A pivotal matchup in the hotly contested Eastern Conference playoff race sees the Toronto Raptors welcome the Orlando Magic to Canada on Sunday.
Toronto (41-32) defeated New Orleans 119-106 on Friday. The Raptors hold the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference but are only 2.5 games ahead of the 10th-seeded Miami Heat.
Toronto’s win, coupled with the Atlanta Hawks’ 109-102 loss at Boston, moved the Raptors a half-game ahead of the Hawks in the No. 5 seed. Atlanta plays the second game of a back-to-back with a Saturday night date against Western Conference cellar dweller Sacramento.
The margin between earning a guaranteed playoff spot and facing the play-in round is even narrower heading into the final stretch of the regular season. Philadelphia, the East’s seventh-place team through Friday, is only half a game behind the Hawks.
Orlando (39-34), meanwhile, is tied with Charlotte and only trails Toronto by two games ahead of Sunday’s matchup.
The Magic rebounded from a six-game losing skid — which came on the heels of a seven-game winning streak — with a 121-117 win over Sacramento on Thursday.
“It’s a lot better to learn the lesson in a win than a loss,” Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley said. “To get the win and find a way through it all, that’s important right now for us.”
Paolo Banchero flirted with a triple-double, posting 30 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, while Wendell Carter Jr. recorded a 10-point, 11-rebound double-double. Desmond Bane added 23 points in the win.
For Banchero, Thursday’s outpouring marked his third straight game of 30-plus, as he shoulders a sizable portion of Orlando’s scoring load with Franz Wagner sidelined due to an ankle injury.
“If we want to be a playoff team, we’ve got to be able to do stuff like that,” Banchero said of making plays, particularly in crunch time. During the six-game slump, the Magic dropped four decisions by five points or fewer.
On the flipside, Toronto comes in having scored each of its last four wins by double-digit margins. The Raptors’ dominant victories have been sprinkled among three losses, two of which came in blowouts to the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers.
The 22- and 25-point setbacks against the Suns and Clippers were part of a five-game road swing in which Toronto finished 2-3. The Raptors closed the stretch with Immanuel Quickley sidelined due to a foot injury, which kept him out Friday.
Scottie Barnes helped alleviate some of the pressure on the Toronto backcourt with Quickley out, going for 23 points and 12 assists against New Orleans.
“He’s a pass-first player,” Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said of Barnes. “He likes to find his teammates, (and) he’s exceptional in transition. … His size and his athletic ability allows him to play over the top of the defense.”
Barnes led a contingent of five Raptors scoring 18-plus points, including Ja’Kobe Walter.
Walter has scored at least 18 points in each of the last three Raptors wins.
“He’s just shooting the ball really well,” Rajakovic said of Walter. “The whole team trusts him (because) he plays so hard.”
