The Orlando Magic kept their postseason push alive Friday night with a convincing 127-103 win over the Chicago Bulls at United Center. The victory, combined with Toronto’s loss to New York, moved Orlando into a tie with the Raptors for sixth place in the Eastern Conference entering the final day of the regular season.
Franz Wagner led the way with 25 points, while Jamal Cain added 20 off the bench as Orlando won its fifth straight game. Paolo Banchero delivered another all-around line with 14 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, showing again why the Magic have become one of the East’s most dangerous late-season teams.
The turning point came in the third quarter, when Jalen Suggs buried three 3-pointers in a span of 2:49 and scored all 12 of his points in the period. His burst helped Orlando blow the game open, with the last of those threes pushing the lead to 80-61 with 7:10 left in the quarter.
Orlando had already taken control by halftime, riding Wagner’s 14 first-half points to a 64-53 lead. The Magic kept finding clean looks against a Bulls team that struggled to contain the ball and keep pace once Orlando’s perimeter shooting started falling.
The numbers told the story. Orlando shot 52% from the field, made 13 of 37 from deep and finished with 33 assists on 49 baskets. Chicago, by contrast, shot 44% overall, went just 10-for-39 from three and was outscored in nearly every phase of the game.
Tre Jones led the Bulls with 23 points, while Leonard Miller added 15 points and seven rebounds. Matas Buzelis scored 14 before leaving in the fourth quarter with a sprained right ankle, another setback in a season that has turned sour for Chicago.
The loss pushed the Bulls to 31-50, their 50th defeat of the season, the franchise’s first 50-loss year since 2018-19. Chicago also enters a summer of uncertainty after firing executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley earlier in the week.
Orlando, meanwhile, has the chance to avoid the play-in tournament altogether. The Magic close the regular season at Boston on Sunday, while the Bulls finish at Dallas.
