Magic Gaming Recap vs. Cavs Legion
July 13, 2018
Balanced scoring allowed Magic Gaming to hang around against Cavs Legion on Thursday in the opening round of The Ticket, the second and final mid-season tournament of the inaugural NBA 2K League season.
The Cavs, meanwhile, only needed one player to offset that. Brandon “Hood” Caicedo – the league’s leading scorer – exploded for a career-best 48 points in his team’s 68-60 victory. The Weston, Fla. native shot 23-of-34 from the field, and he filled out the rest of the stat sheet with seven rebounds, five assists and one steal.
Cameron “KingCamRoyalty” Ford led four Magic players in double figures with 18 points, Jorge “marley213s” Renteria and Christopher “KontruL” Cantrell each scored 12 and Emmanuel “UCMANNY” Cruz chipped in with 10 points.
There wasn’t much of a gap between the two teams statistically. In fact, the Magic dished out more assists and they made one more 3-pointer than the Cavs. Magic Gaming even outscored Cavs Legion in the fourth quarter.
However, the night belonged to Hood, who is averaging 30.9 points per game and has scored over 40 in four of the 11 games he has appeared in this season. Mavs point guard and first overall pick Artreyo “Dimez” Boyd set the NBA 2K League record for most points in a single game when he scored 50 against Grizz Gaming during the Tip-Off Tournament in May.
While the loss eliminates them from this tournament, the Magic are still very much alive in the playoff race. They currently sit in ninth place in the regular season standings, although they share the same 5-4 record with four other teams including the fifth-place Mavs.
The champion of The Ticket will automatically qualify for the postseason. The Magic still have five regular season games remaining, including next week’s contest against Pacers Gaming (Saturday, July 21 at 12 p.m. ET).