The Orlando Magic blew out the Charlotte Hornets 121-90 at the Kia Center on Friday in the play-in tournament to crush their dreams of making the playoffs. The Hornets’ playoff drought extended to 10 seasons with this defeat, and star guard LaMelo Ball spoke on what went wrong for his team on the night in his postgame press conference.
“We dug ourselves a hole too big,” Ball said, via the Hornets. “Couldn’t get out of it. That’s pretty much what you seen.”
The Magic led 38-16 at the end of the first quarter, and the game was all but over then. They would go up by as many as 35 points in the first half and cruised to victory.
Almost no one would have seen this coming. The Magic had embarrassingly lost 113-108 to the Boston Celtics‘ reserves in their final regular-season game and followed that up with a 109-97 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in the play-in tournament on Wednesday.
As for the Hornets, they had won six of their last eight games coming into this one. They had beaten the Miami Heat 127-126 in an overtime thriller in the tournament on Tuesday and had all the momentum by their side.
Ball had hit the game-winner against the Heat, and confidence would have been sky-high entering this clash with the Magic. The Hornets then got punched in the face and never recovered. Losing in this manner when you’re this close to finally making the playoffs would sting anyone.
“Obviously hurt a lot, but I feel like it’s all just learning lessons,” Ball said. “You live, you learn, you evolve, and you move on.”
Despite how it ended, this season is still the best of the Ball era in Charlotte. Their 44 wins this season were their most since 2015-16 when they went 48-34.
You wouldn’t have thought the Hornets would even come close to winning 40 games when they started 11-23. It was a stunning turnaround, and Ball, who had 23 points (7-17 FG), two rebounds, and five assists against the Magic, was asked for his thoughts on the campaign as a whole.
“Obviously, it was better than the previous seasons, so that’s good,” Ball said. “But still not making the playoffs and anything, so that hurt, but just doing better than the years before, so like I said, just trying to evolve. Hopefully, next year, no play-in.”
You would give the Hornets a good chance at getting into the top six in the East next season. They played some great basketball in the second half of this season and should only improve in 2026-27.
Ball also hopes everyone on the team remembers how they’re feeling right now after this loss, so they never find themselves in this position again.
“You watch what you did wrong,” Ball said. “I mean, you feeling a type of way after the game for sure that you obviously don’t want to feel in the future. So, it’s just like keep that burn right there and just remember it. So, you ain’t even got to go through it again.”
The Hornets need to use this loss as fuel for next season. Such growing pains are inevitable for young teams, and the truly great ones are able to fight through them.
