Magic Gaming Pulls Off Reverse Sweep to Knock Off NBL Oz Gaming

The Lead: The season is young, but already we’re seeing Magic Gaming figure out ways to win when their backs are up against the wall. On Thursday, in 3v3 SLAM OPEN bracket play, they pulled off a reverse sweep against NBL Oz Gaming to advance to the next round.

Game 1: The most important thing when a game is close is to take care of the ball. One turnover can be the difference between winning and losing.

That was certainly glaring in the opener, as a steal from Caesar “Ceez” Martinez in a one-point game in extra time led to a wide-open game-winning left corner 3-pointer from Christian “Plu” Young in NBL Oz Gaming’s 27-23 victory.

Joshua “unguardable” Hunter led Orlando with a game-high 17 points on 7-of-9 overall shooting and 3-of-4 3-point shooting.

Plu led NBL Oz with 11 points, Ja’Ron “Bagmotion” Baylor scored nine and Ceez finished with seven.

Game 2: Similar to Game 1, NBL Oz took control early, and despite another valiant comeback attempt by the Magic, the NBA 2K League team representing Australia prevailed 22-18.

Also just like the opener, Plu hit a game-winning 3-pointer from the left corner.

Ceez led all scorers with 12 points, while for Orlando, unguardable and Ashton “LowkeyGodlike” Agredano, acquired in the offseason in a blockbuster trade from DUX Infinitos, each had seven points.

Game 3: Game 3 for Magic Gaming looked far more like the way they played in the final two series of group play and not the first two games of this series.

Orlando came out guns blazing and ended up making eight of its 11 shot attempts in a 22-15 victory. Unguardable led the way with 10 points and rookie Julian “Jboolin” Manzanares scored nine, all from downtown, including the game winner from the right corner.

“We were just talking about composure,” Jboolin said about what the group discussed after Game 2. “The only way you are going to make comebacks is if you’re composed. If you’re not composed, you are just not thinking level-headed at all. You’re just doing things you wouldn’t normally do. We trusted in our abilities.”

Ceez led NBL with nine points and Plu had six.

Game 4: Orlando rode the momentum from its Game 3 win into Game 4. The Magic went up 15-5 at one point and cruised to a 22-10 victory to force a decisive Game 5.

Unguardable had another monster performance with 16 points on 6-of-8 overall shooting and 4-of-6 3-point shooting. His three from the left wing sealed it.

Magic Gaming held NBL Oz to just 4-of-8 shooting from the field. NBL also had a pair of turnovers, while the Magic didn’t have any.

Game 5: As you’d expect in a Game 5 with an opportunity to advance to the next round on the line, this one came down to the wire. And, once again, the Magic rose to the occasion with the pressure turned up.

NBL Oz, which had just taken a one-point lead off a Ceez dunk, got lost on its rotations after sending a double team to contain unguardable, and Jboolin, with the ball at the top of the arc, whipped a pass to the right corner to LowkeyGodlike, who drained the series-clinching 3-pointer for a 21-19 Magic Gaming victory.

“Usually teams go into a zone in a no-three situation like that, but they messed up and they got in a situation where Josh was double-teamed…Josh hit JB, JB hit me in the corner for the wide-open three, and I’ll never miss that shot,” LowkeyGodlike detailed about that last play.

Unguardable posted 11 points, while LowkeyGodlike and Jboolin each had five. Ceez led NBL with 11 points.

This was Magic Gaming’s second series victory over NBL Oz already this season.

Up Next: With Thursday’s victory, Magic Gaming advanced to the next round of the SLAM OPEN, where they will take on T-Wolves Gaming on Wednesday, March 13 (time TBD). This sets up a must-see matchup between the second overall pick in the 2024 2KL Draft, Damian “tutak” Tutak, and the third pick, Jboolin.

Quote to Note: “I’m excited. I get to play against tutak,” Jboolin said. “That’s somebody I’ve known for a little bit of time. I’m just ready to take on that challenge and try to win.”

How to Watch: Fans can watch games live on the NBA 2K League’s Twitch and YouTube channels.