And it's also worth noting, this is the most competitive the magic of band against the Oklahoma City Thunder in years. It stinks. Maybe it doesn't stink. That's not the right way to put it. It's, it's of no. The magic only played them twice a year, right? But the last two years have been absolute blowouts in OKC at home doesn't matter blown out 20 plus points, at least 15 plus points, but sometimes 20, sometimes 30 points every time. And so for the magic to have a lead in the second half, uh, end up it again, it's a little generous at the end, but a two possession loss, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's at least improvement from years past, right?

10:18And it does like Mr. TV was saying, does bag the question like, man, if only we had Frons and AB black, AB back, you know, you never know, you never know. But anyway, this is what it is. Tough loss. All right. We'll hit the chat for a little bit here. We will check the box score. We'll check the scores around the league and there's a couple really, really important ones that we need to look at. And then of course, the standings and we'll call it night. We'll keep it short and sweet tonight is a back-to-back plus you can hear how I sound. It just got it. It's what it is. All right. Let's see what we got here. Enesto says the cousin scored 40 on the magic, yeah, it's wild. That's pretty crazy, ma'am. Blazer says it has been said the magic are the OKC of the East just a few years behind. Yeah, once upon a time before OKC really went crazy, those words were said, but that was that was years ago, unfortunately. This for greatness as I hate watching OKC play, I, yeah, they're pretty cringe.

11:20I hated how the game ended with the Tristan foul and chat and like as soon as that window, I'm just like, oh, here we go. Let's see what kind of antics these guys put together. Of course, they did, but whatever. I'm joking. He says, love how the magic are so good at getting hopes up. Yeah. Yeah, that was, that was tough. Come all the way back from 18 down in the same quarter, by the way, in the second, have a lead for large chunks of the third quarter, but then fourth quarter just couldn't put it away. I think Thomas says, we're not beating Charlotte either. So much for being back. I, I don't know about that. I cannot take too much from tonight's game, guys. I personally cannot. You are playing the best, they are the best team in basketball for a reason. As annoying as I think they are, as painful as they are to watch, oftentimes, they are the best team in basketball for a reason. They are the defending champions for a reason, OK?

12:20Playing them at any point in any building on the planet with a lot of rest is very, very difficult. Second, I have a back-to-back after we had to travel back from Atlanta last night after they hadn't played since Sunday, that's always going to be tough. And again, you had to put out all your effort last night against the hottest team in basketball and you sure ran away and played, OK, so you didn't know who's the second hottest team in basketball and the best team in basketball. Like when we sat down and looked at the schedule in August, we said the magic would lose this game. It's just the way it is, right? I would take more away from last night's game than tonight's game. But and the other thing is it's like, it's accumulative, right? Like, if you look at the month of March, the magic of it should have been playing an insane number of games, insane number of games, the magic play, 17 times in 31 nights in March. It's crazy. It's crazy. This team is exhausted. So I'm not pulling too much from these, after being back or not, we just can't like, have we already forgotten the seven game win streak? I don't know.

13:21I can't do that. I can't just like that. Just forget a seven game win streak. We didn't lose for two weeks until yesterday, guys, come on now. And again, we'd ran into two buzz saws in the span of 24 hours in two different cities. I just can't. I can't get to two out of about that Thursday. You go to Charlotte. Charlotte is absolutely, absolutely destroying Miami right now. That game's probably over, actually. Let's see. Yeah, they won by 30, 136 to 106, good, gracious. So they're playing great and, uh, what's the day to say? Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Yeah. So yeah, magic go to Charlotte on Thursday. So that's another thing. Charlotte won't travel. The magic do have to travel tomorrow. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there. The 2026 NCAA March Madness men's tournament is back and it's guaranteed to keep you dancing every night. The biggest event in college sports is finally here. And TNT sports has you covered from the opening tip to the final buzzer and everything

14:25in between. Keep up with all the heart pumping show stopping craziness of March Madness across TBS, CBS TNT, true TV and the March Madness live app as we march all the way to Indianapolis. And this year, the men's final four returns to TBS on April 4th and 6th. Match all the clutch shots big time plays upset Cinderella's blue bloods and more that keep you on the edge of your seat. You're not going to want to miss a second of the action. So tune in to the NCAA men's first four tonight at 6 p.m. Eastern on true TV and in the March Madness live app. Big thanks to our sponsor, Better Help for partnering with us for this important conversation about mental health. This is Steve Smith here, former NFL Y receiver and host of the 89 show on YouTube. So having a counselor and working with Better Help, that gives you an opportunity to really start to unpack, but people don't understand when you unpack things. You also open up a box that you're not always sure what's inside.

15:28And so I think that's why I was seeing a professional is extremely important. If you need someone to open up to visit Better Help, that's better H-E-L-P dot com slash 89 to get started. All right, let's see. Oh, we just got a super chat. Another one from E-Craft says Mo was minus 28 and a five point loss. Let me know is not mo that's insane. Oh my goodness, minus 28 and 12 minutes, holy smokes. That might be the worst plus minus per minute that we've seen on the magic this season. That's actually, actually crazy. So he's at like two point, whatever that is, 2.3 minus 2.3 per minute, is that the math? I don't know. That's really, really crazy. Wow. Okay, thanks for that super chat. All right, let's go back to the chat really fast.

16:29We'll just hit a few of these. We'll hit the box for scores around the league and we'll call it a night. All right. Just for greatness says, I didn't expect to win this one. I love the fight. We hung in the game despite the inconsistent whistle. Yeah. I absolutely thought this game was going to be over at halftime with how the second quarter started. Right. You go down 18. You're just thinking here we go again, like we've seen this movie so many times against the thunder, especially on the second half of back to back. You know what it's going to be. So yeah, I'm with you. I give him a lot of credit. The defense was for a large stretch of the game, it was good. Unfortunately, there were some stretches where it was not the best and they took advantage and the offense. I mean, the shooting is just 39% from the field tonight. It's never going to be good enough. I know, okay, he's good defensively, but man, we had some good looks. Just that bench was you got three fuel goals from the bench outside of on Carter.

17:31That's 11 points outside of on Carter. You had a minus 23 minus 28 minus 16 to minus 14 from the bench tonight. Minus to bond Carter. That is bonkers. Blake says the amount of OKC fans in the key center is actually surprising. Hey, Blake, I have a little bit of insider knowledge for you. Of those OKC, OKC fans, approximately, let me just double check here. Yeah. I mean, 99.9999, 9% of those OKC fans were not OKC fans three, four years ago. Those I'm doing air quotes for those listening on podcast platforms, OKC fans are SGA fans, chat fans, fans of the, you know, the antics that they do, their journey, McCain fans. They're just Gen Z fans or whatever the next generation is because they love all these guys on social media and that's what those are.

18:34Did you hear the OKC chance at the end of the game? What register voice did you hear? OKC. I heard it way up here. OKC. OKC. It's a bunch of kids here for SGA. I'm halfway joking, kind of, but seriously, it's a bunch of banal. It's the same people they will go to the game tonight wearing an SGA OKC Jersey. And on Saturday against the Lakers, we'll be wearing a Luca Jersey or a LeBron Jersey. These are not fans of these teams. These are fans of the players, their fans of the personalities, their fans of the stars. That is what they are. That is how some people choose to view sports. That is how some people choose to root for sports. I guess that's fine. It's not me. It's not us if you are here in this chat because you are a magic maniac and you don't roll like that. And I vibe with you, but there is a whole segment of the population. Some call them casuals, others call them whatever. That's what they do. I'm not, I am not even exaggerating the same people that were at the game tonight by

19:39and large wearing an SGA Jersey will be at the game on Saturday wearing a Luca Jersey or wearing a LeBron Jersey. That's just the way it goes, especially in Orlando, it's wild. So yes, I would say if I were just to correct, just gently correct, you blake. I would say the amount of people rooting for O.K.C. in the Kia Center is actually surprising because they're not really O.K.C. fans. Absolutely not. Have you been to Oklahoma City? Have any of you in the chat been to Oklahoma City? There are not that many Oklahoma City fans. They're just not. There are people that become Oklahoma City fans because they are attached to those personalities. But before those personalities existed, they were not O.K.C. fans and when those personalities go away, those same people will no longer be O.K.C. fans. That is the life of casual bandwagon sports fans and that is not the life for me. No, sir, I'm getting off my soapbox now. The end. All right, let's take a break from the chat. Let's go to the boxworm.

20:42This is going to be interesting. Here's them with 16 points, four boards and an assist 4 of 12 from 3 1 or 4 of 12 from the field. 1 of 6 from 3. Not a great shooting night from Tristan tonight. Also had two turnovers. Palo was outrageous. So good tonight. 32 points. 12 of 21 from the field. 3 of 6 from 3. 5 of 6 from the line. 10 boards. 5 of 6 is two steals. Great night from Palo. Wish it could have come in a dub. Wendell with 11, 5, 3 and a steal. I went over 4 from 3 man. There were a couple of 3s that he had that you're like, if this goes down, like they were in really, really pivotal moments of the game, just couldn't get him to fall. Desmond kind of quiet tonight. Like yeah, you had the 4 3s. One of them was out there at the very, very end, but man, I wish we could have gotten him going a little more because he shot the ball well. Obviously, a big part of Desmond's game this year is getting to the rim and okay, obviously, just not going to sit back and let that happen. So Jalen 14 points, 7 boards, 6 assists for him in only two turnovers in 32 minutes.

21:49Juvon Carter was was quite good off the bench. I thought 11 points, 4 boards for him and then the rest of the bench was when we talked about it, you get 11 points combined from the rest of the bench. Three for Jett Howard, who had one of seven, five from Ovogner, who had one of six, you know, a pen it didn't score, Jamal Cain with a big three, actually, very timely three, one of four from the field and goga just played less than six minutes, which is kind of wild. You mentioned Movogner minus 28 into all of the half minutes, Jett Howard was a minus 23 in 19 minutes, yikes, yikes, awesome team stats, guys, I'm not going to make it. My voices, my little, my little rant has destroyed whatever was left of my vocal cords. I'm not going to make it. We have to power through this and call it after this points of the paint magic, just 32 points of the paint. That's, that's one of the worst tallies of the year, magic really, really rely on getting points of the paint, not just scoring points of the paint, but using that to, to attract

22:53defenses. That's rough and only five fast break points, it's kind of crazy. Dead by as many as seven, trail by as many as 18 again, 22 bench points and 11 of those are from Jamal Carter, 12 turnovers, give the magic credit, the second half they turned, turned around the turnover thing like very quickly, because that second quarter was atrocious with the turnovers. I think they had eight at the half, so to have four in the second half, I'm totally okay with that. That's great. All right, let's just knock these out real fast, let's hit the scores around the league and the standings. Next beat the Pacers by a lot, the magic play the Pacers next week, thank goodness, Pissons beat the Wizards. Wizards made it a little bit interesting there in the fourth, but Thunderbeat the Magic of course, we already mentioned the Hornets destroyed the heat by 30, which is kind of crazy. This is a huge game right here, the Cavs currently trailing the Milwaukee Bucks at the start of the fourth quarter, we'll keep an eye on that one, of course, as the night goes on, the Magic right there, knocking on the door of the four seed, which we'll look at in

23:53a second, and so if the Cavs can lose tonight, that means the Magic don't lose any ground in the battle for the fourth seed tonight, which would be huge, Tim rolls currently up on the Suns at the end of three, and then the Sixers, who the Magic are in the same conversation with, on the road at Denver tonight, Sixers have really cooled off obviously with those injuries, but still something to keep an eye on for the Magic, and then the Spurs and Kings play later as well. All right, to the standings, we go, we'll refresh this, see what we're working with here. Magic now fall into the sixth seed after the loss tonight, they trail by trail, trail to run by a half game, trail the Cavs by three games that could go back to two and a half games, depending on the Cavs result. They lead the Heat by a half game, again, thanks to the Heats lost tonight, the Hawks, they lead by a game, the Sixers, they lead by a game, and the Hornets, they lead by three and a half games going into who are match up with them on Thursday. I'm actually not going to make you guys. Okay, we're going to hit, I'm only going to hit a couple more of these, and, uh,

24:53you're off the tells us, Kissimmee Thunder with these fans at Kia. Oh, my gosh, as a former Kissimmee resident, yeah, no comment. Uh, okay. Cleanstar, oh, my gosh, whatever, it's kind of, it's funny, it's funny. I'll give you that, it's funny, but we don't wish, we don't wish medical ill will on anybody, except maybe like a stub toe, okay. Uh, Magic Wire says SJ is a free throw merchant, typically, yeah, but I didn't think he was that bad. I didn't think he was that bad. Uh, Blader says too many missed shots when it was 70 to 77. Yeah, ton of missed shots. They had the magic had so many opportunities to get a sizable lead in this one and make it really, really difficult for O.K.C. to come back. But I'm driving since the cat, Kev, thank you so much. Again, the doom collection available this weekend. Very exciting, looks great. Super super happy with it. Joe says hit the like button, my peeps, please do hit the like button for, uh, I would,

25:58I would call the flu game, it's not a flu game. It's just a sinus crap game. But still, uh, yeah, I hit the like button at the very least for, hey, this is game number. What is this? What are we on? What number is this? Somebody tell me 68? Yeah, this is game number 68. If you guys appreciate us being here for 68 games, plus four preseason games, plus two games in Europe, plus the 14 that are still to go hit the like button, if you appreciate, if you have appreciated any of the post game lives this season, plus the podcast, plus the six financial, I didn't even mention the six financial was happening tonight. That's going to be interesting. Hit the like button, appreciate it. Ah, all right, bummer, bummer, the magic loses this one, all right, let's see. Askable thoughts here, uh, some of these I can't read, can't read out loud. That's okay. Blake says, if we play like this against Atlanta, we win probably, you're probably right about that one. It's a good point.

27:00Disappointing in that, um, Steve also has got another game over Miami in the standing stinks. Charlotte, see, there's a, yeah, 100% big time. Joey says unfortunately, this means no free checkers tomorrow. I think we can agree. That's all the worst part of tonight. Yeah, that's tough, tough, very, very tough. Do you believe in what the shoe emoji, this is a good point, do you believe in? I put it in the bottom line, but we haven't even talked about the Alex Caruso block with a shoe. What are we doing, Alex? What are we doing? That's insane. That's a great way to end it. One of the most wild, unhinged thing I've ever seen in the history, not just the NBA of basketball. I've never seen that professional college high school, JV middle school, never seen it. Absolutely never seen it. That's crazy, very, very funny. I knew double take when I saw it live, it didn't believe it. I saw the replay was like, wow, that's kind of crazy, but it's what it is.

28:02All right, we made it. The end of the hardest back to back all season long is finally done. The magic win only two, but at least it's done. All right, magic back in action Thursday on the road in Charlotte. That's a big one, got to find a way to win it, got a bounce back. Enjoy your Wednesday, everybody. We'll see Thursday and until then, let's go. Let's go, let's get it. Let's go, let's get it.

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