The Lakeland Magic took on the Delaware Blue Coats Thursday night, with the winner set to take home the NBA G-League Championship. The Magic took control early and never looked back, taking home the win 97-78.
The Magic entered the G-League playoffs as the sixth seed with a record of 9-6, but with back-to-back wins over the Erie Bayhawks and Santa Cruz Warriors, the Magic found themselves in the finals.
Their opponent, the Blue Coats, entered the playoffs as the four seed with a record of 10-5. The Blue Coats had to beat the Austin Spurs, and the number one seeded Raptors 905 to make the championship game.
The Magic opened the game on an 8-0 run thanks to buckets from Robert Franks and Devin Cannady and never looked back, leading for the rest of the game. The Magic would eventually go on to win 97-78, with the game only ever coming within six points after the Magics’ initial 8-0 run.
Cannady—who went undrafted out of Princeton University in 2019—led the game in scoring with 22 points and chipped in six rebounds, four assists and a blocked shot. This effort earned Cannady the 2021 G-League Finals MVP.
The Magic also got solid contributions from Jon Teske and Tahjere McCall. Teske finished the game with 12 points, the second-highest total on the Magic, and McCall scored 11 off the bench and had a game-high three steals.
Antonio Campbell, Jeff Dowtin, D.J. Hogg and Robert Franks all finished with eight points each, and former Marquette man Andrew Rowsey finished with nine points.
Rayjon Tucker led the way for the Blue Coats, finishing with a team-high 20 points on 7-21 shooting. Philadelphia 76ers’ second-round pick Isaiah Joe wasn’t far behind, ending with 18 points on 5-13 from the field. Fellow second-round 76ers’ pick Paul Reed ended with a 13 point 11 rebound double-double.
This concludes the month-long G-League season, which started on February 10 and took place entirely within a bubble at ESPN’s World Wide Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.
