The Washington Wizards returned home from a seven-game road trip to get blasted by the Orlando Magic and become the first Eastern Conference team to get officially eliminated from the playoffs. The Utah Jazz and New Orleans Pelicans were previously excluded in the more competitive West. The final score of this one — Orlando: 120, Washington: 105.
If you simply saw the score of this one, you might think it was reasonably competitive. You’d be mostly wrong. Washington stayed in contact for the first 16-18 minutes, but they were still trailing by four despite an effective field goal percentage above 70% in the second quarter.