Magic Gaming Comes Up Short in Pair of SWITCH OPEN Series
April 11, 2023
Playing in arguably the strongest group in the SWITCH OPEN, Magic Gaming came up empty in Tuesday’s action, falling in five games to NetsGC and in four games to Cavs Legion GC. Orlando is now 3-3 in group play with two more series left before the bracket stage.
Magic Gaming Goes the Distance With NetsGC
Game 1: Tariq “Greens” Reed, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2023 NBA 2K League Draft, and Shun “Streetz” Brown each scored eight points to lead NetsGC to a wire-to-wire 21-13 victory.
Streetz, who didn’t miss a shot, drilled a 3-pointer to end it.
Joshua “unguardable” Hunter led Magic Gaming with seven points and Matthew “Matty” Grant scored six.
Brooklyn made five threes, while Orlando knocked down just one.
Game 2: Magic Gaming jumped out to a 12-4 lead and then held off NetsGC for a 21-18 victory.
Orlando made nine of its 10 shots, including the sealing-dunk from unguardable. The second-year pro finished with 12 points on 5-of-6 overall shooting and 2-of-3 3-point shooting. Matty went a perfect 3-of-3 from the field for seven points.
Although he did have six assists, Greens scored just two points on three shots.
Game 3: Unguardable delivered, arguably, his best game of the season, making all eight of his shots and scoring all but two of Orlando’s points in a 21-17 win.
Magic Gaming went up 15-9 and then kept NetsGC on their backs. Unguardable ended it with a driving layup. His counterpart, Greens, had a strong game as well with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
Game 4: Unlike the first three games, this one hung in the balance right up until the end. Many two-point baskets were exchanged, until Alexander “Steez” Bernstein on the last possession got an open look from downtown, which he buried to give Brooklyn a 23-19 victory.
Greens led the Nets with 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting, while unguardable had 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting for the Magic.
Game 5: On the very first possession, Robert “May” May intercepted a Greens pass. Matty, then, drilled a triple. But things went south from there, as Greens got hot and Brooklyn’s defense tightened up in NetsGC’s 21-13 victory.
Greens finished with 17 points – 15 of them coming from 3-point distance. He had one assist as well, which came on the final possession when he dished to Streetz for the winning dunk.
“One thing that’s tough about our group is that we have some really good teams in it, so there’s very little room for error,” said May, now in his fourth season with Magic Gaming and fifth in the 2KL. “The better teams in this mode will take advantage of that, and they got the better of us tonight in Game 5, unfortunately. They played a good series. I wish we had a few plays back, but still credit to them.”
Magic Gaming Bested By Cavs Legion GC in Four Games
Game 1: Magic Gaming cruised to a 21-15 victory in the opener behind scorching hot 3-point shooting. Unguardable hit three of his team’s five threes, while Matty and May each hit one.
Cavs Legion GC, on the other hand, struggled to create any space on the perimeter, attempting just one shot from beyond the arc. Antoine “Antoine” Featherstone led them with nine points.
Unguardable finished with 13 points, while May posted five points, two rebounds and two steals.
Game 2: The Cavs bounced back with a wire-to-wire 21-16 victory. It didn’t come easy, though, as the Magic pulled within two late at 18-16 and even had a chance to take the lead.
Joshua “SubGoated” Ferreira, who finished with seven points, buried the game-winning 3-pointer.
Unguardable led Orlando with eight points, while Matty had six.
Game 3: SubGoated has been one of the league’s best small forwards in 3v3 mode, and his strong play continued in Game 3, finishing with 10 points in Cleveland’s 22-14 victory.
The 14th overall pick in the 2023 NBA 2K League Draft sealed the win with a game-winning dunk off a feed from Antoine.
Unguardable scored nine points for the Magic, while May had five.
Game 4: Magic Gaming erased a 20-14 deficit and had leads at 21-20, 23-22 and 25-24, but were unable to close the deal, as Cavs Legion GC finished off the series with a 27-25 victory.
Jeremy “Seese” Seese buried the series-clinching 3-pointer.
Antoine led Cleveland with 19 points, while unguardable scored 12 for Orlando and Matty had 11.
“Even last week when we played Cleveland, they were really efficient from the field, and we kind of expected them to be that again tonight,” Magic Gaming General Manager and Head Coach Jonah Edwards said. “We kind of knew we couldn’t allow them to be and they still were tonight. Very efficient, especially up until game four. We kind of let that one get away. If we won that one, we’d probably be having a different conversation right now. Without that win, it puts us in a tough position.”
Up Next: Magic Gaming’s rematches with Jazz Gaming (6:45 p.m.) and DUX Infinitos (9 p.m.) will take place Thursday. Orlando defeated Utah in five games in their first meeting, while they got swept by DUX in their first clash. Entering Tuesday’s action, DUX had 110 standings points, while the Jazz had 90. The top 10 teams following the SWITCH OPEN will automatically advance to the 3v3 playoffs, while the remaining teams will have a chance to qualify through the STEAL.
“Thursday is really important for our group,” May said. “We are sitting at three-and-three now in a pretty solid group. That will tell us where we are at going into bracket play in this tournament, and also find out our seeding. We are still going to practice hard, of course, and prepare for the games on Thursday and hope to come away with the two wins.”