Magic Gaming Routs Hawks Talon GC

Twelve days since they were last in action, Magic Gaming was eager to remind the rest of the NBA 2K League how tough they are to beat when they are clicking on all cylinders and why they should be considered legitimate title contenders.

Rookies Brendan “Reizey” Hill and Daniel “DT” Tlais were both extraordinary, combining for 59 points, as the Magic thrashed Hawks Talon GC, 91-48, on Thursday.

Reizey, the No. 9 overall pick in the 2019 draft and Week 7’s Intel Player of the Week, made 11 of his 17 shot attempts and six of his 10 3-point tries. He finished with 30 points, two shy of his career high. Even more impressive, arguably, was that he matched his career high in assists with 15 dimes.

DT, meanwhile, was also scorching hot, erupting for a career-best 29 points on 12-of-17 shooting from the field and 5-of-9 from downtown. The Ontario, Canada native filled up the rest of the box score, too, recording nine rebounds, two assists and three steals.

“When he (Reizey) gets going, it allows me to get going. It allows me to play my game,” DT said. “Especially if we get an early lead, I can just play freely. I can just do what I think is the right play.”

The 91 points scored by the Magic was their highest total this season and was the third best mark in the entire league. Winning by 43 could prove significant if the Magic finish the regular season tied with any other teams considering average point differential is only behind winning percentage and head-to-head results when determining playoff seeding hierarchy.

Magic Gaming Head Coach Jonah Edwards continues to be very happy with his team’s overall effort and focus. He had a good feeling when the squad was originally assembled, and then even more so when they acquired veteran Brandon “ToXsiK” Raudenbush a few weeks ago, that they would have excellent chemistry.

Thursday’s victory was just another great example of how cohesive they have become.

“We definitely play a good version of basketball when we’re really clicking and you saw that today,” Edwards said. “We had it on both ends. I talk so much about when we get a game where we are going to play great defense and great offense in the same game, we’re going to really, really turn it up on a team and kind of blow them out and were able to do that today. And that was the plan going in, so I’m glad we executed.”

The always reliable Cameron “KingCamRoyalty” Ford helped the Magic out-rebound the Hawks 25-6. The second-year pro grabbed 14 of those boards while scoring 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting. Entering this week’s action, KingCamRoyalty was tied for first in the league in field goal percentage.

The Magic will now turn their attention to the Mavs, who currently sit in second place behind Blazer5. Beaming with confidence with wins in four of their last five games, Magic Gaming sees Friday’s showdown as a great late-season test as they continue to make their final playoff push.

“It’s probably the biggest game of our season just for the fact that it is a very good team and then if we win this, we’ll probably be fifth or fourth in the standings,” DT said. “They’re probably one of the better teams we have left on our schedule.”

“The message from my end is just we got to win out,” said Edwards, who coached the Mavs last season. “I know that puts us at 11-5 and probably in a decent seed. At worst case, we have to go 10-6 to make the playoffs. And we know that, so we don’t want to give any games away especially if we don’t have to.”