New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nJalen Green put in a dazzling performance with 36 points, including eight triples, to secure the Western Conference No. 8 seed for Phoenix with a 111-96 win over Curry\u2019s Warriors.<\/p>\n
The Suns got off to a bright start with a 33-15 lead in the first quarter, before the Warriors cut the deficit to five points at half-time.<\/p>\n
But Phoenix kept a wasteful Golden State at arms\u2019 length, successfully limiting veteran superstar Curry to just 17 points.<\/p>\n
With barely a minute left, Jordan Goodwin intercepted a pass intended for Curry, and scored a transition bucket, before adding a three on Phoenix\u2019s next possession to secure the win.<\/p>\n
Victory set up a first-round playoff clash for Phoenix with Oklahoma City Thunder, the defending NBA champions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHappy as hell. We came out fire, we knew this was a do-or-die game,\u201d said Green, who added six rebounds and four assists.<\/p>\n
For the injury-plagued and ageing Warriors, who won the NBA title in 2022, it was a disappointing end to a third consecutive season in the play-in tournament, crashing out before the playoffs as they did in 2024.<\/p>\n
In fiery late scenes, two Warriors players \u2014 Green and Devin Booker \u2014 were ejected from the court, with Green continuing to taunt the home Phoenix fans as he departed.<\/p>\n
MAGIC KNOCK OUT HORNETS<\/p>\n
Orlando beat the Hornets 121-90 to keep their season alive and set up a daunting first-round playoff series for the Magic against the Eastern Conference top-seeded Detroit Pistons.<\/p>\n
Paolo Banchero topscored with 25 points in Orlando\u2019s last chance to qualify for the post-season via the play-in tournament, having failed at their first attempt against the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
A physical, tough Magic outfit outmuscled the youthful Hornets from the tip-off of the win-or-go-home game in front of a sellout 19,000 home crowd at Orlando\u2019s Kia Canter.<\/p>\n
Banchero bulldozed Charlotte\u2019s defence, scoring 12 in the first quarter alone. Having never trailed by more than a single point, Orlando soon stretched comfortably clear, establishing a giant 35-point lead shortly before half-time.<\/p>\n
Recovering from a sluggish start, LaMelo Bell — the hero of the Hornets\u2019 first play-in game against Miami on Tuesday — exploded after the break.<\/p>\n
He poured in 21 points in the third quarter alone as he tried to single-handedly extend Charlotte\u2019s season.<\/p>\n
But Orlando\u2019s lead never dipped below 20 points, as the Magic eased to a win against a Charlotte side that had finished the regular season in strong form.<\/p>\n
Victory ensured the Magic have reached the playoffs for the third straight season, while the Hornets\u2019 decade-long wait goes on.<\/p>\n
The NBA playoffs begin Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phoenix Suns ended the Golden State Warriors\u2019 season and the Orlando Magic thrashed the Charlotte Hornets as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[2095,64,63,726,5670,298360,7214,7901,800,7802,298363,298364,2755,298359,220614,5552,24575,5140,2041,2067,5548,2785,12985,7185,298365,42321,3509,11368,85,17205,58049,298361,2614,298362],"class_list":{"0":"post-614622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-charlotte-hornets","13":"tag-defeat-golden-state","14":"tag-detroit-pistons","15":"tag-draymond-green","16":"tag-espn-inc","17":"tag-final-teams","18":"tag-first-round-playoff","19":"tag-first-round-playoff-series","20":"tag-florida","21":"tag-four-time-championship-coach","22":"tag-fox-basketball","23":"tag-golden-state-warriors","24":"tag-home-crowd","25":"tag-miami","26":"tag-north-america","27":"tag-northern-america","28":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","29":"tag-orlando","30":"tag-orlando-magic","31":"tag-phoenix-suns","32":"tag-play-in-game","33":"tag-play-in-tournament","34":"tag-question-marks","35":"tag-regular-season","36":"tag-sports","37":"tag-steph-curry","38":"tag-steve-kerr","39":"tag-transition-bucket","40":"tag-united-states-of-america","41":"tag-veteran-superstar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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