Osceola can claim the trophy Friday in Stockton, Calif.
The Osceola Magic are one game away from the NBA G League championship after an impressive 129-118 win over the Stockton Kings Tuesday at the Silver Spurs Arena.
With the win, the Magic can now clinch the league championship Friday in Game 2 in Stockton. Tipoff is at 10 p.m. and the game will air on ESPN News.
Osceola rode the hot shooting hand of Myron Gardner, who scored 21 of his game-high 30 points in the second half, including in important stretches of the fourth quarter.
“Those 30 points just came, I wasn’t going in to score a bunch of points, the game just started going through me,” he said.
Coach Dylan Murphy said Gardner, who was a role player off the bench last year and much of the early part of this year, “changed the game.”
“Changed a bunch of shots, got to the rim, had six steals, just made a bunch of plays,” the coach said. “He’s been putting so much pressure on me to play him. It’s started with his defense and that’s what’s propelled him to bigger minutes.”
Myron had help, as seven Magic players scored in double digits and had moments where they carried the team, especially in the second half after the teams played to a 60-60 first-half tie.
Early on, the game was a slugfest worthy of the championship series. The Magic held a 32-30 after one quarter when both teams were 6-of-15 from beyond the arc. Patrick Gardner, Osceola’s only true center currently, stretched it to start the second with a three of his own. Thanks to a Stockton 11-0 run and a matching Osceola 9-0 run later in the second quarter, the teams went into halftime tied.
Four Osceola players scored during a 12-2 run to start the third quarter, and they stretched the lead to 77-67 with 7:15 left in the third after Myron Gardner hit back-to-back shots, including a three. The epic battle continued for the rest of the quarter, and when Ethan Thompson stole an outlet pass and fed to Jalen Slawson, his three to close the third quarter put the Magic up, 98-87, heading to the crucial fourth quarter.
The home team kept up the pressure and intensity with an 11-4 run, and stretched to a 20-point lead, 116-95, with seven minutes left after Gardner hit buckets on three straight possessions. It was a lead Osceola built while sparkplug Mac McClung struggled, missing his first six second-half shots, and one they wouldn’t relinquish.
McClung, who still scored 29 and added seven assists despite a slow second half, said what makes this team strong is an awareness of who the hot hand is.
"Myron's hot, let Myron rock," McClung said about how he approached the fourth quarter. "That's what makes this team so good. We have some many guys that can have the night Myron did (Tuesday) scoring the ball and on defense. Some of these guys are older, and the word is poise. When we go up six points, they all want to go up eight, then 12, then 14. I really love being part of this team."
"We've got depth, and a lot of killers on this team," Gardner said.
With a win Friday, the franchise would claim its second G League title. The Lakeland Magic took the trophy in 2021 as leagues returned from COVID-19.
