Magic rally to beat Motor City, 123-116
Win the last six minutes, win the game.
That's how the Osceola Magic advanced to the NBA G League Eastern Conference finals Friday, with a 123-116 win over the Motor City Cruise.
Osceola will be right back at the Silver Spurs Arena Sunday to play the Greensboro Swarm in a matchup of the top two Eastern teams in the regular season. The Swarm beat the Magic in their two meetings this season.
In a game that was within one point after one quarter, three at the half and tied after three quarters, Osceola closed the game on a 14-8 run with big buckets and clutch free-throw shooting to get the win.
The Magic did rally from down eight with four minutes left in the third quarter, thanks to big buckets from Javonte Smart, who scored 17 points of the bench per his usual, five three throws down the stretch from Colin Castleton, and game management from Reece Beekman, who led all Magic scorers with 26.
"This was definitely a war, no way around it," Coach Dylan Murphy said. "We knew it'd be back-and-forth from playing them twice this season. "These guys just believe in each other and do what's best for the Osceola Magic rather than needing to get their touches. That unselfishness makes us play at our max when we have to."
Down 84-76 with four minutes left in the third quarter, Justin Minaya drained a corner three-pointer and Smart hit buckets on back-to-back drives to help tie it going to the fourth quarter. Beekman and Castleton put Osceola on top 106-102 with 4:30 left on a short jumper and a 1-for-2 free throw, but the Cruise scored the next six points to go up 108-106 with 3:28 left.
It was essentially all Magic from there. Beekman knocked down a three-point on the next possession to put Osceola up for good. Castleton followed with a lay-up off a feed from Smart, then Motor City's Chris Lanier was called for an offensive foul with 2:38 left. Smart then drained another three to make it 114-108 with 2:15 left.
While Lanier, who led all scorers with 27, got fouled on a three-point make and added the free throw to cut the lead back to thre with 29 seconds left, Castleton made his free throws, and Beekman poked away a Motor City pass to Alex Morales that really, really sealed it (we're still having the feels from Wednesday night's ending) for good.
Beekman echoed his coach's sentiment about playing together.
"It was a crazy game for sure," he said. "This group of guys is so connected and on the same page when we really need to be. Everybody believes in everybody else. That's how we made made those plays. A-Mo (Morales) made a great play (on the steal at the end)."
Motor City led 32-31 after a frantic first quarter, and it was the same in the second quarter; the margin was never more than three points, where it sat at the half after Wendell Ward Jr. hit a three-pointer with nine seconds left to send the Cruise to a 56-53 lead, With the teams combining to shoot just under 30 percent from three-point land, neither went on a run.
Motor City jumped out to seven and eight point leads in the third quarter, but big buckets by Javonte Smart and Reece Beekman
