On Thursday, the Brooklyn Nets planned to watch the Philadelphia 76ers defeat the Miami Heat during their day off.
The Nets must rely on their skills to beat the Orlando Magic on Friday night and secure the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference after the 76ers failed to help.
Brooklyn (44-36) has an enchanted number of one to secure the 6th seed and warns around 30 minutes after the Intensity (43-37) begin their Friday street game against the Washington Wizards. With two games remaining, the Nets hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Heat, who cruised to a 129-101 victory in Philadelphia.
Brooklyn would be guaranteed a first-round matchup with the 76ers if the Nets win or watch Miami lose on Friday to clinch the championship. In the 2019 playoffs, Philadelphia defeated the Nets in five games in an opening-round series before Brooklyn acquired Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.
On Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn, the Nets and 76ers will play a head-to-head game to end the regular season.
After losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves 107-102 on Tuesday at home, Brooklyn defeated the host Detroit Pistons 123-108 on Wednesday. In the last option challenge, the Nets let an important lead slip to four in the second from last quarter prior to outscoring the Pistons 27-18 in the last period.
The Nets want to repeat some of what happened on Wednesday, like scoring 47 points in the first quarter, shooting 52.3% from the field, and making 17 3-pointers. It was the 34th time Brooklyn shot something like 50% and 23rd time the Nets made no less than 15 three pointers.
Mikael Bridges had 26 points, Nic Claxton had 19, Joe Harris had six three-pointers, and Dinwiddie had 16 assists to make up for a 1-for-10 shooting performance. The Nets played without Dorian Finney-Smith, yet he is recorded as likely for Friday in the wake of sitting Wednesday because of a right wrist wound.
Orlando (34-46) has won its last eight games, going 5-3, including a 119-106 victory over Brooklyn on March 26 at home. The Magic will be involved once more in the race for sixth place on Sunday when they play host to the Heat in the season finale.
With their home loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday, which resulted in a score of 117-113, the Magic were declared out of the race for a play-in spot. On Thursday, Orlando sat their starters and shot 28.3% over the final three quarters, despite scoring 42 points in the first quarter. However, the Magic lost to Cleveland 118-94.
The Magic benched rookie Paolo Banchero with a back injury, Franz Wagner with an ankle injury, Wendell Carter Jr. with a hip injury, Gary Harris with a hip injury, and Markelle Fultz with a knee injury on Thursday.
Orlando used Chuma Okeke, Bol Bol, Moritz Wagner, Jalen Suggs, and Caleb Houstan instead of their usual starters. Suggs had his fifth 20-point game of the season, scoring 22, while Bol, who had missed the previous seven games, had 18 points.
