What: Charlotte Hornets at Orlando Magic

When: 7:30pm Eastern

Where: Kia Center; Orlando, FL

How to watch: Prime Video

Outfitting: Hornets–Association (white), Magic–Icon (blue)

Game Lines: Hornets -3.5, Hornets money line -170, O/U 217.5

Injuries:
Hornets: Moussa Diabate-questionable (hip)

Magic: Jonathan Isaac-questionable (knee)

If the Hornets got to pick their path through the play-in, this was probably it. They caught a break with the 76ers hosting the 8-9 match-up. Since the Flyers already had a game scheduled for Tuesday in their shared arena with the 76ers, the two Eastern Conference play-in matchups had to switch days. That means the Hornets got an extra day of rest before this game. They also get the Magic as the opponent, who are a much better match-up for them.

The Magic played a Joel Embiid-less 76ers team on Wednesday and couldn’t quite keep pace. The game was neck and neck throughout the first half before the 76ers created some distance in the third. The Magic made a couple of pushes to get back into the game, but they could never get over the hump. They eventually collapsed down the stretch and ended up losing by 12.

The Magic are a great match-up for the Hornets. The Magic won the first meeting between these two teams back in October, which might as well have been a different season. The Hornets won the last three, including two absolute annihilations once they got rolling in the 2026 calendar year. The one saving grace the Magic have is that Franz Wagner is back, but he’s not playing a full complement of minutes and doesn’t exactly fix the problem that the Magic have with the Hornets.

All through the last few months of the season, we saw the Hornets fare really well against teams that were not strong from behind the arc. The Magic are not very good from three by either volume or efficiency, which plays right into the Hornets hands. It allows the Hornets to keep bodies back to protect the rim, and there are a lot of non-shooters that the Hornets will be happy to funnel spot up looks to. The Magic are heavily reliant on getting to the free throw line to keep their offense afloat, and the Hornets are one of the best teams in the league at keeping their opponents off the free throw line.

Moussa Diabate’s injury status will be something to monitor over the course of the day, because his absence could be a pretty big deal. I’d be surprised if he missed a game of this magnitude given how tough he is though. And again, the Hornets caught a break with the extra day off.

If this game goes according to plan, the Hornets have a really good chance to win it. It’s a good matchup for them, and they should be riding high after their electrifying win over the Heat on Tuesday.