{"id":233128,"date":"2026-04-15T19:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T19:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/233128\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T19:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T19:17:07","slug":"jalen-suggs-ready-to-help-orlando-magic-in-nba-postseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/233128\/","title":{"rendered":"Jalen Suggs ready to help Orlando Magic in NBA postseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA \u2014 A year ago, Jalen Suggs<\/a> could only watch as the Magic<\/a> took down the Hawks in the NBA play-in tournament<\/a> and eventually fell to the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After missing the majority of last season due to a left knee injury, the Orlando<\/a> guard has been more available this year appearing in the second-most regular season games of his career (57) and is now ready to help his team in the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been waiting for this time of year all season,\u201d Suggs told the Orlando Sentinel<\/a> after shootaround ahead of Wednesday\u2019s play-in against the 76ers<\/a> inside Xfinity Mobile Arena<\/a>. \u201cI feel I was trying to wait to get this point. Now that it\u2019s here, you can\u2019t do anything but come out at tipoff and hoop.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can tell who\u2019s ready and who\u2019s energized and who\u2019s ready to do the little things to win and who\u2019s not in these games,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s much more apparent so I\u2019m ready to hoop. I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although he wasn\u2019t part of last year\u2019s group that battled Boston in the first round, Suggs did play all seven games of Orlando\u2019s first round series in 2024 with the Cavaliers, who won Game 7 at home.<\/p>\n

In his first taste of the playoffs, Suggs averaged 14.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.3 rebounds with 1.3 steals, but shot 29.2% from 3-point range per game against Cleveland.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s gained perspective from playing in that series and watching last year\u2019s from the bench as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust knowing what it takes to win and knowing that that\u2019s all it\u2019s about, is the win,\u201d Suggs said.<\/p>\n

Winning and advancing beyond the first round is something the Magic still haven\u2019t done under coach Jamahl Mosley, who\u2019s in his fifth year at the helm.<\/p>\n

Following two first-round exits, the pressure has only increased amid a turbulent season that\u2019s included two separate four-game losing streaks and a six-game skid in March that sunk Orlando\u2019s chances at avoiding the play-in.<\/p>\n

The players themselves try their best to drown out the noise about what might happen if the Magic come up short of advancing in the postseason a third year in a row.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the ball tips off, nothing else matters, to be honest,\u201d Suggs said. \u201cIt\u2019s literally just a game so all that other (expletive) is human nature. It\u2019s impossible not to hear, but once the ball tips off and you walk in the arena come game day, all that other stuff doesn\u2019t matter. It\u2019s about handling the task and the day at hand. That\u2019s how I try to approach it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll that is what it is but it\u2019s just time to hoop,\u201d he added. \u201cI really don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suggs is just grateful to be on the court this time of the year and help the Magic on the court after he didn\u2019t get that opportunity at the end of last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard not to get excited, especially now that you\u2019re really in it,\u201d he said. \u201cThat there is nothing after the fact that you can say that you can make up for it in the next game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are literally it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 A year ago, Jalen Suggs could only watch as the Magic took down the Hawks in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233129,"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-233128","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\/233128","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=233128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}