Magic Gaming Stays Hot, Sweeps Pistons GT to Begin SWITCH OPEN

The Lead: To emphasize how quickly Magic Gaming has risen through the ranks in the NBA 2K League: Last tournament, they lost their first 3v3 series to Pistons GT in four games. On Wednesday, a few days after playing in the finals of the SLAM OPEN, they began the SWITCH OPEN by sweeping those same Pistons.

“When we first played them, I feel like we weren’t where we were supposed to be at mentally,” rookie sensation Julian “Jboolin” Manzanares said. “Now, I feel like we are more together and have more of an identity. It felt good to show that. We have improved since the beginning of the season.”

Game 1: Not many 2KL players, if any, are better at creating space off the dribble than Joshua “unguardable” Hunter, which was glaring toward the end of the opener. The All-Star point guard freed himself up for a pair of back-to-back triples to close out a 21-16 victory.

Unguardable had 14 points in total, with his other buckets all coming at the rim. Ashton “LowkeyGodlike” Agredano filled up the box score with three points, three rebounds, four assists and one steal.

Anthony “ANT” Costanzo led Pistons GT with seven points, but largely because of Orlando’s stifling defense, he only shot 3-of-7 from the field overall, including 1-of-4 from 3-point distance.

Game 2: All three Magic Gaming players being excellent outside shooters is one of the many reasons why they are one of the best 3v3 teams in the league. That collective strength overwhelmed Detroit in this contest, as Orlando knocked down six 3-pointers in its 22-13 victory.

For the second straight game, unguardable hit the winner from downtown, while LowkeyGodlike and Jboolin each buried two 3-pointers earlier. Unguardable led with 10 points. Connor “Connor” Hardin paced the Pistons with seven points.

Game 3: As good as he was in the first two games, unguardable was even more spectacular in the finale. An early season 3v3 MVP candidate, he erupted for 19 points in Orlando’s closeout 22-20 win in a sweep of Detroit.

Once again, the dynamic floor general made the winning bucket – this one a layup after the Pistons tied it off an ANT 3-pointer. The biggest shot, though, came on the prior possession when following a miss by Jomar “Jomar” Varela Escapa, LowkeyGodlike darted a pass into the hands of unguardable, who immediately rose up from the right wing and sank the triple to give the Magic game point.

“It’s always nice to beat a really good team,” unguardable said. “They are one of the better teams in this mode. We take every game serious, but it’s always nice to beat a team like that.”

Quote to Note: “When you look at just the individual talent of each player, you can obviously see it’s a high ceiling,” unguardable said about the confidence he had in this group going into the season. “In the beginning, it was kind of hard. It was hard to just mesh all the talent. But once we started to get the ball rolling, you can really see all the potential in the team. I feel like we saw it one day in practice. It was actually a day in practice where we were like we can be really good. Ever since then, the ball has just been rolling. Now we are considered a top team. Anything can happen now.”

Up Next: Magic Gaming is back in action on Thursday with a pair of group play contests, first against LowkeyGodlike’s former team, DUX Infinitos, at 6:45 p.m. and then against Hornets Venom GT at 9 p.m. The Magic swept the Hornets in an in-person series in Charlotte in the SLAM OPEN.

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