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  • Jaylen Brown (35 points), hot-shooting Celtics top depleted Magic

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    (Photo credit: Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images)

    Jaylen Brown collected 35 points and the Boston Celtics avoided back-to-back home losses by beating the short-handed Orlando Magic 138-129 on Sunday night.Boston, which lost to Brooklyn at home on Friday, received 23 points off the bench from Anfernee Simons and 19 from Payton Pritchard. Simons was 4 of 7 from 3-point territory. Brown and Pritchard each had eight assists.Winners of three of their last four games, the Celtics shot 60% from the field (53 of 88).Jett Howard led the Magic with 30 points, seven rebounds and three assists off the bench. He scored 28 points in the second half, including 22 in the fourth quarter. Orlando received 18 points from both Jase Richardson and Desmond Bane. Franz Wagner added 15 points, eight rebounds and five assists.The loss ended Orlando’s three-game winning streak.The Magic played without guard Jalen Suggs (left knee injury management), forward Paolo Banchero (left groin strain), center Wendell Carter Jr. (left ankle sprain) and center Goga Bitadze (sore left ankle).Boston center Neemias Queta sustained an ankle injury in the first quarter, went to the locker room and did not return.The Magic led 15-13, but the Celtics led 32-27 after one quarter and then scored 48 points in the second quarter to take an 80-57 halftime lead.Boston shot 64.6% from the field in the first half (31 of 48), and 52.9% from 3-point territory (9 of 17). Ten players scored for the Celtics in the first 24 minutes.Boston was up 89-63 following two Brown free throws with 9:16 left in the third quarter, and had a 110-89 advantage entering the fourth.The Magic used a 9-0 run to slice Boston’s lead to 121-110 with 6:25 to play, and trailed 129-121 after Howard’s three-point play with 3:23 remaining. It was 133-127 after two Howard free throws with 1:11 left, but the Magic never got any closer.–Field Level Media

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  • Jamichael Stillwell stuffs statsheet as UCF holds off Oakland

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    (Photo credit: Sophia Scheller-Imagn Images)

    Jamichael Stillwell notched his first career UCF double-double and made two key free throws with 38 seconds to go, lifting the Knights to their third straight win by edging the feisty Oakland Golden Grizzlies 87-83 on Monday night in Orlando, Fla.

    The Knights (4-1) led by four at halftime then raced out to a 15-point advantage in the second half, but the Golden Grizzlies (1-4) rallied and tied the game with eight minutes to play.

    Stillwell, Themus Fulks and Riley Kugel made all six of their free throws in the final minute for the victory.

    Stillwell totaled 20 points and 14 rebounds, while Kugel had 18. Jordan Burks scored 13 with seven rebounds. Fulks had 11 points, six rebounds and 10 assists.

    Oakland’s Isaac Garrett had 23 points and seven rebounds. Brett White II had 21 points on 6-of 11-shooting from deep. Brody Robinson scored 20, and Tuburu Navailurua had 11 points, six rebounds and five assists.

    After a big road win over Texas A&M their last time out, the Knights created a 10-4 lead over the Horizon League school behind two buckets from Stillwell and three points from Fulks, but the visitors knotted it 10-all on twin 3-pointers by White.

    White, a 27-year-old senior guard, helped shoot Oakland back into it. His long shot and Robinson’s at 8:06 cut it to 17-16 as the Michigan school made 4 of 8 from long range, but Kugel soon hit a pair from the stripe to reach 1,000 career points.

    White’s shooting helped keep the Golden Grizzlies within striking distance in the first half, which UCF led just 44-40.

    He sank 5 of 7 treys — his only shots from the floor — for his 16 points.

    The Knights’ answer was Stillwell, who scored 12 first-half points on 5-of-9 shooting with seven rebounds.

    Stillwell sparked a 9-0 second-half run that pushed the edge to 53-42 and continued to dominate on the glass, especially at the offensive end.

    Kugel’s 3-point play at 11:20 increased the gap to 70-55, but Oakland stormed back and evened it 70-all on a 15-0 run behind Robinson’s three-point play at 8:17.

    The Knights regained the lead on a 3-pointer from Kugel, then mostly held a tenuous lead from there, closing out the win at the line.

    –Field Level Media

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  • Hopeful Hawks, Magic set for early-season division matchup

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    (Photo credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images)

    A pair of Southeast Division rivals with lofty expectations will meet for the first time on Friday, as the Orlando Magic play host to the visiting Atlanta Hawks.

    Both consensus picks to make the postseason out of the Eastern Conference, Orlando and Atlanta last met in the 7 vs. 8 play-in tournament game in April, a 120-95 Magic victory. With each team returning its core nucleus while adding key newcomers, neither side wants to return to the play-in.

    Orlando began its season with a 125-121 victory over the Miami Heat on Wednesday, debuting its revamped offense spearheaded in part by offseason trade acquisition Desmond Bane.

    The former high-scoring Memphis Grizzlies guard was shipped to the Magic in June and began his Orlando career with a 23-point output.

    ‘It felt good, I’m not going to lie,’ Bane said of his first game in Orlando. ‘It’s going to be a good place to call home, for sure. … We’ve got work to do. It’s always good to come out of here with a win, but we’ve still got a long way to go. It’s the first of 82 (games). It’s a long journey. It doesn’t happen overnight.’

    Bane should provide a lift to an Orlando team that made the postseason despite averaging just 105.4 points per game (28th in the league), while shooting a league-worst 31.8% on 3-point attempts.

    Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner chipped in 24 points apiece in the season-opening win. Looking to complement last season’s No. 1 scoring defense (105.5 points per game allowed), Orlando is embracing the challenge of its newfound offensive balance.

    ‘Those are very good problems,’ Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley said. ‘ … The beauty of this team is our depth, our togetherness and the focus that we have to continue to work for one another.’

    Atlanta’s highly-anticipated season began with a whimper on Wednesday, as the Hawks were uncompetitive in a 138-118 home loss to the Toronto Raptors. As new faces debuted in Kristaps Porzingis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luke Kennard, Atlanta trailed by as many as 29 points in the season opener, allowing the Raptors to score 86 points in the paint.

    ‘A lot of things we need to clean up, stating the obvious,’ Hawks head coach Quin Snyder said. ‘ … It’s tough to have this on your home opener. The enthusiasm we have needs to get channeled correctly into the things that are going to help us win games.’

    Wednesday marked the return of Jalen Johnson, who saw his 2024-25 season end in January after a torn labrum in his left shoulder. Johnson and Trae Young had 22 points each, while Porzingis chipped in 20, but the good news ended there for the Hawks, who look to rebound on Friday.

    ‘I don’t think there’s too many positives you can take from tonight,’ Young said after the 20-point loss. ‘It’s embarrassing the way we started it. A lot of it comes from the preseason, obviously it carried over, we didn’t play all five of us. You could tell by the continuity we had out there, it wasn’t right. But the cream always rises to the top. We got some time to make it up and got to get going.’

    –Field Level Media

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  • Sky GM expects Angel Reese to stay despite late-season rift

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    (Photo credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images)

    Chicago Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca said Friday the franchise is preparing for star forward Angel Reese to be on the roster next season despite a rocky finish to the 2025 campaign that saw the All-Star suspended and sidelined.

    Reese, 22, missed the final two games of the year with what the team called a back injury after being issued a half-game suspension on Sept. 7 for criticizing the organization in an interview. She apologized to teammates, but frustration over the Sky’s direction lingered with fans late in the season.

    ‘Angel is an ascending young talent in this league who’s had two very, very good seasons here in Chicago,’ Pagliocca said Friday. ‘Obviously we went through what we did. I feel like we closed the chapter on it. She spoke to her teammates, she spoke publicly. We moved on as a team. She’s a special player. And I have good conversations with Angel daily, with her team daily. They’re constant, and they’re productive.’

    Reese led Chicago with 14.7 points and 12.6 rebounds per game this season, pacing the WNBA in rebounding and double-doubles (23 in 30 games). But the Sky finished tied with the Dallas Wings for the worst record in the league at 10-34 — just one year after going 13-27 and parting ways with coach Teresa Weatherspoon.

    Current coach Tyler Marsh and Pagliocca both have pledged changes to improve the roster, but the Sky don’t have their 2026 first-round pick because they swapped it to the league-leading Minnesota Lynx prior to the 2025 draft.

    –Field Level Media

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