{"id":234069,"date":"2026-04-16T10:44:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T10:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/234069\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T10:44:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T10:44:32","slug":"hornets-set-to-take-on-orlando-magic-for-playoff-berth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/234069\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornets set to take on Orlando Magic for playoff berth"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> are going to end the NBA\u2019s longest playoff drought<\/a>, the road will have to go through the Sunshine State.<\/p>\n

With No. 7 Philadelphia topping No. 8 Orlando 109-97 at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Wednesday night, the stage is now set for the Hornets.<\/p>\n

Charlotte must beat the Magic at Kia Center on Friday to claim the eighth and final spot in the Eastern Conference and secure a best-of-seven first-round series with the top-seeded Detroit Pistons, beginning Sunday at Little Caesars Arena.<\/p>\n

Tipoff in Orlando is set for 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

\"Miles <\/a> Miles Bridges of the Charlotte Hornets dribbles the ball past by Paolo Banchero of the Orlando Magic during their mid-March game in Charlotte. David Jensen Getty Images <\/p>\n

One thing the Hornets have going for them?<\/p>\n

Charlotte took the season series from Orlando 3-1, winning the final three matchups after falling to the Magic the day before Halloween. That includes both dates in Orlando, which should be a mental booster for the Hornets.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Roderick Boone<\/a><\/p>\n

The Charlotte Observer<\/p>\n

Roderick Boone joined the Observer in September 2021 to cover the Charlotte Hornets and NBA. In his more than two decades of writing about the world of sports, he\u2019s chronicled everything from high school rodeo to a major league baseball no-hitter to the Super Bowl to the Finals. The Long Island native has deep North Carolina roots and enjoys watching \u201cThe Fresh Prince of Bel Air\u201d endlessly.
\n Support my work with a digital subscription<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the Charlotte Hornets are going to end the NBA\u2019s longest playoff drought, the road will have to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-234069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234069","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=234069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}