The Orlando Magic have the comfort of knowing they will play beyond the end of the regular season.
The New Orleans Pelicans are confident they will be, too.
Still, there is work to be done and both teams will look to bolster their playoff prospects when they meet Thursday night in Orlando.
The Magic (41-28) clinched at least a play-in spot by beating the visiting Charlotte Hornets 112-92 on Tuesday night. The fifth-ranked Pelicans (42-26) solidified their place in the Western Conference playoff pecking order by toppling the host Brooklyn Nets 104-91 Tuesday night for their seventh win in eight games.
Orlando has won 12 of its last 15 games, but its last 10 victories have come against teams with losing records.
“We set out to play our best basketball in March and April,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said, “and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”
Orlando, which will play the third game of an eight-game homestand, and New Orleans, which will play the second game of a four-game road trip, both step up their class when they face each other.
The Magic won their second undefeated season since 2011-12. They finished 42-40 in 2018-19.
“I think we continue to focus on one game at a time, developing our habits the right way and meeting our standards, knowing we’re there but not being satisfied with it,” Mosley said.
Only three of the Pelicans’ final 14 regular season games are against teams with losing records.
On Tuesday, New Orleans took a 24-point lead in the first half and led by 19 at halftime. The Pelicans never allowed the Nets to reach single digits in the second half.
“It’s a game we needed to start our road trip, understanding what we have at stake, trying to get to the playoffs, trying to get to 50 wins,” guard CJ McCollum said. who scored 16 points. “We have a lot of things to accomplish. It starts with being able to win games on the road against sub-.500 teams.”
The New Orleans bench played a big role in building the lead in the first half as they outscored the Brooklyn bench 28-9. Then Zion Williamson took over in the second half, scoring 20 of his 28 points.
“Z was great,” coach Willie Green said. “His strength, his ability to dissect the defense, to get to the basket, to get to the free throw line, to make the extra pass when it was there. He carried us in the second half.”
The Pelicans matched their win total from last season with 14 games remaining. They won a second straight season for the first time since the 2007-08 and 2008-09 campaigns.
“We have to keep building,” Williamson said. “We talked about it at the beginning and middle of the season, and now we’re nearing the end of the season. We just have to continue to improve. If we want to be contenders, we have to continue to improve with these little nuances of the game.”
This is the first meeting this season between the Pelicans and the Magic. They will meet again on April 3 in New Orleans.
