Sports

NBA Play-In Tournament: Takeaways After Warriors Go Night Night, Magic and Suns Advance to Playoffs

By Tyler Lauletta, Liam McKeone & Blake Silverman Sports Illustrated

Tomorrow, the NBA playoffs start in full, with Game 1 of four different first-round series tipping off across the league. Now we know what the full bracket looks like with the play-in tournament officially wrapped up.

The Magic absolutely rolled over the Hornets to start the evening as Paolo Banchero and Jamahl Mosley both answered questions from the critics. Then the Suns outlasted the Warriors with Steph Curry running out of gas, unable to match a scalding Jalen Green to live another day. Orlando earns a first-round matchup with the top-seeded Pistons in the East and Phoenix will take on the defending champion Thunder in the West.

Here are our takeaways from Friday night's pair of deciding contests.

Jalen Green goes nuclear like few other players in the NBA

Jalen Green is a true rollercoaster talent. His highs are incredibly, ridiculously high as an über-athlete with excellent scoring touch on the right nights. His lows are comedically low and usually result in a loss. But the Suns have only enjoyed the highs this play-in tournament and he saved his best for Friday night with everybody's back against the wall.

The fifth-year scoring guard went absolutely nuclear. He drained a whopping eight three-pointers and carved up the Warriors' defense with ease once they started closing out on him harder. Green finished with 36 points and Phoenix needed every one of them; his third-quarter explosion gave the Suns a cushion they wound up needing as Golden State made push after push in the final stretch. But Green helped keep them at arms' length and his microwave scoring skills are headed to the playoffs.

Nobody really knows what Green will do on a night-to-night basis. His lack of consistency has kept him from reaching his full potential. But on nights like this, Green can touch the sky-and his team is always better off for it.

Golden State's run was the play-in tournament working to perfection, even if Steph Curry ran out of gas

Friday night didn't provide us with the most exciting basketball you'll ever see-you could argue that both games were kind of stinkers. But don't let the final day of the play-in tournament fool you-this was a magical appetizer to the playoffs.

On Tuesday, the Hornets and Heat went to overtime in a thriller. On Wednesday, we saw Steph Curry and the Warriors turn in a vintage performance that reminded us all of the dynasty they once were.

Both of these games were examples of the play-in tournament working to perfection. For Charlotte, the young Hornets squad got valuable experience in a playoff atmosphere that will carry into next season. It was also a spotlight the team had more than earned over the past few months as they played some of the best basketball in the entire league.

But the true raison d'etre of the play-in tournament was on display in the Warriors comeback against the Clippers. For one magical night basketball fans around the world were transported back to 2017 and the era of Golden State inevitability. We got to speedrun the Warriors experience in a Game 7 environment and all the joys and wonder that comes with it. Sure, Curry ran out of gas on Friday and his team lost to the Suns, but the fight they showed against Los Angeles provided one of the best finishes we saw all season.

Why does the play-in tournament exist? To get more teams into the playoff hunt? To curb tanking? To build a new, sellable package of playoff games to Amazon out of thin air?

It's a bit of all that and more. But the real goal is a simple one: give us some more good basketball games. This year, it did exactly that.

Did Jamahl Mosley just save his job?

Jamahl Mosley's Magic earned a playoff spot-and potentially more job security along with it. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
Jamahl Mosley's Magic earned a playoff spot-and potentially more job security along with it. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

The Magic had some of the worst vibes we've ever seen out of an NBA team over the last five days. They lost to the Celtics' backups to lose homecourt advantage in the first play-in game and were utterly lifeless in losing to the Embiid-less 76ers a few days later. The season was on the brink and it felt very likely coach Jamahl Mosley would pay the price. Orlando was universally expected to take a huge leap this season and instead remained stagnant, which is not what the front office wanted after trading multiple first-round draft picks for Desmond Bane. With the weight of expectations come significant consequences for failure and the chances of Mosley surviving the Magic falling out of the playoffs entirely seemed very, very low.

The Hornets game started and Orlando was borderline unrecognizable. Safe to say Mosley had them ready to go for the do-or-die game. The Magic were playing their brand of physical basketball to a degree we hadn't seen in a while and just dominated Charlotte to earn a first-round date with the Pistons. One good game after many subpar ones doesn't put Mosley in the safe zone quite yet but it no longer feels inevitable he'll be on his way out once Orlando's season ends. What a performance by his squad on Friday night.

One bad game doesn't change what the Hornets did this season

There's no way around it, the Hornets came out flat at the worst possible time on Friday. The Magic absolutely ran Charlotte off the floor from the jump, but that doesn't suddenly take away the incredible season Charles Lee's young squad had. Kon Knueppel's arrival was a franchise-altering move although the rookie sharpshooter faltered over the two play-in tournament games.

Knueppel's gravity beyond the perimeter gave LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller more space to operate, resulting in career-best seasons. Charlotte was one of the NBA's best teams after the All-Star break and if not for a horrid start to the year, the Hornets would have avoided the play-in altogether. The franchise is still searching for its first playoff appearance since 2016 and the young core of Ball, Miller, Knueppel and Miles Bridges desperately needed postseason experience. They got a taste in the play-in, even with an improbable win over the Heat that provided a chance to play for the eighth seed against Orlando. The future is bright in Charlotte, even if the end to the season left a sour taste in its mouth.

If you want to experience the last two games of the play-in tournament on a second-by-second basis (more or less), below you'll find Sports Illustrated's live blog of Magic-Hornets and Warriors-Suns.

More NBA from Sports Illustrated



This article was originally published on www.si.com as NBA Play-In Tournament: Takeaways After Warriors Go Night Night, Magic and Suns Advance to Playoffs.

Copyright ABG-SI LLC. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published April 17, 2026 at 5:45 PM.

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