APRIL Building off of March's turn of events, the Magic continued on their push towards meeting their goal from the beginning of the season — making the playoffs. Two losses at home to Minnesota and Atlantic Division champ Toronto slightly derailed their vision, but just as the team did in the season, the Magic made a strong push at the end with their backs up against the wall. With a virtual three-team race for the last two spots of the Eastern Conference standings, the Magic won two of their next three, including a win at Philadelphia that mathematically eliminated the 76ers from the playoff race.
Now it was down to Orlando and Indiana for the last seed — and with a Pacers loss, Orlando had a chance to lock up their playoff berth the very next day at home against Boston. With most of their key players on the bench, the Celtics made a valiant effort at the end but fell short of upsetting Orlando, as the Magic won Now, with all eight teams in, it was a matter of who was going to be what seed. With New Jersey locking up No. The first game took care of itself, as the two teams met up on April 17 at Washington and Orlando rolled to a victory.
With the Magic at home against Miami for their regular season finale, and the Wizards, who had lost eight of nine games, at Indiana to finish up the season, things were optimistic in Magic camp.
In the end, however, Orlando took care of business against the Heat, but Washington also overcame the odds and won at Indiana, leaving them in the seventh position and the Magic in eighth. With their goal met, the Magic were on to Detroit to face the Pistons in their first playoff game since , coincidentally also against these very same Pistons.
Having advanced to the conference finals the previous four seasons, Detroit was a tough match-up for the young Magic squad, especially considering seven Magic players were seeking their first playoff experience, including Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson. With only two days off between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the playoffs, Orlando went into the Palace of Auburn Hills and gave two valiant efforts against the Pistons in games one and two.
Despite never leading in Game 1, committing 20 turnovers and shooting a paltry of from the line, Orlando cut the lead to three with less than a minute remaining, but a Tayshaun Prince dunk forced the Magic to foul down the stretch and eventually cost them Game 1, The Magic knew they would need to clean up their turnovers and correct their situation at the line in order to have a shot at Game 2.
Once again, the Magic made the game interesting late, coming with six points twice in the last of play, but Detroit in the end forced the series back to Orlando with the Pistons up after a win. Code Blue had been activated back at Amway Arena when the Magic returned back home, but it was too little too late again, as the Pistons took control of Game 3, winning But the veteran team kept their composure down the stretch. Rasheed Wallace hit a 3-pointer that made it Chris Webber followed with a hook shot in the lane, and then Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton took over, combining to score Detroit's final 12 points.
The duo also went 6-of-6 from the free throw line in the final 21 seconds to seal the series sweep. Dwight Howard had 29 points and 17 rebounds to lead the Magic. He ended the game of from the field and 9-of from the free throw line, while Grant Hill added 17 points for Orlando and Darko Milicic had 14 — half of them in the closing minutes.
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