{"id":230172,"date":"2026-04-13T19:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/230172\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T19:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:29:07","slug":"orlando-magic-plan-with-desmond-bane-backfires-at-boston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/230172\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic plan with Desmond Bane backfires at Boston"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 The day before the Magic<\/a> took on the Celtics<\/a> in the regular-season finale, coach Jamahl Mosley<\/a> communicated to Desmond Bane<\/a> he wouldn\u2019t be playing his regular minutes at TD Garden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The idea was simple: Bane had already started all 81 games of the season, and limiting his minutes Sunday would allow him to have an easy night against a Celtics squad that was sitting its starting lineup and key rotational players with the playoffs on the horizon.<\/p>\n

What could go wrong?<\/p>\n

After Bane became the first Magic player since Dwight Howard in 2009-10 to start all 82 games, he only played the first six minutes of the first quarter. He wasn\u2019t supposed to return, but the plan backfired after Boston<\/a> outscored Orlando<\/a> by 22 points in the third quarter to lead by 13 entering the fourth.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to save my body for the postseason,\u201d Bane said in the locker room. \u201cAnd we got in a game that where we\u2019re down and put me back in trying to make one last push to go get a chance to win and clinch home court advantage (in the play-in).\u201d<\/p>\n

Bane then played the final 11 minutes of the game and ended with eight points, two rebounds, an assist, one steal and one block in 17\u00bd minutes of total action. He finished the regular season averaging 33.6 minutes per game in his first season with Orlando.<\/p>\n

The damage, however, was done by the time he was sent back onto the floor, and the Magic fell by five to the Celtics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same things that we\u2019ve talked about all year,\u201d Bane said about the loss. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to look within first. There\u2019s so much that this group has to give and we\u2019ve got to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the plan wasn\u2019t for him to return to the game, he remained ready for the possibility while watching the second and third quarters from the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept my mind ready to go, my body ready to go, riding a bike, putting heat on my knees and stuff like that,\u201d Bane said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think coach really wanted to (put me back in), just to protect me. Keeping me healthy was his main goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I appreciate him letting me go back in the game and giving me a chance to try to help us win,\u201d Bane added.<\/p>\n

While such a long break between game action is rare in the NBA, especially for a starter, Bane recalled his youth sports days when asked how difficult Sunday\u2019s experience was for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I grew up playing basketball at the park where you play a game, sit two games and jump back in,\u201d the Indiana native said. \u201cSo, I know they were concerned and worried and didn\u2019t want me to do anything crazy, but I was fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the loss, No. 7 Orlando now travels to No. 8 Philadelphia in the NBA Play-In Tournament game that\u2019ll decide the No. 7 seed in the playoffs. The Nos. 7 and 8 have two chances to win one game to reach the playoffs while the Nos. 9 and 10 (Charlotte and Miami) must win two straight games to reach the playoffs.<\/p>\n

In both instances, the higher seed hosts each game, which would have been the case for the Magic had they won at Boston.<\/p>\n

But Bane isn\u2019t overlooking the chance to reach the playoffs despite Sunday\u2019s loss. He\u2019s also hoping for a little more success than he experienced in Memphis before he was traded to Orlando last summer.<\/p>\n

The Grizzlies went 9-18 in the playoffs, with one series win, in Bane\u2019s five seasons on the team. Memphis was swept by eventual NBA champ Oklahoma City in the first round last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited,\u201d he said after finishing the regular season averaging 20.1 points per night. \u201cWe\u2019ve got an opportunity to go and play postseason basketball. Not everybody gets to say that. That\u2019s not something that everybody gets to experience so I\u2019m looking forward to the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 The day before the Magic took on the Celtics in the regular-season finale, coach Jamahl Mosley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,2295,139,141,1239,140,109,76046,110],"class_list":["post-230172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nba","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}