NBA Picks 4/12 – Magic @ Celtics for the season finale

The last day of the 2025-26 NBA regular season concludes with the Orlando Magic (45-36, 7th in the East) visiting the Boston Celtics (55-26, 2nd in the East) tonight at TD Garden on ESPN. Tonight’s game presents an interesting plot as Boston has clinched the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference and has nothing to gain by winning or losing against Orlando.

On the other hand, Orlando can clinch the seventh seed and a home game against the eighth-seeded Philadelphia 76ers in the play-in tournament on Tuesday with a win. Orlando has a slight chance at securing the No. 6 seed and avoiding the play-in tournament with a win and a Toronto Raptors loss at home against the woeful Brooklyn Nets (20-61) today.

If Orlando defeats Boston tonight and Toronto beats the Brooklyn Nets, Orlando and Boston would meet in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs next weekend on April 18 or 19. It would be the second year in a row that the Celtics and Magic squared off in the opening round of the postseason. The second-seeded Celtics dispatched of the seventh-seeded Magic 4-1 in last year’s playoffs.

Orlando is a 12-point favorite and the total is 218.5.

Orlando obliterated the Chicago Bulls 127-103 on the road on Friday night. The tanking Bulls remained competitive with the Magic until the closing minutes of the second quarter when Orlando was able to open a 64-53 heading into halftime. The Magic were never challenged by the Bulls in the second half.

Franz Wagner scored a game-high 25 points (8-13 FG, 3-5 3Pt, 6-9 FT) for Orlando across 23 minutes in the win. Jamal Cain registered a season-high 20 points (9-11 FG, 2-4 3Pt), along with 8 rebounds and 2 blocks in 25 minutes off the bench, while Paolo Banchero added 14 points (5-10 FG, 1-4 3Pt, 3-6 FT), 9 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals in 27 minutes in the win.

Orlando has won five in a row and six of the last seven. They’ve redeemed themselves after their season appeared to be derailed after a mid-to-late March swoon where they lost seven in a row and eight of nine.

Boston blew out the visiting New Orleans Pelicans 144-118 on Friday night. The victory clinched the No. 2 seed and the Atlantic Division title for the Celtics. Boston tied a franchise and NBA record by draining 29 three-pointers in the win against New Orleans. Boston scored 82 points in the first half and led by 31 (82-51) at the break as they coasted to an easy victory.

Sam Hauser’s 8 three-pointers accounted for all 24 of his points which led Boston. He added 6 rebounds and 4 assists. All-Star Jaylen Brown posted 23 points (8-13 FG, 2-3 3Pt, 5-7 FT) and 3 rebounds, while Payton Pritchard registered 21 points (7-14 FG, 5-9 3Pt, 2-2 FT) and 10 assists off the bench in the win.

With Boston’s locked into the No. 2 seed, they will sit their entire starting lineup — Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, Neemias Queta and Sam Hauser — for tonight’s game. Sixth man Payton Pritchard is also unlikely to play.

Two seasons ago (2023-24), the Orlando Magic were one of the biggest surprises in the NBA when they finished 47-35 — a 13-game improvement over the previous season — and earned the fifth seed in the playoffs. They were eliminated by the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round, but pushed them to a win-or-go home Game 7 in Cleveland. Orlando was led by the talented young trio of Paolo Banchero (age 21), Franz Wagner (22) and Jalen Suggs (22), the future seemed bright for the Magic.

Unfortunately, Orlando has not capitalized on the breakthrough success they experienced in 2024. The young trio of Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs have experienced numerous injuries over the past 2 seasons which resulted in a 41-41 record last year and a topsy-turvy campaign this year where they hovered around .500 for most of the season. Franz Wagner will miss 48 games this year, while Jalen Suggs will miss 25.

Orlando made a significant move prior to this season in June when they acquired star shooting guard Desmond Bane from the Memphis Grizzlies in a blockbuster trade. The Magic gave up a hefty package that featured four first-round picks (2025, 2026, 2028 and 2030) to obtain Bane. The 27-year-old Bane established himself as a terrific scorer — he averaged 21.5 ppg over his last 3 seasons in Memphis — and an excellent three-point shooter (40.7% career) during his 5-year tenure with the Grizzlies.

The duo of star forward Paolo Banchero (team-leading 22.2 ppg and 8.4 rebs, 5.1 asts, 1.2 threes, 46.2% from 2 in 71 gms) and newly-acquired shooting guard Desmond Bane (20.2 ppg, 4.2 asts, 4.1 rebs, 1 stl, 2 threes, 48.5% from 2, 39.2% from 3 in 81 gms) have carried Orlando this season as the team dealt with a myriad of injuries to key players like Franz Wagner (20.6 ppg), Anthony Black (career-high 15 ppg) and Jalen Suggs (13.6 ppg).

With Orlando likely to end up as the 7th or 8th seed if they make it out of the play-in round, getting past powerhouses Boston or Detroit in the first round of the playoffs seems highly unlikely. We’re interested to see how good this squad can be next season if the entire team remains relatively healthy for 82 games.

It appeared as if the Boston Celtics would be in for a challenging 2025-26 season after Jayson Tatum tore his right Achilles tendon late in the fourth quarter against the New York Knicks in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Boston went on to lose 4-2 to the Knicks, and it was feared that Tatum could miss the entire 2025-26 season.

Boston was projected to win around 45 games this season, which is a considerable decrease from the 61 wins they’ve averaged over the previous three seasons (2023-2025) prior to this year. But to everyone’s surprise, Boston remained one of the top teams in the NBA without Tatum. The stellar play of Jaylen Brown was a big reason for Boston’s strong play sans Tatum.

After losing their first three games of the season and sitting at 10-9 on Nov. 29, Boston caught fire over the next 3 months, establishing themselves as one of the elite teams in the NBA. The Celtics were a season-high 21 games over .500 at 41-20 — the 2nd best record in the East and 4th best record overall in the NBA — on March 2. While Boston was flourishing, rumors began to swirl that Jayson Tatum’s rehab was going very well and he could return to the team before the season ended.

The Jayson Tatum rumors became a reality when he returned to the team on March 6 against the Dallas Mavericks at home. Boston crushed Dallas 120-100 in that game and has gone 13-4 with Tatum. The 28-year-old, six-time All-Star Tatum is close to resembling his All-NBA form averaging 21.8 points, 10 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.4 steals and 2.9 threes per game in 16 starts on the season.

The aforementioned Jaylen Brown amassed an MVP caliber season this year, doing the heavy lifting with Jayson Tatum missing the first 62 games of the 2025-26 campaign. The 29-year-old, five-time All-Star will conclude the season averaging career-highs of 28.7 points and 5.1 assists, along with 6.9 rebounds, 2 threes and 1 steal per game on 47.7 percent shooting from the floor and 34.7 percent shooting from long distance in 71 games.

Boston is now the favorite (+145) to win the Eastern Conference with Jayson Tatum back and performing at a high level.

With Boston sitting their entire starting lineup and trotting out their JV team tonight, I’m expecting a motivated Orlando team — looking to finish 6th or 7th in the East — to take care of business against the depleted Celtics. Lay the Big Number and take the Magic!