Magic Gaming Sweeps Series with Hawks Talon GC to Extend Winning Streak to Four Games

ORLANDO – Magic Gaming has emerged from their bye week playing some of the best basketball in their NBA 2K League history.

After sweeping Cavs Legion GC on Thursday, Orlando extended their winning streak to four games by dismantling Hawks Talon GC in back-to-back contests on Saturday night.

Magic Gaming, a team that entered the week on a five-game losing skid, has used aggressive defense, balanced offense, and a budding sense of cohesion to flip the script in week five of the regular season.

Game 1: Magic Gaming knew their defense would be put to the test against an offensively explosive Hawks Talon GC squad, but from the opening contest of the series, Orlando was ready for the challenge.

Magic Gaming dominated Hawks Talon GC on both ends of the floor from start to finish in a 79-55 victory.

Fueled by a 24-3 first-half run, Orlando created separation from Atlanta early, turning defense into offense. Magic Gaming forced seven Hawks Talon GC first-half turnovers as Orlando small forward Josue “FutureClutch” Acosta Gomez consistently disrupted Atlanta prized point guard Caesar “Ceez” Martinez.

“(FutureClutch) caused a lot of havoc in the first half,” Magic point guard Brendan “Reizey” Hill said. “Got a couple of turnovers, a couple steals that led out to fastbreak points. We really ran away with the game after that.”

On the offensive end, Magic Gaming was extremely balanced – usually a key indicator of their success – as all five players scored in double figures.

Reizey notched 25 points and seven assists, shooting guard Justin “Snubby” Stemerman tallied 17 points, nine assists and two steals, and FutureClutch recorded 17 points and five steals. Center Robert “May” May posted 10 points and 19 rebounds, while power forward Daniel “DT” Tlais added 10 points and five boards.

“All five players in double figures is usually a game-winning recipe,” Reizey said. “So, when we’re moving the ball like that and playing that kind of defense, we’re definitely tough to beat.”

For Atlanta, Ceez poured in a game-high 30 points, but turned it over seven times. Michael “BP” Diaz-Cruz was the only other Hawks Talon GC player to score in double figures, putting up 14.

Game 2: If you thought game one of this series was fluke, game two left no doubt that Magic Gaming was by far and away the better team on Saturday.

Orlando outscored Atlanta in each quarter of the contest, as Magic Gaming surged to an 87-64 victory over Hawks Talon GC.

Once again, Orlando used a balanced offensive attack to roll past Atlanta as four players scored in double figures.

“Everything came pretty easy tonight, which you love to see,” Magic Gaming General Manager and Head Coach Jonah Edwards said. “We’ve talked a lot about us working on offense and I think you could tell we’ve been putting a lot of work in on the offense … our offense is way up.”

Snubby knocked down seven of his 13 3-point attempts and erupted for a game-high 29 points.

After a two-man game between Snubby and May did damage in game one, the Reizey-May combo dealt blow after blow to Atlanta in game two. Reizey, the former Rookie of the Year, tallied 22 points and 11 assists, while May notched 18 points and 14 rebounds.

“I thought May was phenomenal tonight as well,” Edwards said. “He was very, very efficient on offense. Pretty much every time he touched it, he made the right decision.”

DT added 13 points and nine rebounds.

BP led the way for Atlanta with 25 points, while Ceez scored 23.

Quote to Note: “The season is absolutely an up-and-down season. It’s a rollercoaster every year. There’s a person that I follow in the e-sports world that tweeted this week that ‘e-sports is getting to the end of the season without imploding.’ And I think there’s a lot of truth in that. This group is one that can get there. I really do think we’re going to improve as the season goes on. We talk about it almost every day how the championship teams over the first three years in our league were not the best teams at this point in the season, but they were trending in the right direction at this time. … That’s the path that we want to be on. … We want to be a team that can take the championship. We’re going to keep working every day and we think we can get there.” – Edwards on the team’s turnaround this week.

Looking Ahead: Magic Gaming will have more than a week to prepare for their next set of opponents as the NBA 2K League will shut down during the July 4 holiday weekend. Orlando will resume action for a back-to-back set with Grizz Gaming on Friday, July 9 starting at 9 p.m. ET. They’ll then go head-to-head with the defending champions, Wizards District Gaming, that Saturday for two contests beginning at 9 p.m. ET.

Those games will air live on the NBA 2K League’s Twitch and YouTube channels.